Books, Theses & Reports

Listed here are books related to female convicts, convict history and Tasmanian history.

New Publications:

Convict Orphans By Lucy Frost
From their beginnings in 1828, the Orphan Schools were integral to the penal system. Their opening, wrote Lt-Governor Arthur a few months later, enables convict mothers to “become at once disposable to Settlers”, or to be “kept at hard labour”. Children were not to interfere with the punishment of their parents. Most of the 6,000 children confined to the institution until its closing in 1879 were ‘orphaned’ not by death but by the convict system. Unless they were retrieved by their mothers or another family member before they were about 12 years old, they left the Orphan Schools as ‘apprentices’ indentured to serve a master or mistress until their 18th birthdays. During the final two decades of the orphanage, almost a thousand children were sent out as unpaid workers under conditions similar to those of assigned convicts, their labour remunerated only by food, clothing, and accommodation. Convict Orphans tells the story of these forgotten children. ISBN: 978 1 76106 768 6 Publishers: Allen & Unwin, Sydney
Convict Lives: Young girls transported to Van Diemen's Land. Edited by Alison Alexander
This book tells the stories of 28 convict girls transported at a young age to Van Diemen’s Land. These vivid stories from Convict Women’s Press continue our series of books that bring convict women to life. Launch: May 7, 2023 Publisher: Convict Women's Press Inc. Available from selected bookshops or online at Convict Women's Press Inc. ISBN: 9-780648-401919

