Western Australia Character Books, 1850-57 (London convicts)

Western Australian Character Books contain a record of each convict prisoner as they entered the convict establishment at Fremantle. The books were intended to keep a record of the personal details, physical descriptions, and conviction histories of each new arrival, along with information regarding their character prior to and during sentence.

The dataset contains records of 358 convicts who were tried in London. The information given includes the name and register number of each convict, the date they arrived in the colony and the prison from which they came, as well as a convict’s age, trade, marital status, and literacy levels. The books also record details of the crime for which a convict was transported, as well as any known previous convictions.