After being sentence to transportation, convicts could petition the Government for a reprieve. These petitions give an insight into the lives of women before conviction, including details of family, employment and offence. Many petitions show the poverty and sad circumstances of the women and their grief at separation from loved ones. Also among the petitions are glimpses of cunning thefts and practised criminal activity. There are others which tell stories of society in appeals against the death penalty, crimes committed because of ignorance, or because of love or betrayal of others. Often, the only time we hear the voice of convict women is in their petitions.

Some of our volunteers (particularly Margaret Thomas, Colleen Arulappu, Rhonda Arthur and Keith Searson) are transcribing these petitions. Provided here, in pdf documents, are the petition transcriptions listed against their convict ship. There are many more petitions available in the Female Convicts in Van Diemen's Land Database listed against convict names in the Pre-transportation page.  Surnames with prefixes "Mc" will be listed as though spelt "Mac".

Petitions available for female convicts on ships which sailed direct to Van Diemen's Land:

Petitions available for female convicts on ships which sailed direct to New South Wales then later to VDL

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Further Resources:

The Local Historian Volume 41, Number 1 February 2011, pages 44-51.

Petitioning For Mercy In Mid-nineteenth Century Yorkshire   by Dick Hunter