Certificate of Freedom

Thomas Harvey, 1843

Certificates of Freedom had to be carried at all times and shown to the appropriate authorities on demand. Thomas Harvey, who received this certificate in 1843, after completing his 14-year sentence, kept his certificate in a tin container to protect it from wear and tear. In nearly all cases the certificate restored all their legal rights and privileges as free citizens.

Norfolk labourer Thomas Harvey had arrived in Sydney on Katherine Stewart Forbes in 1830. His sentence was 14 years, for stealing fowls. When he received his freedom, Harvey was paid the money he had in his bank account - a sum of 3 pounds, which he had probably arrived with in 1830, and the government had banked it for him until he served out his sentence.

Emancipated convicts were given free grants of land, animals, tools and seed to establish themselves as viable settlers. Many in NSW became large landholders. By the 1820s, ex-convicts had become masters of most of the newly assigned convicts, owned over half the colony’s wealth and three-quarters of its land.

More artefacts

Convict Sydney, Level 1, Hyde Park Barracks Museum
Convict Sydney

Objects

These convict-era objects and archaeological artefacts found at Hyde Park Barracks and The Mint (Rum Hospital) are among the rarest and most personal artefacts to have survived from Australia’s early convict period

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Convict stories

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Convict Sydney

James Hardy Vaux

Some convicts were transported more than once. Vaux was sent to the colony three times, each time arriving under a different name

St James’ Church Under Construction on Gadigal Country model
Convict Sydney

Pick of the crop

Convicts could earn good money doing private work, so many tried to conceal their skills during the initial muster to avoid being assigned to government projects

Letter containing a statement of absolute pardon for Samuel Henry Horn (more often known as  Horne), dated 1830 and signed by Governor Richard Bourke in 1832

Convict turned constable

A recently donated letter, signed by the governor of NSW in 1832, offers a tangible connection to the story of Samuel Horne, a convict who rose to the rank of district chief constable in the NSW Police