Mortality under and after sentence of male convicts transported toVan Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), 1840–1852

Rebecca Kippen and Janet McCalman*

Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

(Received 2 February 2015; accepted 3 February 2015)

This article reports on mortality in a cohort of 7084 English, Irish and Scottish-born convict men who were transported on 30 ships to Tasmania between 1840and 1852. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of convict mortality thatsystematically traces the mortality of convicts after emancipation as well as undersentence. This pilot study investigates the relationship between pre-transportationcharacteristics, convict discipline, reactions to convict discipline, and mortality underand after sentence of the male convict population. The convict men were various intheir origins but shared the experience of penal servitude under the gaze of a paperpanopticon. Controlling for other factors, the authors find that the convicts were morelikely to die under sentence if they were born in Scotland, London or an industrial-urban area; if they exhibited disturbed mental behaviour under sentence, such as tearingtheir clothes; or if they had more time in solitary confinement or more accumulatedinsults of their mind and body. For those who survived sentence, mortality was higherfor those born in an industrial-urban area, those who had more alcohol-related offencesunder sentence, those with more time in solitary confinement under sentence, and thosewho were violent or threatened violence while under sentence.

Keywords: Van Diemen’s Land; Tasmania; Australia; convict history; mortality;nineteenth century

1. Introduction

The transportation of convicts to the island of Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) from

1803 to 1853 provides a closely observed natural experiment into the possible effects of

background characteristics and insult accumulation on the mortality of a historical cohort

artificially created by an institution (Kuh & Smith, 1993; Kuh, Ben-Shlomo, Lynch,

Hallqvist, & Power, 2003). The convicts had varied ethnic, economic and social

characteristics, but were processed through a system where they shared the same food, the

same disciplinary regimes and the same work. That institutional stress regime recorded

their reactions to its provocations, injustices and regulations, their moral careers, and the

insults inflicted on their bodies and minds. These can be calibrated and measured with

background characteristics against outcomes in mortality.

The rich historiography of Australian convicts has hitherto been restricted to records

created by the penal system and the courts, and to individual biographical data (Alexander,

2010; Johnson & Nicholas, 1995; Maxwell-Stewart, 2008; Meredith & Oxley, 2005;

Nicholas, 1988; Oxley, 1996; Robson, 1994). Life before sentence has been inferred from

the innovative utilization of convict heights (Johnson & Nicholas, 1995; Nicholas &

Oxley, 1993; Nicholas & Steckel, 1992; Oxley, 2004). Life after sentence has been

q 2015 Taylor & Francis

*Corresponding author. Email: j.mccalman@unimelb.edu.au

The History of the Family, 2015

Vol. 20, No. 3, 345–365, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1081602X.2015.1022198

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understood largely through the record of the exceptional. It is now possible, for the first

time, to research people transported to Australia from the cradle to the grave. This is the

purpose of the Founders and Survivors Life Course Project – part of the larger Founders

and Survivors Project (Bradley, Kippen, Maxwell-Stewart, McCalman, & Silcot, 2010) –

which is based on the rich convict records in the Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office,

and uses the digitized vital registrations and commercial genealogical resources now

available on the Web. To our knowledge, this is the first study of convict mortality that

systematically traces the mortality of convicts after emancipation as well as under

sentence. This pilot study tests hypotheses on the relationship between background

characteristics, experience under sentence, and mortality under and after sentence of the

convict population.

The time-consuming reconstitution of thousands of life courses of individual convicts

has only been possible with new online research tools and the capacity of the Web to

employ crowdsourcing. Since 2011, 54 volunteer researchers from all the states of

Australia and the United Kingdom, supported by researchers from family and local history

societies from both countries, have been building a database of male and female

Tasmanian convicts researched through their life course, to death where possible. By the

conclusion of this project, we aim to have life courses traced for around 25,000 of the

estimated total population with usable records of 68,000. This will comprise 16,000 of

the 56,000 convict men and 9000 of the 12,000 convict women. At the time of writing, the

database consists of 12,501 men transported on 55 ships from 1812 to 1852 and 5549

women transported on 36 ships from 1825 to 1853.

Using these data, we can study for the first time the outcome of convict transportation

at a population level. The Life Course Project is a prosopography adapted for demographic

analysis, which proposes mortality and family formation as the fundamental measures of

life outcomes of convicts: How long did they live? How did they die? Were they able to

form a family that survived to produce a third viable generation? Can we discover

associations between background characteristics, experience under sentence, and survival

and family formation? What were the effects of incarceration, transportation, convict

labour and discipline on the outcome of convict lives?

In this proof-of-concept article, we focus on the relationship between the pre-

transportation characteristics of convict men, experience under sentence and mortality.

The article is structured as follows. First, we describe the materials and methods of the

study, and the three sets of variables considered: background characteristics of the convict

men; experience under sentence measured by recorded offences and punishment under

sentence; and mortality under sentence and after emancipation. We then investigate the

association between background characteristics and experience under sentence, and

mortality levels both under and after sentence, mortality levels after sentence, the

likelihood of dying under sentence, and whether a convict’s death was found. We outline

causes of death under sentence and after emancipation. The concluding discussion

includes the limitations of this study.

2. Materials and methods

Our sample consists of 7084 English-, Irish- and Scottish-born men who were transported

on 30 of the 104 male convict ships (convict shiploads were single-sex) that arrived in

Tasmania between 1840 and 1853. We exclude earlier ships because certain background

characteristics of the convicts (such as literacy and birth-family structure) were only

consistently recorded in official records from the early 1840s. This period was also when

R. Kippen and J. McCalman346

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Irish and Scottish convicts were transported in sufficient numbers for comparative analysis

with the English-born. Due to their small numbers, we exclude convicts born in Wales and

the Channel Islands (85 convicts on the 30 sample ships) or other countries (45 convicts),

and those for whom a country of birth was not recorded (94 convicts). The sample ships

cover the period from just before the adoption in 1841 of the Probation system of convict

management, which was intended to make transportation more punitive, to the end of

transportation in 1853. The final years of transportation saw a relaxation of convict

discipline as the system broke down in the face of mass abscondings to the goldfields of

Victoria across Bass Strait.

The project’s volunteer researchers were allocated spreadsheets for each shipload of

convicts (ranging in convict-population size from around 50 to 350). Each spreadsheet was

populated with the names of the convicts who were transported on that ship, and the

researchers added data and coded data for each convict in pre-specified columns on

background characteristics, experience under sentence, and life outcomes both under and

after sentence. The data on the completed spreadsheets were verified by paid checkers.

