Hello Andrew Thank you for the interesting notes about the origin of the term indents. Also for the note about the origin of the term deeds polls. Regarding the actual documents, Lesley has explained the purpose of the hand written and printed versions. Some of the information on the indents made out in Australia, particularly the crime and sentence details, must been taken from shipboard documents of some kind. I understand also that there are indents for some convicts who were ill and taken from ships before they they departed Britain. These must have used pre-embarcation records. I don't know whether there were any indents for convicts who died on voyages. You suggest that indents may have been "drawn up in duplicate by the authorities in the home jurisdiction before a ship departed". This would seem sensible, as it would allow authorities to check that the Captain had delivered in Australia the convicts he was entrusted with in Britain. If this is the case, a copy would be on the ship and would be the source of the crime information on the Australian indents. If there are no surviving copies of Britain prepared invents in Australia, the UK Government copies probably exist somewhere. Was the physical descriptions of convicts documented on departure or on arrival ? Judging by the indent of my convict Kimmorley, he must have been asked his age on arrival . He gave it as 20, although his age at trial and other compelling evidence show that he was 18. Ken Thompson