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u/LegendarySwag • Sep 30, 2015
What were the "19 Crimes" that sent you to Australia
I work at a liquor store and we sell an Australian blend by the name of 19 Crimes. The bottle claims that there were 19 crimes that would end up sending you to the penal colony in Australia. Is this true, and if so, why were they? Did similar laws exist for other colonies, English or otherwise, that would have transportation to the colony as punishment?
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Brassafrax•Sep 30, 2015
Yay, an Australian legal history question! Ok, so some context: with the Industrial Revolution and accompanying urbanisation in full swing, Britain’s cities were getting crowded, fast. Given the laissez-faire approach to provision of social services, the population of urban poor skyrocketed, as did petty crime. At the time, there were only 12 superior court judges with a case load of 10 000 per year, each. The result was a very formulaic, strict approach to the law that saw capital punishment reach staggering new numbers. Over time, mostly through social opposition, the law was gradually reformed throughout the Nineteenth Century, but in the meantime, convict transportation was often used as a way to reduce prison congestion (which was soaring) and commute death sentences which saw public appeal. Take, for example, the case of Henry and Susannah Kable, who were transported to Australia after a prison turnkey begged for their lives and drummed up enough support for people to donate a variety of goods for them in their new, Australian lives. The result of all of these factors is that there were in fact well over 200 crimes that could result in a sentence of transportation (Bruce Kercher, An Unruly Child. A History of Law in Australia). Obviously this is well beyond the 19 established by the wine brand. Probably the most important which is overlooked by 19 Crimes is the vast number of political prisoners who were transported, often due to their support of Irish independence (although, to be fair, many of these political dissidents were imprisoned under spurious charges of petty crimes mentioned).
So then, is there any truth to this claim of 19 Crimes? Sort of. This particular wine brand claims connection to Ned Kelly, who may have worked as a smith (briefly) in the area, and they like to play up the rogue-ish element in their advertising campaigns, so the name may just be a piece of marketing fluff. However, it IS true that throughout 1760-1820, a variety of lists were published dubbed ‘Crimes denominated single felonies; punishable by transportation, whipping, imprisonment, the pillory, and hard labour in houses of correction, according to the nature of the offence’. It is also true that these lists were usually about 20 items long. I can’t say that I’ve stumbled upon the particular list used by 19 Crimes, but this guy on Twitter has a snap: https://twitter.com/fxmc1957/status/556762302838734848 Most of the crimes on there match a list from 1806 (Patrick Colquhoun, A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis), so I can’t dismiss their particular list with any authority (including the crime of Impersonating an Egyptian, which is also noted by the National Museum Australia (apologies, I haven’t been there in some time and their website doesn’t have an artefact catalogue so I can’t be more specific other than to say that this crime IS noted in text on their website).
As for the follow up question /r/AskHistorians/comments/3mysak/what_were_the_19_crimes_that_sent_you_to_australia/cvjlyyl, this is highly dependent on the time period in question. Over the period of 1788-1860, British law changed dramatically, as did the Australian treatment of convicts. It is certainly true that at various times, convicts in Australia actually enjoyed a degree of freedom and prosperity (particularly regarding legal rights) that urban poor in Britain could only have dreamed of (an example being the above mentioned Kable family who sued their transporter for losing the goods donated to them, in complete contradiction to British law which labelled convicts as having no property rights). However, this experience was highly variable, some masters were unbelievably cruel with one Van Diemen’s Land convict noting harsh lashings being fairly constant (Clark, Angus and Robertson, Select Documents in Australian History, 1788-1850). Additionally, it can only be estimated as to how aware the population of urban poor in Britain was of these conditions. Many prisoners explicitly campaigned against transportation as a cruel punishment, separating them from families and ending their political activism. Early on, conditions in the colonies COULD be extremely poor as well. Starvation and illness were a fairly big reason to avoid transportation. However, it is true that others were, if not happy, at least satisfied with transportation as a punishment. These were largely those whose transportation was a result of a commuted death sentence (the threat of which was a major reason that deliberately committing transportable offences was a bad idea) or were members of the aristocracy who had become insolvent (Kercher, again). Others, particularly Chartists and the like, while not exactly pleased about being forced to sail across the world, itself a perilous journey, and eke out an existence in a bleak, hostile new place, certainly perked up a bit when they found the opportunity to continue their political activism.
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e_cubed99•Sep 30, 2015
That was an excellent answer. I clicked into this out of curiosity (knowing the wine brand) and was sucked into your answer.
Well done sir, you have enriched and expanded my knowledge this day.
4

Subs-man•Sep 30, 2015
As a follow-up, How did those being sent to Australia view their fate? Were any of them pleased to get away? E.g. At it's height in the 19th Century one of the main things that would warrant a British person being sent to a penal colony was (I believe) overcrowding. Did any potential candidates welcome transportation with "open arms"? As a way to escape the crime & poverty that was stereotypical of the UK at this time?
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keplar•Sep 30, 2015
While I can't directly address if anybody ever thought their transportation was a good thing, I think the best primary source for early impressions is the journal of Lt. Ralph Clark, an officer on the first fleet to be sent to Australia with convicts, who kept a diary. The journal can be accessed online here amongst other places. His journal was used as the basis of a novel, and then a play, which is where my familiarity with it comes in. I have not read the journal itself to vouch for its contents, but if the play (called Our Country's Good) is true to its source, they were pretty much miserable, starving, abused, and eager to be anywhere but where they were. Either way, that is definitely going to be one of the best sources there is for understanding the trials of the early convict settlers.
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MundiMori•Oct 17, 2015
Here are the 19 the company claims.
Source: I'm working a liquor promo right now. http://i.imgur.com/0SS4BbE.jpg
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[deleted]•Sep 30, 2015
[removed]
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Georgy_K_Zhukov•Sep 30, 2015
A quick search did not give me a good base for the "19 crimes"
Please understand that people come here because they want an informed response from someone capable of engaging with the sources, and providing follow up information. Google is a great tool, but simply pointing to the top hit doesn't provide the type of answers we seek to encourage here. As such, we don't allow a Google link or Googled quote to make up the entirety or majority of a response. If someone wishes to simply get the answer from Google, they are welcome to look into it for themselves, but posting here is a presumption that they either don't want to get the answer that way, or have already done so and found it lacking.
In the future, please take the time to better familiarize yourself with the rules, and take these key points into account before crafting an answer:
  • Do I have the expertise needed to answer this question?
  • Have I done research on this question?
  • Can I cite my sources?
  • Can I answer follow-up questions?
Thank you!
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