Record book of convicts arriving in Van Diemen's Land
on board the MANDARIN 30th June 1840
On June 30th 1840 John Frost, Zephaniah Williams and William Jones arrived in "Van Diemen's Land" (present Tasmania) after a four month journey on board the Mandarin. They were sentenced to spend the rest of their days there for their part in the Newport Chartist uprising.
Altogether 212 convicts were on board the ship being transported for offences ranging from attempted theft of handkercheifs to rape and manslaughter. According to many sources their punishment was considered literally a fate worse than death. Not a surprising lot for those convicted of High Treason, but a very severe one for many of the prisoners who by today's standards had committed minor offences.
You can find out a great deal about all the convicts who arrived on this ship via these web pages. We have a searchable database with many details about the prisoners including: age, where born, previous occupation, where tried, offence and sentence. Also you are able to view the original pages from the record book which documented each prisoner's time until the end of sentence, being pardoned or death. And, the icing on the cake, for the prisoners tried at the Old Bailey (Central Criminal Court) we have links to the trial records!
Images of pages from the record book are displayed here by permission of Tasmanian State Archives: www.archives.tas.gov.au