The primary source of data for the convicts’ background characteristics and experience

under sentence is the convict indents and conduct registers which were kept by the Convict

Department. The convict indents collected structured information on each convict on

arrival in Tasmania, grouped by ship, including their name, when and where they were

convicted, the sentence, their trade, native place, age, height and other physical

characteristics, and their crime, birth family, marital status, literacy and religion

(Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office (TAHO), 2012a). The conduct registers recorded

for each convict some of the background characteristics that were also captured in the

indents, and information on offences under sentence, including the date, place, charge and

punishment. They also recorded details of emancipation and death under sentence

(Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office (TAHO), 2012b). The convict indents and

conduct registers – along with other Tasmanian convict records – are held by the

Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office, which has digitized and made many of these

records available online. The project’s researchers were able to access these records

online. They also had access to the convict-record transcriptions previously made by

Deborah Oxley, and to the deaths under sentence and muster data transcribed by a team

from the University of Tasmania, led by Hamish Maxwell-Stewart and Alison Alexander.

The convicts’ life outcomes recorded on the Life Course Project spreadsheets included

later crimes, marriage and children after transportation, and details on the time, place and

cause of death. These were elicited by the researchers from a variety of sources, including

the convict records; colonial police gazettes and commercial and non-commercial

genealogical resources (Ancestry, Findmypast and FamilySearch); online civil registration

records; and other digitized historical resources, such as the more than 500 Australian

metropolitan and local newspapers made available by the National Library of Australia

(TROVE). These sources make it possible to follow the fortunes and misfortunes of former

convicts all over the Australian continent, and, in some cases, around the world.

Most of the details on deaths were derived from a data set of Tasmanian birth, death

and marriage registrations which was transcribed and augmented by Peter Gunn and

Rebecca Kippen (Gunn & Kippen, 2008), and from vital certificates purchased from the

Victorian and New South Wales Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages. The Victorian

and New South Wales death certificates included details on the place of birth, time in the

colony, parents and their occupations, marriage(s), and children living and dead. The

Victorian certificates are the most detailed of anywhere in the anglophone nineteenth-

century world, and had to be completed and authorized by a registered medical

Mortality of male convicts 347

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practitioner, who ascribed causes of death according to a set nosology based on

the principles first planned by Dr William Farr for England and Wales (Hopper, 1986).

The completeness of these data depends, however, on the knowledge of the witness to the

death, so silences and omissions in that information can be as eloquent as the inclusions.

Tasmania adopted compulsory registration of births, deaths and marriages in 1838

(Kippen, 2002a), only a year after England and Wales. However, the causes of death are

less precise, and the information on birthplaces and relations scantier, meaning that it can

be impossible to confirm reported deaths of individuals with common names, except by

triangulation with other family members, place and circumstances. Death certificates from

other colonies in Australia and the United Kingdom (except for Scotland) were considered

to be too few and too expensive to purchase.

The project’s volunteer researchers have spent many thousands of hours painstakingly

tracing the life courses of Tasmania’s convicts, through to death where possible, from a

huge variety of sources. This has involved an enormous amount of detective work in

locating potential sightings and ensuring that the person named in a newspaper family

notice, police gazette or death registration is the same person named as arriving on a

particular Tasmanian convict ship in a particular year.

In this article, we consider the following independent variables, classed as background

characteristics (set out in Table 1a) and experience under sentence, measuring the

behaviour and punishment of the convicts under sentence (Table 1b).

2.1. Independent variables: background characteristics

Country of birth: classified as either England, Ireland or Scotland. Convicts born

elsewhere or with their country of birth not recorded were excluded from our analysis.

Year of arrival (not shown): the year in which the convict ship arrived in Tasmania,

limited to arrivals between 1840 and 1852.

Age at arrival: the age on arrival in Tasmania, recorded in years.

Year of birth (not shown): calculated by subtracting the age on arrival from the year of

arrival.

Place of birth: coded as either ‘Village’, ‘Town’, ‘Industrial urban’, ‘Port cities’ or

‘London’, depending on the status of the place of birth in the early nineteenth century.

‘Village’ places of birth include most Irish counties and rural locations such as Essex and

Felmersham; ‘Town’ places are those such as Oxford, Gloucester and Dundee;

‘Industrial urban’ includes Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield; ‘Port cities’ include

Liverpool, Belfast and Edinburgh; and ‘London’ includes Holborn, Bethnal Green and

Deptford.

Place of conviction: coded as for ‘Place of birth’.

Crime: coded from the description of the crime for which the convict was transported.

The categories are: ‘Theft of valuables/burglary/robbery/larceny’; ‘Theft of food or

animals’; ‘Political/protest’; ‘Other non-violent’; and ‘Other violent’.

Sentence: the length of transportation in years imposed on the convict. The minimum

sentence was seven years and the maximum was life.

Literacy: recorded on the convict’s arrival in Tasmania as ‘Nil’, ‘Read only’, ‘Read

and write a little’, or ‘Read and write’.

Occupation: coded from the convict’s ‘trade’ recorded in the convict records on arrival

as either ‘Unskilled’ (for example, labourer), ‘Semi-skilled’ (for example, coachman),

‘Trade’ (for example, glazier), ‘White-collar’ (for example, clerk) or ‘Army/navy’ (for

example, drummer, 41st Regiment).

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Table 1a. Background characteristics of the sample of 7084 men transported on 30 ships toTasmania, 1840–1852.

Country of birth England Ireland Scotland

Number 4174 2579 331Average age at arrival (years) 26.8 27.9 26.1

% % %Place of birth Village 25.1 78.0 13.3

Town 25.2 11.7 31.5Industrial urban 28.9 0.1 7.6Port cities 6.4 10.2 47.6London 14.5 0.0 0.0Total 100.0 100.0 100.0

Place of conviction Village 6.2 62.7 3.0Town 37.5 16.8 33.2Industrial urban 29.9 2.2 3.6Port cities 6.8 15.0 53.5London 17.9 1.4 3.6Other country 1.6 1.8 3.0Total 100.0 100.0 100.0

Crime Theft of valuables/burglary/robbery/larceny 70.7 44.5 76.6Theft of food or animals 19.0 36.9 7.9Political/protest 3.3 5.0 4.6Other non-violent 3.9 4.3 5.8Other violent 3.1 9.3 5.2Total 100.0 100.0 100.0

Sentence(number of years)

7 38.4 71.1 58.68–14 41.8 21.1 36.915 or more 13.2 4.2 2.1Life 6.6 3.6 2.4Total 100.0 100.0 100.0

Literacy Nil 14.3 33.0 5.2Read only 22.6 23.4 14.3Read and write a little 14.4 13.6 8.8Read and write 48.7 30.0 71.6Total 100.0 100.0 100.0

Occupation Unskilled 35.2 54.5 30.3Semi-skilled 29.7 26.4 26.0Trade 31.0 15.2 33.6White-collar 1.6 1.2 2.1Army/navy 2.5 2.7 8.0Total 100.0 100.0 100.0

Birth family None 9.3 8.5 7.7Siblings only 19.9 35.0 24.1Mother alive 23.2 23.6 27.5Father alive 18.9 13.7 15.1Both parents alive 28.8 19.2 25.6Total 100.0 100.0 100.0

Marital status Single 74.8 65.8 78.4Married 22.0 29.7 19.1Widowed 3.2 4.5 2.4Total 100.0 100.0 100.0

Mortality of male convicts 349

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Table 1b. Experience under sentence, whether traced to death, average age at death, andcomparative age at death in country of birth of the sample of 7084 men transported on 30 ships toTasmania, 1840–1852.

