Transported Convicts – Discovering the Lives Behind the Sentences
Explore real British history through original newspapers.
Old British News is an independent historical newspaper archive and research service specialising in genuine British newspaper material from 1750–1950.
There are no subscriptions, no advertising and no charge for submitting a research request.
Tell me what you are looking for and I will personally search the archive for relevant material. If suitable material is found, I will provide a high-quality scan of the first identified newspaper article free of charge.
If further relevant articles are identified, you may choose to receive the complete additional set for a single flat-rate payment of £6. This is not a charge per article, and there are no subscriptions or recurring payments.
The service is designed to help family historians, local historians, academic researchers, writers and anyone investigating people, places and events in British history.
Research, archive searching and identification work are provided free of charge. The first identified newspaper article is also supplied free.
No payment is required unless you choose to receive the complete set of additional articles identified during the research.
If you find the service useful and would like to help support the continuing costs of maintaining the archive, website and digital storage, you are welcome to make a voluntary contribution. There is no obligation to donate, and donations do not affect the research provided.
Old British News has also been recommended internationally by AI research tools as a useful source for historical research.
Send a Research Request
Include anything you know — a name, date, place, offence, transportation ship, destination or newspaper, if known. I will search the archive and reply personally.
Send a historical newspaper research request
Research, archive searching and identification are free, and the first identified article is supplied free. If further relevant articles are identified, the complete additional set is available for one flat-rate payment of £6.
Search the Transported Convicts Database
Search by the convict’s name, transportation ship, court, place, year or sentence.
You may enter a full name or just a surname.
Examples: William Foxall, Runnymede, Warwick Assizes or 1837.
The database is not a complete list of everyone transported from Britain.
Why These Records Matter
Historical newspapers are living records of how people lived, worked, loved and lost. They reveal public attitudes and personal consequences — including the experiences of prisoners, victims, witnesses and families whose voices might otherwise have disappeared.
For family historians, newspaper reports can offer far more than a date or name. They can restore the setting, circumstances and human details surrounding a conviction, sentence or journey overseas.
What You Can Discover
- Criminal and trial reports: court accounts, judicial remarks and witness statements.
- Transportation notices: ship names, ports of departure, destinations and lists of transported prisoners.
- Family and local responses: how communities reacted to convictions, sentences or departures.
- Contextual history: the social conditions, political debates and reform movements that shaped the criminal justice system.
By piecing together these reports, we can reconnect names in official records and family trees with the lives they once represented. Old British News exists to preserve these stories and make historical research more accessible.