Author	Title	Year	Publisher	Place
Alexander, Alison	Tasmania v. British Empire. The Battle to End Convict Transportation	2022	Forty South	Hobart
Alexander, Alison	Corruption & Skullduggery: Edward Lord, Maria Riseley and Hobart's tempestuous beginnings	2015	Alison Alexander Alexander, Alison	Hobart
Alexander, Alison	Beneath the Mountain: A history of South Hobart	2015	Commissioned and supported by the South Hobart Progress Association Inc	Hobart
Alexander, Alison	Tasmania's Convicts: how felons built a free society	2010	Allen & Unwin	Sydney
Alexander, Alison	The Ambitions of Jane Franklin: Victorian Lady Adventurer	2013	Allen & Unwin	Sydney
Alexander, Alison (ed.)	The Companion to Tasmanian History (section on Female Convicts)	2005	Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies, University of Tasmania	Hobart
Atkinson, Jeff	Mary Proctor: Convict Pioneer and Settler	2005	Rosenburg Publishing	Kenthurst
Barnard, Simon	A–Z of Convicts in Van Diemen's Land (launch invite)	2014	Text Publishing	Melbourne
Barnard, Simon	James Hardy Vaux’s 1819 Dictionary of Criminal Slang and Other Impolite Terms as Used by the Convicts of the British Colonies of Australia.	2019	Text Publishing	Melbourne
Bartlett, Anne M (ed.)	Way Back When: People, Places and Events ... Contributed stories about the early days of settlement in northern Tasmania	2013	West Tamar Historical Society, Launceston Historical Society & George Town and District Historical Society	Launceston (order form)
Barwick, CM	Female Convict Discipline: A study of the House of Correction of Females, Hobart 1838–1844	1979	B.Ed. Dissertation, Division of Teacher Education, TCAE	Hobart
Bateson, Charles	The Convict Ships 1787–1868	1959	Brown, Son & Ferguson Ltd	Glasgow
Beddoe, Deidre	Welsh Convict Women: A study of women transported from Wales to Australia, 1787–1852	1979	Stewart Williams	Barry
Bethell, Llewelyn Slingsby	The Story of Port Dalrymple: life and work in northern Tasmania	1957	Government Printer	Hobart
Bonwick, James	Curious Facts of Old Colonial Days	1870	Sampson Low, Son & Marston	London
Brand, Ian	The Convict Probation System: Van Diemen's Land 1839–1854	1990	Blubber Head Press	Hobart
Brown, Joan C	'Poverty is not a Crime': The Development of Social Services in Tasmania 1803–1900	1972	Tasmanian Historical Research Association	Hobart
Casella, Eleanor Conlin	Dangerous Girls and Gentle Ladies: Archaeology and Nineteenth Century Australian Female Convicts	1999	PhD thesis, University of California	Berkley
Cowley, Trudy	A Drift of 'Derwent Ducks': Lives of the 200 female Irish convicts transported on the Australasia from Dublin to Hobart in 1849	2005	Research Tasmania	Hobart
Cowley, Trudy & Dianne Snowden	Patchwork Prisoners: the Rajah Quilt and the women who made it	2013	Research Tasmania	Hobart
Cuffley, Peter (ed.)	Send the Boy to Sea: The Memoirs of a Sailor on the Goldfields by James Montagu Smith	2001	The Five Mile Press	Noble Park
Daniels, Kay	Convict Women	1998	Allen & Unwin	St Leonards
Daniels, Kay (ed.)	So Much Hard Work: Women and Prostitution in Australian History	1984	Fontana Books	Sydney
Dixson, Miriam	The Real Matilda: Woman and identity in Australia, 1788 to the present	1976	Penguin	Harmondsworth
Duncombe, Geoff	A History of Campbell Town: "The Children of Erin"	1996	Regal Publications	Launceston
Female Convicts Research Centre (Eds. Dianne Snowden & Jane Harrington)	Convict Lives: Female Convicts at the New Norfolk Asylum Initially opening as an invalid hospital in 1829 at New Norfolk, the hospital was shortly renamed the New Norfolk Asylum for the Insane. It housed both convict and free men and women, and its inmates included hundreds of convict women. ISBN: 978-0-6484019-0-2	2021	Convict Women's Press	Hobart
Female Convicts Research Centre (Eds. Alison Alexander & Alice Meredith Hodgson)	Convict Lives at the Cascades Female Factory (Volume Two) ISBN: 978-0-9943859-1-8. THE FASCINATING LIVES of 29 female convicts who spent time in the Cascades Female Factory, between 1829 and 1855, are the subject of this book.	2018	Convict Women's Press	Hobart
Female Convicts Research Centre (Edited by Alison Alexander)	Convict Lives: Young girls transported to Van Diemen's Land. This book tells the stories of 28 convict girls transported at a young age to Van Diemen’s Land. These vivid stories from Convict Women’s Press continue our series of books that bring convict women to life.		Convict Women's Press Inc.	Hobart
