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Ancestry Daily News
12/20/2001 - Archive
Saving Their Necks: The Origins of Transportation to America
Vagrancy and minor criminal offenses were serious problems in late
Tudor England. Too many people were wandering the countryside or drifting into
towns, and the social safety net of the abbeys and monasteries had disappeared,
plundered at the time of Henry VIII. The situation became very serious toward
the end of the reign of Elizabeth I, in the 1590s, when several factors operated
together: poor harvests, enclosures of common land, and the decline of cultivation
in favor of raising sheep. There had been a variety of attempts to cope with
the problem. The Poor Law was passed in 1601. It placed the burden of support
on the parishes and required that destitute people be sent home to their parishes
of settlement to receive relief. In an effort to contain unemployment, an act
of 1563 required that all who would pursue a craft or trade serve an apprenticeship
of at least seven years.
Theft and other disruptions to law and order had been discouraged for a long
time through severe penalties; first dozens, then hundreds, of offenses were
defined as felonies and all felonies carried the death penalty. There were not,
however, as many executions as might be imagined because local justices balanced
the severity of the law with clemency. In Medieval times, a legal fiction evolved
to help many people save their necks.
This process came to be called "benefit of clergy." It was based on the theory
that anyone who could read a verse of the Bible must be a clerical person and
therefore was not subject to the heavy penalties of secular courts. The measure
of this ability was simple - to read the 50th (later, in the King James Bible
it became the 51st) Psalm. The convicted person suffered branding on the thumb
rather than death. As the clerical test never changed, the "neck verse" could
be memorized.
Another way to escape hanging was to be pardoned. This method was used regularly
in the early 1600s. Those who avoided the noose through a pardon or by "benefit
of clergy" were then back in circulation. Their numbers grew and people in authority
began to realize another problem was in the making.
Out of this came the ideas of, first, offering transportation as an alternative
to execution, and secondly, of designating crimes as clergyable or non-clergyable,
i.e., dispensing with the farcical "proof" of an ability to read (1705). The
final logical step was to legislate that those convicted of clergyable offenses
were to be transported to the Colonies. Transportation to America and the West
Indies began in the 1600s and a significant surge occurred when it became a
legal punishment in 1717.
During the wars with the French, which ending 1n 1713, the army had absorbed
most of the lesser offenders. That option disappeared at a time when the Colonies
were looking for labor. It was therefore enacted that all those guilty of "clergyable"
offenses, and all those convicted of offenses punishable by branding or whipping,
were to be transported to the Colonies for either seven or fourteen years. The
penalty for an early return was death.
How many were transported to America between 1717 and 1776 has been a subject
for academic debate. Estimates range from thirty thousand and fifty thousand,
varying in part according to whether all convicts from England, Scotland and
Ireland are included. The evidence also points to the destinations of these
people - the majority went to Maryland and Virginia. A subsequent article will
deal with picking up the trail of these offenders in England.
Further Reading
Smith, A. E. Colonists in Bondage: White Servitude and Convict Labor in America
1607-1776. New York: Norton, 1971.
Ekirch, A.R. Bound for America: The Transportation of British Convicts to
the Colonies 1718 - 1775. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987.
Web Sites
PRO Pathways - Prisoners and Transportation
www.pro.gov.uk/pathways/FamilyHistory/gallery5/default.htm
International Centre for Convict Studies
iccs.arts.utas.edu.au
Sherry Irvine, CGRS, FSA (Scot) has been researching her British ancestry
for thirty years. She founded Interlink Bookshop and Genealogical Services (www.interlinkbookshop.com)
in 1988; she currently lectures in Canada and the United States and is vice
president of the Association of Professional Genealogists. You can e- mail Sherry
with suggestions for future British genealogy articles at mailto:sherryirvine55@myfamily.com.
She will not be able to send personal replies, but will feature some questions
in upcoming issues of the Ancestry Daily News. Sherry also regrets that
she is unable to assist with personal research. Sherry is also the author of:
Your Scottish Ancestry: A Guide for North Americans
www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=831&key=P1046
Your English Ancestry: A Guide for North Americans
www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=831&key=P1045
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