Country of birth England Ireland Scotland

Number 4174 2579 331% % %

Actual yearsunder sentence

Under 7 38.7 60.6 47.47 14.8 17.0 22.18–14 43.2 21.1 28.215 or more 3.3 1.3 2.2Total 100.0 100.0 100.0

Conduct offences None 15.4 24.0 14.31–2 27.0 32.2 24.63–5 23.9 21.3 25.86 þ 22.0 13.3 21.6Constant 11.7 9.1 13.7Total 100.0 100.0 100.0

Alcohol-relatedoffences

None 61.7 64.7 56.81–2 29.6 25.8 33.13 or more 8.7 9.5 10.0Total 100.0 100.0 100.0

Reactivebehaviour

None 55.0 55.6 52.6Insolence 19.1 12.6 19.5Refusal to work 11.9 16.5 11.2Tearing clothes, etc. 1.7 1.9 2.4Threats or violence 12.3 13.4 14.3Total 100.0 100.0 100.0

Stripes None 88.7 94.5 92.41–49 5.9 2.9 2.750 or more 5.4 2.6 4.9Total 100.0 100.0 100.0

Days in solitaryconfinement

None 47.5 61.1 47.91–14 29.6 23.3 29.915 or more 22.9 15.7 22.3Total 100.0 100.0 100.0

Insults None 25.0 28.8 26.1Admonishment, fine, short solitary 28.7 25.3 24.3Longer solitary, extension of probation 17.4 23.7 19.5Multiple solitaries, one flogging,treadmill, chains

20.1 16.6 20.4

Multiple floggings, mines, Port Arthur 8.8 5.6 9.7Total 100.0 100.0 100.0

Traced to death Died under sentence 6.9 5.9 8.5Died after sentence 37.5 33.5 31.7Death not found 55.7 60.5 59.8Total 100.0 100.0 100.0

Average age at death (years) given survival to twentieth birthday:For all convict men traced to death 56.1 54.4 52.2For convict men traced to death aftersentence

59.1 59.4 59.5

In country of birth 59–60a 44–62b 59–60c

a England and Wales (averages of annual estimates of e20 þ 20): 1841–1850: 59.4; 1851–1860: 59.9; 1861–1870: 59.3; 1871–1880: 59.2; 1881–1890: 60.4. Source: Human Mortality Database, University of California,Berkeley, and Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock (http://www.mortality.org).b Ireland: 1846–1851: 43.8; 1871: 62.9; 1882: 62.1; 1891: 61.8. Sources: Boyle and O’Grada (1986); CentralStatistics Office (2015).c Scotland (averages of annual estimates of e20 þ 20): 1855–1860: 59.8; 1861–1870: 59.0; 1871–1880: 58.9;1881–1890: 60.4. Source: Human Mortality Database, University of California, Berkeley, and Max PlanckInstitute for Demographic Research, Rostock (http://www.mortality.org).

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Birth family: coded from information given by the convict on arrival as ‘None’,

‘Siblings only’, ‘Mother alive’, ‘Father alive’ or ‘Both parents alive’.

Marital status: coded from information given by the convict on arrival as ‘Single’,

‘Married’ or ‘Widowed’.

2.2. Independent variables: experience under sentence

Actual years under sentence: calculated from the difference between the year of arrival

and the year of exit from the convict system.

Conduct offences: a count of the number of conduct offences committed by the convict

whilst under sentence and recorded in the conduct register. Coded as ‘0’, ‘1–2’, ‘3–5’,

‘6 þ ’ or ‘Constant’.

Alcohol-related offences: a count of the number of conduct offences under sentence

that implicated alcohol – for example, ‘Drunk and disorderly’ and ‘Under the influence of

liquor’.

Reactive behaviour: a measure of reaction to the convict system, coded in escalating

order from offences listed in the conduct register as either ‘None’, ‘Insolence’, ‘Refusal to

work’, ‘Tearing clothes, etc.’ or ‘Threats or violence’.

Stripes: a count of the total number of lashes received by each convict whilst under

sentence and recorded as punishments in the conduct register.

Days in solitary confinement: a count of the total number of days spent in solitary

confinement, as recorded in the conduct register.

Insults: a general five-scale measure of the level of insult accumulation inflicted on the

convict whilst under sentence, assessed from punishments recorded in the conduct

register. These include time in chains, on the treadmill and working in the mines, and

incarceration at the penal station at Port Arthur. The levels are ‘None’, ‘Admonishment,

fine, short solitary’, ‘Longer solitary, extension of probation’, ‘Multiple solitaries, one

flogging, treadmill, chains’, and ‘Multiple floggings, mines, Port Arthur’.

2.3. Dependent variables and analysis

The dependent variables are based on whether a convict was traced to a death, whether that

death occurred under sentence or after emancipation (Table 1b), and the age at death.

For those convicts for whom a death could be traced, we calculated two sets of life tables

by country of birth based on (a) age-specific mortality rates from arrival in Tasmania to

death and (b) age-specific mortality rates from emancipation to death (Table 1b). We also

carried out Cox regressions and logistic regressions to investigate whether background

characteristics and experience under sentence were associated with differential mortality,

the likelihood of death under sentence, and whether or not a death could be traced for the

convict. Finally, we considered cause-of-death distributions by country of birth under and

after sentence.

3. Results

The descriptive statistics related to background characteristics are shown in Table 1a,

which reveals the key differences between the English, Irish and Scottish convicts. The

Irish were the oldest on arrival and the most likely to be married or widowed, to be

orphaned or to have lost their father. They were the most rural, the most likely to have been

convicted of stealing food or animals, the least literate (many were Irish speakers only) and

Mortality of male convicts 351

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the least skilled. They received the shortest sentences. Much of this Irish distinctiveness

arose from the impact of the Great Famine of 1845–1852 on offending and transportation,

with many rural Irish people stealing food to avoid starvation or committing crimes in

order to be transported.

