(MARYLAND) A True List of all the Malefactors Shipped aboard

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(MARYLAND.) A True List of all the Malefactors Shipped aboard the Margarett, William Greenwood Commander, Bound for Maryland. Manuscript Document Signed by several parties, 2 pages on one sheet, 18 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches; minor wear on top edge and lower left corner, with minimal text loss along center fold. [London], 11 May 1719

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The manuscript list of 113 convicts who were to be delivered to Maryland, signed by the ship commander William Greenwood and the turn-keys of Marshallsea and Newgate prisons. Great Britain sent many such ships full of prisoners to various ports in America and later Australia. This ship was particularly noteworthy as probably the first shipment of prisoners under the Transportation Act, which became law on 10 May 1719, standardizing the process of shipping felons to the North American colonies. The prisoners were sold for about £10 per head to American masters for a term of seven years. A London merchant named Jonathan Forward (named in this document) was granted the concession for arranging the sales.
This list organizes the Margarett's prisoners by county of origin, most coming from Surrey or from London's Newgate Prison. Although most of the prisoners are men, 23 of them are women. They were all convicted felons, with petty theft categorized at the time as a felony. For example, research shows that Rebecca Jones was convicted of stealing a swatch of fabric valued at 29 shillings, and appears on this list under the Newgate prisoners. Each of these felons was sentenced to 7 or 14 years of indentured labor in the New World, after which they could either return to England at their own expense or remain in America.
The Margarett's voyage attracted considerable attention, both from contemporary observers and historians. Applebee's Original Weekly Journal of London noted on 9 May that 'They have been busy this week in settling the route for the march of the felons convict in several country goals, in order to their being transported to his Majesty's Plantations in Maryland.' The following week, they noted that 'On Monday the convict felons, mention'd in our last, were carried down the river, and put on board the Ship Margaret, Captain Greenwood, at Gravesend, bound for Maryland; as they pass'd by a barge, fill'd with persons of the first rank, they gave loud and repeated Huzzas.'
See Howson, Thief-Taker General . . . Crime and Corruption as a Way of Life in Eighteenth-Century England, page 91; Norton, Early Eighteenth-Century Newspaper Reports.