Conduct Registers of Male Convicts Arriving in the Period of the Probation System 1840-1853

The primary purpose of these volumes was to record the behaviour of the convict while he underwent his sentence in the colony. Volumes contain information that relates to the convict’s history before arrival (including offence, date and place of trial, sentence British gaol report, hulk report, whether married, statement of relatives, religion and convict’s own statement of his crime) and the details of his career in the colony. The information of conduct after arrival chiefly consists of offences which are recorded on a standard pattern (date of trial, place of convict’s employment or name of his master, charge, sentence and magistrate, Instances of good behaviour are sometimes recorded, as are the grant of emancipations, If death occurred while the convict was on strength it was noted. If there is insufficient space on the conduct records the continuation volumes are on CON32. Not all convicts who arrived here are included here. These records are part of the holdings of the Tasmanian Archives