The Scots were the youngest, the least likely to be married, the most literate, the most

skilled and the least likely to have been convicted of stealing food or animals. They were

significantly fewer in number than the Irish because Scottish courts were reluctant to

transport offenders, and sent mostly those who ‘by habit and repute’ were significant

criminals. The English – who received the longest sentences on average – were the most

urban and the most likely to have at least one parent alive on being transported.

Overwhelmingly, the convicts were transported for crimes of theft, with 80–90%

convicted of theft of valuables/burglary/robbery/ larceny or the theft of food or animals.

Table 1b shows descriptive statistics related to the convicts’ experience under

sentence. In general, Tasmanian convicts served shorter sentences than were originally

handed down to them at the time of conviction. For a small proportion this was because

they died under sentence. For most, however, time off was given for good behaviour. Half

of the convicts who received the minimum seven-year sentence served less than seven

years before being emancipated. A sentence of ‘life’ usually meant penal servitude of

around 12 years. The truncation of sentences was especially prevalent for convicts who

arrived in the early 1850s. The cessation of transportation to Tasmania in 1853 was

quickly followed by the disbandment of the convict system and the emancipation of

prisoners; 80% of the convict men who arrived in 1852 had been released by 1856.

Table 1b also shows distinctive characteristics of the convicts by country of birth. The

Irish were the best behaved, with fewer conduct offences and alcohol-related offences

recorded – although they were more likely than the English or Scottish to react to the

convict system by refusing to work. They received less punishment under sentence.

The Scottish had the most conduct offences and alcohol-related offences under sentence.

The levels of punishment for the English and Scottish – measured in terms of number of

lashes, days in solitary confinement and accumulated insults – were very similar, as were

the patterns of reactive behaviour.

Of the sample of 7084 male convicts who were transported to Tasmania between 1840

and 1852, the project’s researchers were able to trace deaths for 3002 (42%). Of these, 468

(16%) died under sentence, with the remaining 2534 (84%) dying after emancipation. The

percentages varied somewhat by country of birth. Forty-four per cent of those born in

England, 39% of those born in Ireland and 40% of those born in Scotland were traced to

death (Table 1b). For those for whom a death was found, 16% of the English, 15% of the

Irish and 21% of the Scottish died under sentence.

Furthermore, Table 1b shows the life expectancies (given survival to their twentieth

birthday) for each country-of-birth group calculated from age-specific mortality rates

between (a) arrival in Tasmania and death (all deaths traced), and (b) emancipation and

death (deaths after sentence). For the first group, the English had the highest life

expectancy at 56.1 years, followed by the Irish, at 54.4 years, and the Scots, at 52.2 years.

However, for those who survived their sentence, these ethnic differences disappeared, with

the English at 59.1 years, the Irish at 59.4 years and the Scots at 59.5 years. With deaths

under sentence excluded, the average life expectancy (given survival to age 20) was

similar for all convicts by country of birth. It was also comparable to that of men in

England and Wales and Scotland over the same period that these men were ageing, at

59–60 years (see Table 1b). In contrast, the average age at death (given survival to age 20)

for men in Ireland was much lower in the late 1840s, at 43.8 years, due to mortality during

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the Great Famine, but rose to 62–63 years in the post-Famine period. The life expectancy

for all Tasmanian males (given survival to age 20) in the early 1860s was higher than the

convict-male life expectancy, at around 62 years (Kippen, 2002b).

Table 2 shows the results of Cox regression models of mortality from age at arrival in

the colony to age at death, with age used as the time variable, and covariates for

background characteristics and experience under sentence. Earlier model tests included

the background characteristics place of conviction, crime, literacy, occupation, birth

family and marital status. However, these were found not to be significant and so are not

included in the models shown here.

Model 1 includes year of birth, country of birth and place of birth only. Mortality

declined for those who were born later. The Irish and Scottish convicts had significantly

higher mortality than the English, at 11% and 25% higher, respectively (however, this

effect becomes non-significant in later models). Convicts born in industrial districts and

towns had higher mortality than rural-born convicts by 14%.

Models 2–4 in Table 2 each test the relationship between a behaviour-under-sentence

covariate (number of conduct offences, number of alcohol-related offences, reactive

behaviour) and mortality. Time spent in the convict system is introduced as a control

variable to account for intensity of experience, since those with longer sentences, all else

being equal, are likely to have more offences under sentence and more reactive behaviour

simply because they are exposed to the risk of these for a longer period.

Each of the three tested covariates is related to mortality: those with constant conduct

offences have 44% higher mortality than those with none (Model 2); each alcohol-related

offence adds 4% to mortality (Model 3); and refusing to work, tearing clothes, and threats

or violence are also associated with higher mortality (Model 4). However, when these

three covariates are tested concurrently (Model 5), only the number of conduct offences

remains significant.

Models 6–8, as with Models 2–4, each test the relationship between a degree-of-

punishment covariate (number of lashes, days in solitary confinement, accumulated

insults) and mortality, controlling for time under sentence. All three covariates are

positively related to mortality: the worse the experience in the convict system, the higher

the mortality. However, again, when the three are tested together (Model 9), only one

remains significant: days in solitary confinement, with every extra 10 days in solitary

confinement associated with 3% higher mortality. Both constant conduct offences and days

in solitary confinement remain significant correlates of mortality in Model 10.

Table 3 contains models of mortality regression similar to those shown in Table 2,

except that only deaths after emancipation are taken into account, in order to determine

whether background characteristics and experience under sentence were associated with

mortality after sentence. In the first model (Model 11), mortality is again lower for

convicts who were born later. Industrial-born convicts have higher mortality than rural-

born convicts, but country of birth is no longer significantly associated with mortality

level. Again, other background characteristics tested were not significantly correlated with

mortality and so were excluded from these models.

In Models 12–14 in Table 3, each behaviour-under-sentence covariate was

individually associated with mortality: the worse the behaviour recorded in the conduct

registers, the higher the mortality after sentence. When controlling for all three together

(Model 15), the number of conduct offences became non-significant; convicts had 4%

higher mortality for each alcohol-related offence; and convicts who used threats or

violence under sentence had 17% higher mortality after sentence than those who exhibited

no reactive behaviour.

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Table

2.

Relationship

betweenmortality,countryofbirth,place

ofbirth

andexperience

under

sentence

for3002men

whoarrived

from

1840–1852anddied

under

andaftersentence

(Coxregressionmortalityhazardratiosshown).