Female Factory Research Group	Convict Lives: Women at Cascades Female Factory (2nd ed.)	2012	Convict Women's Press	Hobart
Female Factory Research Group(editor Lucy Frost)	Convict Lives at the Ross Female Factory	2011	Convict Women's Press	Hobart
Female Convicts Research Centre (Editors Lucy Frost & Alice Meredith Hodgson)	Convict Lives at the Launceston Female Factory	2013	Convict Women's Press	Hobart
Female Convicts Research Centre (Editor Alison Alexander)	Repression, Reform & Resilience: A history of the Cascades Female Factory.	Oct. 2016	Convict Women's Press	Hobart
Female Convicts Research Centre (Editor Alison Alexander)	Convict Lives at the George Town Female Factory	2014	Convict Women's Press	Hobart
Female Convicts Research Centre (Editors Lucy Frost & Colette McAlpine)	From the Edges of Empire: Convict Women from Beyond the British Isles15 stories from 14 authors. This book tells the remarkable stories of women transported to Australia from the British Isles	2015	Convict Women's Press	Hobart
Fleming, Catherine	The transportation of women from Kildare to Van Diemen's land in 1849	2012	Four Courts Press	Dublin
Flynn, Michael	The Second Fleet: Britain's Grim Convict Armada of 1790	2001	Library of Australian History	Sydney
Forsyth, WD	Governor Arthur's Convict System: Van Diemen's Land 1824–36	1970	Sydney University Press	Sydney
Frost, Lucy	Convict Orphans From their beginnings in 1828, the Orphan Schools were integral to the penal system. Convict Orphans tells the story of these forgotten children. ISBN: 978 1 76106 768 6	2023	Allen & Unwin	Sydney
Frost, Lucy	Abandoned Women	2012	Allen & Unwin	Sydney
Frost, Lucy and Maxwell-Stewart, Hamish	Chain Letters: narrating convict lives	2001	Melbourne University Press	Melbourne
Frost, Lucy with Christopher Downes	Footsteps and Voices: A historical look into the Cascades Female Factory	2004	Female Factory Historic Site	Hobart
Goc, Nicola	Women, Infanticide and the Press: News Narratives of Women in England and Australia 1822–1922	2013	Ashgate
Harman, Kristy	Cleansing the Colony: Transporting convicts from New Zealand to Van Diemen’s Land	2017	University of Otago	Otago, NZ
Harrison-Lever, Brian	Transported: Tales of Misfortune and Roguery. An illustrated collection of tales in verse. Junior readers.	2017	Forty South Publishing BRIAN HARRISON-LEVER, author/illustrator This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.	Hobart
Heath, Laurel May	The female convict factories of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land: A examination of their role in the control, punishment and reformation of prisoners between 1804 and 1854	1978	M.A. Thesis, Australian National University	Canberra
Hill, David	1788 The Brutal Truth of the First Fleet: The biggest single overseas migration the world had ever seen	2008	Random House	North Sydney
Hodgson, Alice Meredith	The Convict Letter Writer	2018	Forty South Publishing	Hobart
Hodgson, Alice Meredith	Miss Leake's Journal	2014	Research Tasmania	Hobart
Hood, Susan	Transcribing Tasmanian Convict Records	2003	Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority	Port Arthur
Howard, Patrick	To Hell or to Hobart	1993	Kangaroo Press	Kenthurst
Hughes, Robert	The Fatal Shore: A History of the Transportation of Convicts to Australia 1787–1868	1987	The Harvill Press	London
Hyland, Jeanette	Maids Masters and Magistrates: Twenty Women of the Convict Ship 'New Grove': Maidservants in Van Diemen's Land	2007	Clan Hogarth Publishing	Blackmans Bay
Kavanagh, Joan and Snowden, Dianne	Van Diemen's Women: A History of Transportation to Tasmania. Foreword by Mary McAleese Winner of the The Australian Historical Association Kay Daniels Award 2018.	2015	The History Press Ireland, 2015	Ireland
Keneally, Tom	The Commonwealth of Thieves: The Sydney Experiment	2005	Random House	Milsons Point
King, Damian & Schroeder, Liz	Catherine McMahon: A Remarkable Convict Woman	2012	Rosenberg Publishing	Kenthurst
Kippen, Rebecca	Death in Tasmania: Using civil death registers to measure nineteenth-cenury cause-specific mortality	2002	Ph.D. Thesis, The Australian National University	Canberra
Leppard, Christine	The Unfortunates PROSTITUTES TRANSPORTED TO VAN DIEMEN'S LAND 1822–1843	2013	ph.D. Thesis, The University of Tasmania	Hobart
Lucas, Stephen	A Traumatic Birth: PTSD in Convicts and the Australian Psyche	2015	http://www.atraumaticbirth.com/
MacDonald, Helen	Human Remains: Episodes in Human Dissection	2005	Melbourne University Press	Carlton
Macdonald, W. Lilian	The Convict Lassies: Forgotten Exiles? Women sentenced to transportation at the High Court of Judiciary, Perth, Scotland and sent to Van Diemen's Land. This research traces the histories of over two hundred women sentenced at the High Court in Perth, Scotland. For all but two of these women the sentence meant a life spent in exile from Scotland.	2018	Sea Loch Books (APM Publishing Services) ISBN: 978-0994447463 Available for loan at Libraries Tasmania	Blackwall, NSW
MacFarlane, Fiona	Quirky Names in Tasmanian History	2006	self-published	Hobart
Maxwell-Stewart, Hamish	Closing Hell's Gates: the death of a convict station	2008	Allen & Unwin	Crows Nest
McCalman, Janet	Vandemonians: The Repressed History of Colonial Victoria The engrossing tale of Tasmanian convict settlers in colonial Victoria	2021	Melbourne University Publishing https://www.mup.com.au/books/vandemonians-paperback-softback	Melbourne
McIntyre, Perry & Rushen, Liz	Quarantined! The 1837 Lady MacnaghtenImmigrants	2997	Anchor Books Australia	Sydney
McKay, Thelma	The 'Princess Royal' Girls: The First Free Female Immigration Ship to Van Diemen's Land – 1832	2007	self-published	Hobart
McKinlay, Mary	Forgotten Tasmanians: including George Stokell (1787–1874) (entrepreneur, merchant and farmer) and, Sir John Stokell Dodds (1848–1914) (Attorney-General, Treasurer, Chief Justice, Chancellor of the University, and Lieutenant-Governor)	2010	Foot & Playsted	Launceston
McMahon, Anne	Convicts at Sea: the voyages of the Irish convict transports to Van Diemen's Land, 1840-1853	2011
Meredith, Louisa Anne	My Home in Tasmania	2003	Glamorgan Spring Bay Historical Society	Swansea
Mickleborough, Leonie	William Sorell in Van Diemen's Land: Lieutenant-Governor, 1817–24. A Golden Age?	2004	Blubber Head Press	Hobart
Moore, James FH	The Convicts of Van Diemen's Land 1840–1853	1976	Cat & Fiddle Press	Hobart
Needham, Anne	The women transported on the 1790 'Neptune'	1988	self-published	Sydney
Northcote, Maria et al	Convicts Down Under	2012	www.lulu.com (print-on-demand or eBook)
Oxley, Deborah	Convict Maids: The Forced Migration of Women to Australia	1996	Cambridge University Press	Cambridge
Porter, UB (ed.)	Growing Together	1981	Queensberry Hill Press
Purtscher, Joyce	Notes from the Hobart Benevolent Society 1858–1914: compiled from the Minute Books	2014	self-published	Hobart
Rayner, Tony	Female factory, female convicts	2005	Esperance Press	Dover
Rayner, Tony	Historical Survey of the Ross Female Factory Site Tasmania	1980	National Parks and Wildlife Service	Hobart
Rayner, Tony	Historical Survey of the Female Factory Historic Site, Cascades, Hobart	1981	National Parks and Wildlife Service	Hobart
Reece, Bob (ed.)	Irish Convict Lives	1993	Crossing Press	Sydney
Rees, Sian	The Floating Brothel: The extraordinary story of the Lady Julian and its cargo of female convicts bound for Botany Bay	2001	Hodder	Sydney
Reid, Kirsty	Gender, crime and empire: convicts, settlers and the state in early colonial Australia	2007	Manchester University Press	Manchester
Reid, Kirsty	Work, Secuality and resistance: the convict women of Van Diemen's Land, 1820–1839	1995	PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh	Edinburgh
Robinson, Portia	The Women of Botany Bay: a reinterpretation of the role of women in the origins of Australian Society	1988	Macquarie Library	Sydney
Robson, LL	The convict settlers of Australia: An enquiry into the origin and character of the convicts transported to New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, 1787–1852	1965	Melbourne University Press	Melbourne
Rushen, Liz	Single & Free: female migration to Australia 1833–1837	2011	Anchor Books Australia	Sydney
Rushen, Liz & McIntyre, Perry	Fair Game: Australia's first immigrant women	2010	Anchor Books Australia	Sydney
Kay Saunders	Deadly Australian Women: Stories of the women who broke society's greatest taboo	2013	Doubleday
