Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1870-01-01 - 1911-06-21 (Accumulation)
- 1863-01-01 - (Creation)
Level of description
Medium
Format
Status
Context area
Name of creator
Administrative history
Repository
Archival history
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Registers and returns of prisoners in Fremantle Prison. This is an artificial series created by the State Archives to include various prison registers.
It is not always clear how the numbering system in the registers operates, however it appears to reflect the different categories of prisoners. "Colonial prisoners" was a term used to distinguish persons convicted in Western Australia, from the transportees, who were known as "Imperial convicts". Colonial prisoners convicted of serious crimes were also known as convicts. "Local prisoners" was the term for persons convicted of misdemeanours and less serious crimes who were sentenced to relatively short terms of imprisonment. Fremantle Prison was handed over to the Colonial Government by the British Government in 1886.
Consignment 1156, item 2 continues the numbering sequence of the imperial convicts, covering numbers 10133 - 10602. Many of the prisoners in this register had been tried at the Supreme Court, and the crimes were of a more serious nature.
Consignment 1156, item F2A, including numbers 3655 - 5197, appears to be for local prisoners, i.e. persons convicted of less serious crimes. Prisoners included free, expirees, and those on conditional pardon.
Consignment 1156, item F2B appears to include both local and colonial prisoners and a number are classed as reconvictions. This register shows the date of expiration of sentence.
Consignment 1156, item F27A shows prisoners' names, sex, nature of imprisonment (whether debt, safe custody, penal), whether previously convicted and length of sentence.
Consignment 553 shows returns of prisoners confined in Fremantle Prison at 21 June 1911, listed by categories of male or female prisoners (white and others) not including Aboriginal natives; Aboriginal Native Prisoners (male and female), and by length of sentence remaining.
A new numbering system for prisoners in Fremantle Prison began in 1888.
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing access (legacy)
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Related units of description
Authorized form of name
Identifier
Category of relationship
Description of relationship
Dates of relationship
Authorized form of name
Identifier
Category of relationship
Description of relationship
Dates of relationship
Related units of description
Access points
Place access points
Description control area
Level of detail
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
Archivist's note
Range Control Symbol = P130 (CONS 553)
Copies: Microfilm copies of these registers (Consignment 1156) are available for viewing at the State Records Office of WA.