Model

1Model

2Model

3Model

4Model

5Model

6Model

7Model

8Model

9Model

10

Yearofbirth

0.985***

0.953***

0.953***

0.954***

0.952***

0.954***

0.954***

0.954***

0.954***

0.953***

Countryof

birth

England

Ireland

1.114*

1.019

1.036

1.014

1.007

1.038

1.030

1.036

1.027

1.019

Scotland

1.252*

1.154

1.166

1.171

1.157

1.182

1.172

1.190

1.181

1.157

Place

ofbirth

Village

Town

0.978

0.971

0.990

0.986

0.977

0.987

0.987

0.986

0.985

0.975

Industrial

urban

1.140*

1.127*

1.153*

1.146*

1.133*

1.157*

1.137*

1.152*

1.136*

1.125*

Portcities

1.042

0.981

0.994

0.987

0.974

1.013

1.004

0.997

0.994

0.986

London

1.085

1.032

1.054

1.053

1.040

1.051

1.045

1.055

1.043

1.032

Actual

years

under

sentence

0.904***

0.911***

0.910***

0.903***

0.913***

0.909***

0.909***

0.907***

0.904***

Conduct

offences

None

1–2

0.893*

0.874*

0.893*

3–5

0.969

0.926

0.958

6þ

1.035

0.950

1.008

Constant

1.443***

1.243*

1.322***

Alcohol-relatedoffences

1.040***

1.020

Reactive

behaviour

None

Insolence

1.017

1.005

Refusalto

work

1.135*

1.089

Tearingclothes,etc.

1.408*

1.240

Threatsorviolence

1.281***

1.142

Number

oflashes

1.002***

1.000

Daysin

solitary

confinem

ent

1.004***

1.003***

1.002

Insults

None

Admonishment,fine,shortsolitary

0.980

0.977

Longer

solitary,extensionofprobation

1.097

1.078

Multiple

solitaries,oneflogging,treadmill,chains

1.138*

1.086

Multiple

floggings,mines,PortArthur

1.272**

1.098

***p,

0.001;**p,

0.01;*p,

0.05.Indicates

mortalityissignificantlydifferentfrom

thefirstcategory

foreach

covariate.Testedbutnotsignificant:place

ofconviction,literacy,

occupation,crim

e,birth

familyandmarital

status.Entryat

ageofarrival

inTasmania,timefrom

arrival

todeath.

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The number of lashes was not significantly associated with mortality after

emancipation (Model 16), but days in solitary confinement and accumulated insults

were (Models 17–19). In the final model, testing behaviour and punishment under

sentence (Model 20), alcohol-related offences, violent reactive behaviour and days in

solitary confinement remained positively associated with mortality after sentence.

Table 4 shows a logistic regression analysis of covariates associated with dying under

sentence, as opposed to dying after sentence (for those convicts for whom a death was

traced), with model inclusions following the same structure as those in Tables 2 and 3.

Again, we exclude those background characteristics that were shown not to be significant

in earlier test models. We control for both the length of the given sentence and the actual

years under sentence, since the latter is affected by deaths under sentence. We also include

age as an explicit independent variable.

Those who died under sentence were more likely to be older on arrival, Scottish, or

born in industrial districts and towns or in London (Models 21–30). Testing the three

behaviour-under-sentence variables (Models 22–25), constant conduct offences (but not

alcohol-related offences), refusing to work and tearing clothes were found to be associated

with a higher likelihood of dying under sentence. Solitary confinement and accumulated

insults were also positively correlated with death under sentence when controlled for

together (Models 26–29). In the final model (Model 30), three factors stood out as being

related to death under sentence: tearing clothes as a manifestation of extreme

psychological distress, solitary confinement, and the degree of insults accumulated.

Tables 2–4 show mortality models only for convicts for whom a death was traced. The

results may be distorted if the convicts not traced have different characteristics and

mortality patterns from the convicts for whom deaths were found. Table 5 shows the

results of logistic regressions testing relationships between background covariates,

experience-under-sentence covariates, and whether a death was traced for the convicts in

the sample. Those who were older on arrival and under a longer sentence were more likely

to be traced to death. The Irish were the least likely to be found – a problem compounded

by the high proportion of common names amongst the Irish and their late arrival in

Tasmania. Additionally, those born in industrial districts or convicted in London were less

likely to be found, the problem being that more ‘streetwise’ criminals were more likely to

assume aliases and change their name on leaving Tasmania.

Those who had a trade and both parents alive, and had been convicted of stealing food

or animals, were more visible after sentence (Models 32 and 36). Experience under

sentence was related to visibility after sentence. Those with more conduct offences,

reactive behaviour and insults were less likely to be found (Models 33–35), but when

controlled for together, only the degree of offending was significant (Models 35–36). This

suggests that the convicts whose deaths were not found more resemble those whose

mortality was higher because of poor conduct records under sentence, and that the bias in

the mortality figures in this sample population is towards a lower mortality than that of the

full male convict population for the period – that is, if the deaths for these men had been

included, male convict life expectancy would be lower than is indicated in the analyses.

Table 6 shows cause-of-death distributions by country of birth for convict men whose

death was traced under sentence and after sentence. For thosemenwho died under sentence,

around one-fifth died from external causes, ranging from drowning to falling trees to

execution. The actual proportion may be somewhat higher, as more than two-thirds of the

deaths under sentence had no cause recorded (although most were probably from natural

causes, as external causes of death were typically recorded). This high proportion reflects

the dangerous nature of much of the work carried out under sentence, accidents associated

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Table3.

Relationshipbetweenmortality,countryofbirth,place

ofbirthandexperience

undersentence

for2534men

whoarrived

from1840–1852anddiedafter

sentence

(Coxregressionmortalityhazardratiosshown).

Model

11

Model

12

Model

13

Model

14

Model

15

Model

16

Model

17

Model

18

Model

19

Model

20

Yearofbirth

0.984***

0.980***

0.980***

0.982***

0.980***

0.981***

0.981***

0.982***

0.982***

0.981***

Countryofbirth

England

Ireland

1.076

1.084

1.090

1.071

1.066

1.098

1.095

1.089

1.084

1.065

Scotland

1.174

1.175

1.188

1.185

1.171

1.202

1.197

1.199

1.191

1.175

Place

ofbirth

Village

Town

0.982

0.950

0.967

0.968

0.960

0.967

0.971

0.965

0.968

0.966

Industrial

urban

1.207***

1.151*

1.185**

1.174*

1.159*

1.190**

1.175*

1.171*

1.156*

1.151*

Portcities

1.024

0.980

0.988

0.991

0.970

1.011

1.005

0.996

0.992

0.966

London

1.018

0.984

1.008

1.008

0.993

1.010

1.005

0.996

0.988

0.990

Actual

years

under

sentence

1.004

1.013

1.009

1.004

1.015*

1.012

1.011

1.009

1.005

Conduct

offences

None

0.994

0.967

1–2

1.076

1.011

3–5

1.176*

1.050

6þ

1.362***

1.118

Constant

0.994

0.967

Alcohol-relatedoffences

1.050***

1.037**

1.040***

Reactivebehaviour

None

Insolence

1.071

1.024

1.011

Refusalto

work

1.141*

1.077

1.072

Tearingclothes,etc.

