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Yes. Before Australia became Britain’s best-known destination for transported convicts, the American colonies were the main destination in the 18th century. The National Museum of Australia reports that more than 50,000 criminals had been transported to America by 1775. The American Revolutionary War ended that route; Britain later established a penal colony in New South Wales, where the First Fleet arrived in 1788.
How Britain’s American transportation system worked
Transportation existed before 1717 through less direct legal processes. The Transportation Act 1717 made it simpler and more formal. According to the National Museum of Australia, the law specified seven years of transportation for non-capital crimes and 14 years for capital crimes when the king commuted the sentence.
Transport became a substantial enterprise. Private contractors selected transported people and sold their labor to employers in America for the term of their sentences. This was coercive convict labor, but the arrangements should not be treated as identical to chattel slavery or assumed to have been uniform for every person.
The museum reports that more than 50,000 criminals had been transported to America by 1775. That is its figure and cutoff; it should not be treated as a count directly comparable to Australian totals reported for different periods and scopes.
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Why transportation to America stopped
As the American Revolutionary War made the colonies unavailable as a destination, transportation from Britain ceased from 1776 to 1788, according to the National Museum of Australia. Britain temporarily held prisoners on hulks while it considered alternatives, including Africa and the Caribbean.
How Australia became the next destination
In 1783, James Matra proposed Botany Bay as a possible colony site. The idea was revised after consultation with Lord Sydney. Orders in Council for a penal colony in New South Wales followed in 1785.
The First Fleet left Portsmouth on 13 May 1787. The National Museum of Australia dates its arrival at Botany Bay to 18 January 1788. The National Library of Australia’s account of surgeon Arthur Bowes Smyth’s journal describes the fleet reaching Port Jackson and the settlement site on 26 January. These dates refer to different stages and locations in the fleet’s arrival, rather than a single universally phrased arrival event.
Australia’s arrangements differed from the American contractor system. In the early colony, convict labor was used for public works and some convicts were assigned to free settlers. The museum describes work on roads, bridges, public buildings, and farms.
How the scale of transportation compares
Australian totals vary slightly in wording and scope, so they should be quoted with their sources and date ranges rather than silently combined.
| Destination and period | Reported figure | Source and scope |
|---|---|---|
| America, by 1775 | More than 50,000 criminals | National Museum of Australia; reported as a cumulative figure by 1775. |
| Australia, over roughly 80 years | More than 160,000 convicts | National Library of Australia, describing the period after transportation to Australia began. |
| Australia, 1788–1868 | More than 162,000 convicts | National Museum of Australia; the museum gives this specific date range. |
The National Library’s account says the First Fleet brought between 750 and 780 convicts in 1788. The library also estimates that about 70% of Australia’s transported population was English, 5% Scottish, and 25% Irish; those percentages concern Australia, not the earlier American system.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What records can show about an individual convict
For Australian transportation, the National Library of Australia’s convict records guide describes registers that generally record a person’s name and sentence, ship and departure date, and Australian destination. Indents may add aliases, age, family status, religion, occupation, physical description, and trial details. Conduct records can document assignments, colonial offenses, punishments, and tickets of leave or freedom; early records may be less detailed.
The library points researchers to online indexes, register collections accessible through Ancestry, UK National Archives HO 11 registers, and regional records. It identifies direct transportation arrivals in New South Wales (1788–1842), Tasmania (1803–1852), and Western Australia (1850–1868). These Australian records can help establish an Australian transportation history, but do not by themselves prove that a person was previously transported to America. For an ancestor, first identify the likely destination and period, then consult records relevant to that jurisdiction.
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