Almost two hundred years ago, a teenage servant girl appeared before the magistrates at Bourne accused of stealing, her crime being the theft of a quantity of bed linen from the house where she worked.  

As a result, Sarah Marvin, aged 15, was sentenced to be transported for seven years and sailed aboard the ship Westmoreland which left England for Tasmania on 9th August 1836 with 185 convicts on board, both men and women. 

The case was typical of the time when offenders could find themselves on their way to a penal colony on the other side of the world for the most trivial offences and as a result, those countries we used to call the colonies are full of families descended from English citizens who were sentenced to be deported for criminal acts in past centuries. 

Penal transportation for convicts began during the reign of Charles II (1660-85) when pardons were granted to persons under sentence of death conditionally on their being sent to the colonies for a number of years, usually seven. Most of the convicts were sent to Australia and Tasmania although there were several other penal settlements elsewhere in the world.  

The system was gradually abolished between 1853 and 1864, principally because the colonies objected to receiving the convicts and the punishment was substituted by penal servitude or imprisonment with or without hard labour. 

The offences in most cases hardly justified such a severe punishment and usually involved the theft of food and clothing because the poor were frequently cold and hungry, or articles for which they could turn a quick penny. But stealing in those days was considered a scandalous crime by the justices because it was often their property that was being taken. The bench of magistrates invariably comprised landowners and wealthy tradesmen who were anxious to protect their belongings and so those who came before them accused of theft were liable to be given severe penalties as an example to others. 

An estimated 2,000 citizens from Lincolnshire were transported between 1788 and 1868, including many from the Bourne area who were sentenced at Kesteven Quarter Sessions held at the Town Hall. Their fate after that was a spell in one of the hulks, decommissioned ships used as floating prisons, until sailing for a penal settlement in one of the colonies, usually Australia, although many were destined to die during the long voyage of between four and six months when convicts were herded into cramped accommodation between decks in unhygienic conditions and with little food or medical care. 

The 800-ton Neptune, for instance, the largest of the convict ships, sailed from England on 19th January 1790 with 421 male and 78 female convicts and arrived in Sydney on 27th June 1790 after 158 of them had died on the voyage. 

Nine years after Sarah Marvin was sentenced, her brother, John Marvin, a labourer, aged 21, followed her in 1845 after being convicted of slaughtering a sheep in a field, the property of Edward Moore, a farmer, of Hanthorpe, and of stealing the carcass. 

Despite the drastic fate which awaited those who were caught, theft of food and clothing remained the most frequent of crimes and in 1818, Henry Thorpe, aged 28, a labourer, was accused of stealing two cotton gowns and eight pairs of stockings, the property of the wife of Benjamin Ferraby, a Bourne veterinary surgeon, and was sentenced to be transported to New South Wales for seven years. 

In 1832, another woman, Jane Harrison, aged 30, was transported for seven years even though she was pregnant, after being found guilty of perjury by swearing that the farmer John Ullett, of Wilsthorpe, near Bourne, also the parish overseer, was the father of the illegitimate child she was expecting. The court was told that she already had several illegitimate babies and that her claim in this case was quite untrue because Mr Ullett was an infirm man, 76 years old, suffering under a grievous affliction and had since died. 

The following year, John Stubley, aged 24, of Bourne, was accused of stealing several joinery tools from Jonathan Veasey, a carpenter, and a quantity of cutlery from Joseph Shotbolt, and was transported to Tasmania for seven years. 

But not all transportations ended badly and some prisoners mended their ways after arriving in Australia where they became respected citizens such as John Close, a labourer, aged 23, who had earned himself a reputation as a rogue while living in Bourne. He appeared before the court on 3rd April 1838 accused of burglary from shops and taking various articles together with food, tobacco and candles, and of stealing thirteen chickens from a local farmer, for which he was convicted and sentenced to ten years. 

Close had a wife and one child, and although he could read, there was no indication that he could write. The gaoler's report from Lincoln where he was incarcerated also described him as having been "several times convicted of poaching, character very bad, connections very indifferent". His wife, Esther, died while he was awaiting transportation to Australia on the 520-ton sailing ship John Barry, which left England on 12th November 1838 on its fourth voyage as a convict transport which arrived at Sydney Cove, New South Wales the following March. 

Prospects improved for Close once he reached Australia. Convicts who stayed out of trouble were eligible for a ticket of leave, similar to today's parole or probation system, and he was granted such a concession which enabled him remain in the Camden district of New South Wales. On 21st July 1848, at the age of 32, having completed his ten-year sentence, he married Sophia Small. aged 16, at St John's, Camden, New South Wales, and she presented him over the next 22 years with eleven children, ten of whom survived into adulthood and married.  

As a result John and his descendants made a substantial contribution to populating New South Wales. He died in 1873 aged 57, and 127 of his descendants named Close have since been recorded in Australia although undoubtedly his five daughters and many granddaughters will have added even more branches to the family tree.