Source Information
© the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales and is used under licence with the permission of the State Records Authority. The State of New South Wales gives no warranty regarding the data's accuracy, completeness, currency or suitability for any particular purpose.
About New South Wales, Australia, Convict Registers of Conditional and Absolute Pardons, 1788-1870
This database contains records of pardons granted to convicts in New South Wales, Australia.
Historical background:
New South Wales was first settled in 1788 as a penal colony. As a result, a large percentage of the population in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was comprised of convicts and ex-convicts.
A person could be emancipated by receiving a certificate of freedom, a ticket of leave, or by being granted a pardon.
Pardons were generally given to convicts with life sentences and shortened the sentence by granting freedom. There were two types of pardons – conditional and absolute. Conditional pardons required that freed convicts remain in the colony. Absolute pardons allowed freed convicts to return to the U.K.
About this Collection:
This data collection contains the following registers of conditional and absolute pardons.
- Copies of returns of absolute and conditional pardons granted, 1810–29, 1836, 1838–41
- Registers of conditional pardons, 1791–1825, 1835–45, 1847–70
- Register of convicts recommended for conditional pardons, 1826–56
- Alphabetical registers of pardons, 1828–62
- Registers of absolute pardons, 1791–1843
- Registers of recommendations for absolute pardons, 1826–46
- Registers of absolute and conditional pardons, 1788–1834, 1837–67
These registers provide details about the convicts, such as:
- Name
- Ship of arrival
- Date of arrival
- Conviction place
- Conviction date
- Birthplace and date
- Pardon date
- Whether conditional or absolute
- Place and date of trial
- Offence
- Physical description
- General remarks
Later registers tend to provide more details than earlier ones.