Marriage patterns of Irish convict women in nineteenth-century Tasmania

ABSTRACT Between 1840 and 1853, 4,068 Irish convict women arrived in Van Diemen’s Land, now known as Tasmania. The lives of these convicts were governed by the penal system. Convicts were kept under constant observation. While still under sentence, convicts had to follow the strict rules of the penal government. A way out of this system was through marriage. Early on, the penal government had emphasized the role of marriage to reform convicts. