23/08/2005
History of New South Wales From the Records
VOLUME 1 - GOVERNOR PHILLIP 1783-1789G. B. Barton - 1889
PART III
Order-In-Council
IT was under the provisions of the statute passed in 1784 that, by an Order-in-Council made on the 6th December, 1786, "the eastern coast of New South Wales "was declared and appointed to be the place to which certain offenders, named in two lists annexed to the Order, should be transported. Some historical interest consequently attaches to it, seeing that it contains the fiat by which New South Wales was created a penal station.
At a Council held at the Court of St. James's, on 6 December, 1786, the following Order was made:-
Whereas by the Act passed in the twenty-fourth year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled An Act for the Effectual Transportation of Felons and other offenders, and to authorise the Removal of Prisoners in certain cases, and for other purposes therein mentioned, it is enacted that from and after the passing of the said Act, when any person or persons at any session of Oyer and Terminer or Gaol Delivery, or at any Quarter or other General Session of the peace, to be holden for any county, riding, division, city, town, borough, liberty, or place within that part of Great Britain called England, or at any great session to be holden for the County Palatine of Chester, or within the Principality of Wales, shall be convicted of fraud or petty larceny, or any other offence for which such person or persons shall be liable by the laws of this realm to be transported, it shall and may be lawful for the Court before which any such person or persons shall be so convicted as aforesaid, or any subsequent Court holden at any place for the said county, riding, division, city, town, borough, liberty, or place, respectively, with like authority, to order and adjudge that such person or persons so convicted as aforesaid shall be transported beyond the seas for any term of years, not exceeding the number of years or term for which such person or persons is or are or shall be liable by any law to be transported; and in every such case it shall and may be lawful for his Majesty, by and with the advice of his Privy Council, to declare and appoint to what place or places, part or parts, beyond the seas, either within his Majesty's dominions, or elsewhere out of his Majesty's dominions, such felons or other offenders shall be conveyed or transported: And such Court as aforesaid is thereby authorised and empowered to order such offenders to be transported to the use of any person or persons, and his or their assigns, who shall contract for the due performance of such transportation:
And when his Majesty, his heirs and successors, shall be pleased to extend mercy to any offender or offenders who hath or have been or shall be convicted of any crime or crimes for which he, she, or they is, are, or shall be by law excluded from the benefit of clergy, upon condition of transportation to any place or places, part or parts beyond the seas, either for term of life, or any number of years, and such intention of mercy shall be signified by one of his Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, it shall be lawful for any Court having proper authority to allow such offender or offenders the benefit of a conditional pardon, and (except in cases where such offender or offenders shall be authorised by his Majesty to transport himself, herself, or themselves) to order the transfer of such offender or offenders to any person or persons who shall contract for the due performance of such transportation, and his or their assigns, for such and the same terms of years for which such offender or offenders shall have been ordered to be transported, or for such term of life or years as shall be specified in such condition of transportation as aforesaid:
And whereas it hath been represented to his Majesty that the several offenders whose names are contained in the list hereunto annexed have been transported, or ordered to be transported, to parts beyond the seas, his Majesty doth hereby judge fit, by and with the advice of his Privy Council, to declare and appoint the place to which the several offenders shall be transported for the term or terms in their several sentences mentioned, to be the eastern coast of New South Wales, or some one or other of the islands adjacent; and all persons whom it may concern are to give the necessary directions for causing the said several offenders to be conveyed or transported to the eastern coast of New South Wales, or some one or other of the islands adjacent, in the manner directed by the said Act (1).
NOTES:
1. At a Council held at the Court of St. James's on December 22, 1786, a similar order was made, referring to females only. These, and other convicts previously sentenced to be transported to America, were directed to be ''transported to the eastern coast of New South Wales, or some one or other of the islands adjacent."
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