Fascinating stuff, Paul I've noticed that some of my convicts not being transported (or not at that point) were held at prisons far away from home or where they were sentenced. I wonder how they were moved about the country? I seem to remember something in the "Fatal Shore" about chain-gangs on the roads once convicts got to Aus. But I guess things changed a lot from about 1840 when they handed out conditional pardons as soon as people arrived, making them basically cheap farm labour. David > Your question regarding how they travelled from London to Portsmouth > raises an interesting question, about which I have no idea...