Schaffer, Irene & McKay, Thelma	Exiled Three Time Over, Profiles of Norfolk Islanders 1807–1813	1992	self-published	Hobart
Scripps, Lindy &Clark, Julia	The Ross Female Factory Tasmania—A report for the Department of Parks, Wildlife and Heritage	1991	Public History Partners	Hobart
Scripps, Lindy & Hudspeth, Audrey	The Female Factory Historic Site, Cascades: Historical Report—A report for the Department of Parks, Wildlife and Heritage	1992
Shaw, AGL	Convicts and the colonies: A study of penal transportation from Great Britain and Ireland to Australia and other parts of teh British Empire	1981	Melbourne University Press	Melbourne
Smith, Babette	A Cargo of Women: Susannah Watson & the Convicts of the Princess Royal	2005	Rosenburg Publishing	Kenthurst
Smith, Babette	Australia's Birthstain: the startling legacy of the convict era	2008	Allen & Unwin	Crows Nest
Snowden, Dianne	'A White Rag Burning': Irish women who committed arson in order to be transported to Van Diemen's Land	2005	Ph.D. Thesis, University of Tasmania	Hobart
Snowden, Dianne (Kavanagh, Joan and Snowden, Dianne)	Van Diemen's Women: A History of Transportation to Tasmania. Foreword by Mary McAleese Winner of the The Australian Historical Association Kay Daniels Award 2018. Van Diemen’s Women: A History of Transportation to Tasmania	2015	The History Press Ireland, 2015	Ireland
Snowden, Dianne	White Rag Burning: Irish women committing arson to be transported Between 1841 and 1853, nearly 250 women were transported from Ireland to Van Diemen’s Land for committing arson. Many of these Irish women committed arson in order to be transported. The story of the Irish arsonists is a remarkable one, challenging the idea that Irish convict women were passive victims, particularly during the years of the Great Famine. Using original records, this study reveals the reality of convict life together with the legacy left by these women in Tasmania and beyond.	2018	Forth South Publishing	Hobart
Snowden, Dianne	Voices from the Orphan Schools. The Children’s Stories Nearly 6,000 children, many the children of convicts, passed through the Orphan Schools from 1828 to 1879. This book reveals some of their stories.	2018	Dianne Snowden (self-published)	Hobart
Sjoberg, Heather	Alexander Archibald and Emily Morgan: Donnelly's Creek Gold	2016	Heather Sjoberg This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.	Darwin
Summers, Anne	Damned whores and God's police	1975	Penguin	Harmondsworth
Tardif, Phillip	Notorious Strumpets and Dangerous Girls: Convict women in Van Diemen's Land 1803–1829	1990	Angus & Robertson	North Ryde
Tasmanian Family History Society Hobart Branch Writers Group	PROS and CONS of Transportation: A collection of convict stories	2004	TFHS Hobart	Hobart
Timpson, Thomas	Memoirs of Mrs. Elizabeth Fry: including a history of her labours in promoting the reformation of female prisoners, and the improvement of British seamen	1847	Stanford and Swords	Google eBook pdf
Voytas, Suzanne	Elizabeth 1828 the worst and most turbulent: From Celtic Cross to Southern Cross
Walton, Jack	The Last Farewell: Devon Convicts Transported to Australia 1782–1821	2003	Australian Scholarly Publishing
Westerink, Janelle	Consigned to the Colony: The life story of Martha Ford Goodman, a Convict sent to Van Diemen’s Land A Doctoral Thesis awarded by Charles Sturt University, December 2017.	2017	Charles Sturt University	Charles Sturt University
Wilkie, Douglas	The Journal of Madame Callegari: The true story behind Alexander Dumas's Journal of Madame Giovanni Brochure (PDF) The Life and Loves of Eugene Rossiet Lennon, Professeur Extraordinaire Brochure (PDF)	2015	Historia Incognita
Williams, John	Ordered to the Island: Irish convicts and Van Diemen's Land	1994	Crossing Press	Sydney
Woods, Christine	The Last Ladies: Female convicts on the Duchess of Northumberland, 1853	2004	self-published	Hobart
Woolley, Richie N	Above the Falls: The People and the History of the Upper Huon, 2nd ed.	2002	The Franklin Press	Geilston Bay
Wright, Reg	The Forgotten Generation of Norfolk Island and Van Diemen's Land	1986	Library of Australian History	Sydney

Books, Theses & Reports

New Publications:

Convict Orphans

By Lucy Frost

Convict Lives: Young girls transported to Van Diemen's Land.

Edited by Alison Alexander

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