Convict Death Registers

Before 1828 there was no formal system of recording convict deaths. It would sometimes be noted on the convict indents. If a convict died on the voyage out then it may have been recorded in the surgeons’ journals. It was not until Governor Lachlan Macquarie arrived in 1811 that something was done but not until 1828 that the registers were finally kept. These registers record the names of convicts who died while serving their sentence as reported to the Principal Superintendent of Convicts (until 1855), and subsequently the Inspector General of Police.