Less than five per cent of convicts ever returned to Great Britain

Some economic historians have assessed this inability to return home as another benefit of the system of transportation.  See 

Stephen Nicholas and Peter R Shergold, ‘Unshackling the Past’ in Stephen Nicholas (ed), Convict Workers (Cambridge, CUP, 1988) 9. 

See also discussion in

Stephen Nicholas and Peter R Shergold, ‘Convicts as Migrants’ in Convict Workers 58. 

A form of slavery

A good example of nineteenth century characterisation of convictism as slavery is the Report of the House of Commons Select Committee on Transportation.  The committee was instigated in 1837 by Sir William Molesworth and handed down its findings in 1838.  

Members of the National Library of Australia or the State Library of Victoria can access a digital copy of the report online.  See esp pages 7, 10, 21, 33 and 36.  

Great Britain House of Commons Select Committee on Transportation 1837-38. NLA entry with link:

https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/6023872?lookfor=title:(house%20of%20commons%20Select%20Committee%20Transportation)%20%23[format:Online]&offset=1&max=131831

Henry and Susannah Kable

The extraordinary story of the young Kable couple - using different sources to Neal, Rule of Law in a penal colony – is also discussed by Alan Frost.  See

Alan Frost, The First Fleet: the real story (Collingwood Vic, Black Inc, 2012) 75-80. 

Barron Field

This really was the judge’s name.  He was a direct descendant of Oliver Cromwell – see ch 5.  You can read about his time in NSW in his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography [ADB] online:

C. H. Currey, 'Field, Barron (1786–1846)' Australian Dictionary of Biography Vol 1 (Melbourne, MUP, 1966).  

adb.anu.edu.au/biography/field-barron-2041/text2523

Supreme Court of Van Diemen’s Land

For more information on the early of history of this court see

Alex Castles, Stefan Petrow & Kate Ramsay (eds), Lawless Harvests or God Save the Judges: Van Diemen’s Land 1803-1855, A Legal History (Melbourne, Australian Scholarly, 2003) 95-106. 

Richard Ely (ed) Carrell Inglis Clark: History of the Supreme Court of Tasmania: Its first century, 1824-1924 (Hobart, University of Tasmania Law Press, 1995)

Chief Justice John Pedder

The ADB entry on Pedder covers his and his fellow supreme court justice, Algernon Montagu, clashes with Governor Denison over legislation.  For further reading, see

J M Bennett, Sir John Pedder: First Chief Justice of Tasmania (Annandale NSW, Federation Press, 2003)

Puisne Judge Algernon Montagu also has a remarkable background which is available online through the ADB:

P A Howell, 'Montagu, Algernon Sidney (1802-1880)', Australian Dictionary of Biography  

adb.anu.edu.au/biography/montagu-algernon-sidney-2470