1.135

1.039

1.094

Threatsorviolence

1.276***

1.173*

1.189*

Number

oflashes

1.001

1.000

Daysin

solitary

confinem

ent

1.002***

1.003*

1.002*

Insults

None

Longer

solitary,extensionofprobation

1.106

1.106

1.064

Admonishment,fine,shortsolitary

1.153*

1.136*

1.067

Multiple

solitaries,oneflogging,treadmill,chains

1.195**

1.149*

1.038

Multiple

floggings,mines,PortArthur

1.127

0.995

0.919

***p,

0.001;**p,

0.01;*p,

0.05.Indicates

mortalityissignificantlydifferentfrom

thefirstcategory

foreach

covariate.Testedbutnotsignificant:place

ofconviction,literacy,

occupation,crim

e,birth

familyandmarital

status.Entryat

ageofexitfrom

theconvictsystem

,timefrom

exitto

death.

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Table4.

Relationshipbetweendeathundersentence,countryofbirth,place

ofbirthandexperience

undersentence

for3002men

whoarrived

from1840–1852–

death

under

sentence

versusdeath

aftersentence

(logisticregressionoddsratiosshown).

Model

21

Model

22

Model

23

Model

24

Model

25

Model

26

Model

27

Model

28

Model

29

Model

30

Ageat

arrival

1.02***

1.02

*1.01

*1.02

*1.02

*1.02

*1.02

**

1.02

**

1.02

**

1.02

**

Sentence

(number

ofyears)

7 8–14

1.28*

2.27***

2.21***

2.30***

2.27***

2.23***

2.25***

2.39***

2.37***

2.36***

15ormore

1.78***

7.16***

6.61***

7.26***

7.50***

6.90***

7.28***

7.62***

7.89***

8.16***

Life

2.35***

23.05***

19.58***

22.61***

24.22***

20.21***

22.33***

22.25***

23.16***

25.16***

Countryofbirth

England

Ireland

1.14

1.35

1.40*

1.31

1.31

1.39*

1.35

1.35

1.33

1.26

Scotland

1.67*

1.84*

1.87*

1.89*

1.93*

1.87*

1.84*

1.95*

1.93*

2.07*

Place

ofbirth

Village

Town

0.99

1.19

1.29

1.28

1.22

1.24

1.20

1.26

1.21

1.20

Industrial

urban

1.05

1.63*

1.82**

1.71**

1.64*

1.77**

1.69**

1.71**

1.67*

1.62*

Portcities

1.20

1.20

1.40

1.27

1.20

1.33

1.30

1.27

1.26

1.22

London

1.59*

2.06**

2.20***

2.14**

2.09**

2.14**

2.10**

2.21***

2.17**

2.14**

Actual

years

under

sentence

0.61***

0.64***

0.62***

0.61***

0.63***

0.61***

0.61***

0.61***

0.60***

Conduct

offences

None

1–2

0.66**

0.61**

0.43***

3–5

0.96

0.82

0.48*

6þ

1.16

0.91

0.46*

Constant

3.02***

2.19**

0.76

Alcohol-relatedoffences

0.91

Reactivebehaviour

None

Insolence

1.20

1.21

1.09

Refusalto

work

1.78**

1.62*

1.36

Tearingclothes,

etc.

6.16***

4.14***

3.29**

Threatsor

violence

1.41

1.07

0.81

Number

oflashes

1.01***

1.00

Daysin

solitary

confinem

ent

1.01***

1.01***

1.01**

Insults

None

(continued

)

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Table

4–continued

Model

21

Model

22

Model

23

Model

24

Model

25

Model

26

Model

27

Model

28

Model

29

Model

30

Admonishment,

fine,short

solitary

0.78

0.76

1.37

Longer

solitary,

extensionof

probation

1.64**

1.56*

2.53***

Multiple

solitaries,one

flogging,

treadmill,chains

1.40

1.22

1.85*

Multiple

floggings,

mines,Port

Arthur

5.02***

3.18***

4.29***

***p,

0.001;**p,

0.01;*p,

0.05.Indicates

likelihoodofdeathundersentence

issignificantlydifferentfromthefirstcategory

foreach

covariate.C

onvictswithnodeathfoundare

excluded.Testedbutnotsignificant:place

ofconviction,literacy,occupation,crim

e,birth

familyandmarital

status.

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Table 5. Relationship between death found, background characteristics and experience undersentence for 7084 men who arrived from 1840–1852 – death found versus death not found (logisticregression odds ratios shown).

Model31

Model32

Model33

Model34

Model35

Model36

Age at arrival 1.03 *** 1.03 *** 1.02 *** 1.02 *** 1.02 *** 1.02 ***Sentence(number ofyears)

78–14 1.20 ** 1.16 ** 1.21 *** 1.20 *** 1.20 *** 1.17 **15 or more 1.44 *** 1.40 *** 1.46 *** 1.47 *** 1.50 *** 1.46 ***Life 1.80 *** 1.64 *** 1.82 *** 1.87 *** 1.89 *** 1.76 ***

Country ofbirth

EnglandIreland 0.78 *** 0.77 *** 0.79 *** 0.79 ** 0.77 *** 0.76 ***Scotland 0.97 0.96 0.97 0.96 0.96 0.95

Place ofbirth

VillageTown 0.97 0.98 0.97 0.99 1.00 1.01Industrial urban 0.76 * 0.77 * 0.77 * 0.79 * 0.80 0.81Port cities 0.85 0.87 0.87 0.87 0.89 0.90London 0.93 0.95 0.96 0.99 1.00 1.00

Place ofconviction

VillageTown 0.98 1.00 0.97 0.98 1.00 1.01Industrial urban 1.09 1.11 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11Port cities 0.91 0.95 0.91 0.93 0.95 0.98London 0.70 ** 0.72 * 0.69 ** 0.69 ** 0.70 ** 0.71 **Other country 1.13 1.02 1.16 1.19 1.25 1.11

Occupation UnskilledSemi-skilled 0.98 0.99Trade 1.16 * 1.18 *White-collar 1.24 1.21Army/navy 1.07 1.16

Birth family NoneSiblings only 1.09 1.08Mother alive 1.08 1.07Father alive 1.14 1.14Both parents alive 1.25 * 1.25 *

Crime Theft of valuables/burglary/robbery/larcenyTheft of food or animals 1.23 ** 1.17 *Political/protest 1.24 1.17Other non-violent 1.10 1.07Other violent 1.28 * 1.20

Conductoffences

None1–2 0.64 *** 0.68 ***3–5 0.66 *** 0.68 ***6 þ 0.51 *** 0.54 ***Constant 0.72 * 0.77

Reactivebehaviour

NoneInsolence 0.83 ** 1.00 1.01Refusal to work 0.88 1.11 1.11Tearing clothes, etc. 1.06 1.31 1.34Threats or violence 0.79 ** 0.97 0.96

Insults NoneAdmonishment, fine, short solitary 0.80 *** 1.09 1.03Longer solitary, extension of probation 0.69 *** 0.95 0.90Multiple solitaries, one flogging, treadmill, chains 0.71 *** 0.99 0.94Multiple floggings, mines, Port Arthur 0.63 *** 0.82 0.78

***p , 0.001; **p , 0.01; *p , 0.05. Indicates likelihood of death being found is significantly different fromthe first category for each covariate. Tested but not significant: literacy, marital status, number of alcohol-relatedoffences, number of lashes, solitary confinement, year of arrival and year of birth.

