Thanks Andrew for the interesting contribution to the indent discussion. Here is another piece of information which seems to relate. I apologise if it is already well known to Listers. This is from a communication by Governor Macquarie. I don't know the date. "I have here to inform Your Lordship that I have, on all arrivals of convict Ships, ordered a Muster to be immediately taken of the convicts on ship-board by my Secretary and the Acting-Commissary, and I afterwards take a Muster of them myself so soon as landed, in order to ascertain the manner they have been treated during the voyage, and whether they have any complaints to prefer against the Commander or Surgeon of the ship in which they came. By the previous muster I also acquire a knowledge of the Trades or Professions of the convicts, which enables me to appropriate them afterwards in the most advantageous way for Government, and at the same time most easy for themselves." Cheers Ken Thompson Hello, Lesley and Listers Ken Thompson`s remarks posted on 14th November concerned with convict indents asked whether the physical descriptions of convicts were documented on departure or arrival. It seems to me that they were documented on departure from trial records. My searching in relation to this point has uncovered a reference I will quote contained in Macquarie University`s online collection of reports of old Supreme Court of New South Wales decisions. A report of the 1828 proceedings in R. v. Raine, Lee and Kemp has the following : "Mr. Charles Nigh, a Clerk in the office of the Colonial Secretary, produced the indents, of the ship Atlas (4), Capt. Short, in which James Doran arrived a prisoner of the crown for life to this Colony; he appears to have been tried at London in the year 1819, on the 17th February, the ship arrived here on the 19th October, in the same year; the indent bears no official signature but is an assignment of the prisoners whose names are contained in it from the clerk of the arraigns in England to the Governor of the Colony; it is filed at the Colonial Secretary`s as a record; the office of the Colonial Secretary is the usual record Office for documents of this nature which are invariably sent with prisoners." Regards Andrew Fogarty Casino N.S.W.