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with intoxication, and the lower likelihood of dying fromnatural causes in young adulthood.

Male mortality under sentence from external causes was around 4.8 annual deaths per 1000

population. Death rates for the comparable free population are not available. However,

external mortality for the total Tasmanian male population aged 25–34 years in the early

1860s was significantly lower at about 1.8 annual deaths per 1000 population (Kippen,

2002b). Deaths from external causes remained high after sentence also, with at least 10% of

deaths attributable to an accident, suicide, assault or execution (Table 6).

4. Discussion

In the 1870s, Sydney mathematics professor M.B. Pell calculated mortality rates for

New South Wales. He believed that the excessive difference in mortality between England

and Australia before 1866 was due to ‘the habits and character of a certain class, of which a

large proportion of the older inhabitants of the colony then consisted: As this class has

become gradually almost eliminated, the rates for the higher ages have gradually

improved, more particularly for males of which the objectionable class mostly consisted’

(Pell, 1879, p. 258).

As in Tasmania, the ‘objectionable class’ in New South Wales was made up of

convicts. The analysis shown here indicates that the life expectancy for convict men who

survived sentence in Tasmania was similar to the life expectancy of men in England and

Wales, and Scotland, over the same period, but two to three years shorter than the life

expectancy of the general Tasmanian male population.

The measurable critical differences between convicts in their survival were around

temperament and behaviour within the total institution of penal discipline, under the gaze

of the ‘paper panopticon’. Ethnic differences were an artefact of the differing jurisdictions

that delivered convicts into the system, where a less severe court system in Scotland

Table 6. Causes of death recorded by country of birth and whether the convict died under or aftersentence for 3002 men who arrived from 1840–1852.

England Ireland Scotland

Died under sentence % % %Natural causes 9.4 6.5 7.1Suicide 0.3 1.3 0.0Assault/murder 1.0 0.7 0.0Drowning 7.7 6.5 0.0Executed 3.8 3.9 0.0Other external cause 8.7 5.9 17.9Not given 69.0 75.2 75.0Total 100.0 100.0 100.0Number 287 153 28Died after sentence % % %Natural causes 74.0 76.2 75.2Suicide 1.3 0.9 2.9Assault/murder 0.6 0.2 1.0Drowning 2.3 2.1 0.0Executed 0.4 1.5 1.9Other external cause 4.3 6.0 1.9Not given 17.0 13.1 17.1Total 100.0 100.0 100.0Number 1564 865 105

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transported only ‘hardened’ offenders, and Irish courts – particularly after the Famine

when transportation recommenced after a hiatus caused by an economic depression in Van

Diemen’s Land – needed to empty their gaols. Starving people committed crimes to get

onto prison rations, and in the hope of deliverance from Ireland and reunion with family

members who had already been transported. Indeed, the surgeon on the first post-Famine

ship, the Blenheim, commented in 1849 that the prisoners who had been confined in

Kilmainham Gaol for up to two years before embarkation were in better health than the

raw army recruits who had been living free (Thomson, 1849). This institutional bias,

however, highlights the significance of behavioural factors in convict survival both under

and after sentence.

It is more difficult with male convicts to separate out the ‘hardened’ criminals – those

who had departedmost from norms of civil behaviour, honesty and non-violence – than it is

for female convicts. Women’s loss of ‘character’ or ‘respectability’ was measured at the

time by their sexual behaviour. Convict women whose records noted that they had been ‘on

the town’ before transportation – i.e. those who were living free, outside a household and

earning from prostitution, and those who were convicted of larceny, a crime most closely

associated with prostitution – suffered a mortality deficit of up to 10 years compared to

other women convicts (Kippen&McCalman, 2013).Withmen, their degree of ‘hardening’

– of criminality rather than youthful delinquency or destitution and desperation – is harder

to measure. However, these mortality data provide some insight in that having fewer

conduct offences under sentence was associated with lower overall mortality.

Reactive behaviour provided a measure of temperament: the prudent convict who kept

out of trouble, and was compliant and deferential, could be rewarded with early release in

a ticket of leave or pardon; the angry and recalcitrant convict could be sucked into a vortex

of savage cruelty. Obviously, the conduct record was constructed via the penal gaze, but it

remains the only systematic account of convicts’ behaviour under sentence. Favoured

convicts were often spared harsh punishment because their skills were valuable; a minority

of convicts appear to have provoked, justly or unjustly, persecution by the authorities.

Therefore, convicts who had many conduct offences, but who were favoured, suffered

fewer insults, whereas persecuted convicts suffered insults that appear disproportionate to

their offences.

If convicts were to survive penal discipline, they had to defer to their superiors; remain

sober, chaste and industrious; keep silent in the face of abuse and insults; perform arduous

labour while exhausted; and not steal or tell falsehoods. Remarkably, a significant number

succeeded in this extraordinary effort of restraint under extreme provocation, including a

full quarter of the Irish (Table 1b). More than half restrained themselves and displayed no

reactive behaviour of any kind: they never answered back or scowled to cause offence. And

the same proportion suffered no or few insults to their body and mind. Almost all of the

Probation-era prisoners from 1841 spent time in chain gangs, whichwas exhausting, painful

and publicly humiliating. But beyond those shared privations and insults, the most

significant impact of penal servitude on mortality emerges as that on the mind. Solitary

confinement, often in total darkness, underground, where the convict was deprived of all

sound and human touch, drove convicts mad, and was associated with higher mortality both

under and after sentence. The introduction in England of the silent treatment, in particular at

Millbank, had dire effects, causing prisoners to do everything they could to be selected for

transportation (Foxhall, 2011). The social laboratory of penal servitude in Van Diemen’s

Land was a psychological testing ground even more than it was a disciplinary regime.

Those who succumbed were those with less self-control, more aggression and less

foresight. They were also more likely to be suffering from some kind of mental illness, as

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evidenced by the higher mortality of those punished for tearing their clothes – a marker of

extreme mental distress. They were not necessarily more ‘evil’; notable survivors of the

system included psychopaths, who were skilled at deception, role playing and fraud. A bad

conduct record under sentence was not necessarily predictive of recidivism in later life.

Those who knew how to appear plausible, deferential and ‘civilized’ could prosper under

servitude as trusted servants, particularly if they had good literacy levels. If they failed to

recover their ‘character’ after sentence, it was because they could not resist temptation,

drank, had a short temper and knew of no other way to earn a living.

Survival after sentence depended on being able to ‘recover’ or find respectability

through a ‘reformed character’ – a reference and reputation that might be provided by a

patron or the learning of respectable deportment, which enabled the ex-convict to ‘pass’ in

respectable society. Those who stayed in Tasmania had little chance of reinventing

themselves under new names and personal histories; those who left the island after

sentence had more hope of disappearing into the crowd of new immigrants and gold-

seekers in the mainland colonies.

Victorian death certificates were usually the first documents where a former convict’s

past was recorded, and those who had married in Tasmania were often forced to admit to a

sojourn there, but usually only of a year or so, which was long enough to find a wife but not

long enough to be a sentence. Birthplaces and parents are remembered often, Tasmania

only under sufferance. Many children of ex-convicts may never have known their parents’

true past or, if they did, passed on to the next generation the fiction that granddad had

jumped ship at Port Phillip during the gold rush.

The Swing Rioters, political prisoners who were transported in 1831 for breaking

machines in English agricultural counties, provide a valuable control sample. Their crimes

were pardoned; their time under sentence was greatly reduced; their offences under

sentence were very few; and they were the most likely to remain visible after sentence,

marry, have children and live as long as the general population. Their average age of death,

including those who died under sentence, was 65.7 years – the same as the rural English –

compared to those who survived sentence in this sample, which was 56.1 years (Kippen &

McCalman, 2015).

The critical factors were the intense interactions between the convict and the penal

system: it was ultimately a test of strength of mind. This raises important issues about the

impact over time of mental suffering, humiliation, frustration and bullying – that insult

accumulation of the mind is even more damaging than that of the body, when nutrition is

sufficient. The causes of death that we will be able to interrogate most accurately in future

studies will be in relation to premature ageing – ‘natural decay’.

What is more difficult and perhaps impossible to assess is the long-term psychiatric

illness inflicted, particularly on the Irish by the combined effects of the Famine, loss of

family and penal servitude. The colony of Victoria, across Bass Strait from Tasmania,

received around 30,000 former convicts into its population. By the 1870s, it was second

only to Ireland in the number of beds in its mental asylums, and the Irish were

disproportionately represented in the prisons (Australian Medical Journal, 1878, pp. 292–

296). Unfortunately, the admissions records are too scant and the names too common to

determine whether that disproportion was partly created by the former convicts who

disappeared from official view.

In summary, the higher mortality of convicts over their life course was associated with

being born in an industrial-urban area, constant conduct offences under sentence, and

solitary confinement under sentence. Mortality under sentence was associated with being

born in Scotland, an industrial-urban area or London; exhibiting extreme mental distress

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through behaviour such as tearing clothes; solitary confinement; and accumulated insults

of both mind and body. Mortality after emancipation was positively correlated with being

born in an industrial-urban area, alcohol-related offences under sentence (which perhaps

point to alcohol abuse throughout the life course), threats or actions of violence under

sentence, and solitary confinement under sentence.

The background characteristics tested here played a minor role in convict mortality

differences, with only country and place of birth found to be significant. What was of

paramount importance was behaviour and punishment under sentence, as recorded in the

official Convict Department conduct records. These affected mortality both under and

after sentence. For longer-term outcomes, evidenced in mortality after emancipation, it

was injuries to the mind through solitary confinement rather than lashes to the body that

shortened lives. As the gentleman convict John Mortlock (1864/1965) later wrote: ‘Of

course, the brain is the seat of pain – very dreadful’ (p. 74).

5. Limitations of the study

As noted in this article, the major limitation to this study is that deaths have only been

traced for 42% of the sample, and deaths were less likely to be found for those with

characteristics associated with higher mortality (for example, those born in an industrial-

urban area or with more conduct offences under sentence). This means that the mortality

estimates calculated from the found sample are likely to be lower than those from the full

sample (if all deaths had been traced). If all deaths had been traced, the life-expectancy

estimates for the convict men by country of birth would likely be lower than those set out

in Table 1b, and the difference more marked between the survival of convict men and the

general Tasmanian male population.

Another limitation is that this study considers male mortality only. Female convict

mortality exhibited very different patterns, and the mortality penalty for convict women

was much greater than for convict men. This will be the subject of a future study. Finally,

this article does not consider other variables that are likely to be correlated with

survivorship, such as family formation after transportation.

Acknowledgements

We thank Hamish Maxwell-Stewart and Deborah Oxley for the use of their transcribed convict data.We thank our volunteer researchers, who have spent many hours in painstaking research tracing thelife courses of Tasmanian convicts. They are the checkers and researchers: Nola Beagley, GeoffBrown, Tricia Curry, Lance Dwyer, Alison Ellett, Jennifer Elliston, Leanne Goss, Dr Cheryl Griffin,Jan Kerr, Maureen Mann, Garry McLoughlin, David Noakes, Teddie Oates, Judith Price, SteveRhodes, the late Dr Cecile Trioli, Colin Tuckerman and Jenny Wells; at the Female ConvictsResearch Centre: Colette McAlpine and Dr Trudy Mae Cowley; and the Ships Project researchers:Colleen Aralappu, Maureen Austin, Vivienne Cash, Dianne Cassidy, Glenda Cox, Kathy Dadswell,Margaret Dimech, Brian Dowse, Ros Escott, Barry Files, Peter Fitzpatrick, Dr Janet Gaff, ProfessorNanette Gottlieb, Stuart Hamilton, Jane Harding, Robyn Harrison, Graeme Hickey, Margaret Inglis,Bronwyn King, Dr Jenny Kisler, Darryl Massie, Elizabeth Nelson, Margaret Nichols, RosemaryNoble, Keith Oliver, Maureen O’Toole, Margaret Parsons, Annette Sutton, Robert Tuppen, RobWeldon, Lyn Wilkinson, Glad Wishart, Jacqueline Wisniowski and Judith Wood. We also thankSandra Silcot, Claudine Chionh and Robin Petterd for IT systems construction and management, andthe anonymous reviewers for their very constructive comments on earlier versions of the article.

Funding

Funding for this research was provided by the Australian Research Council.

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Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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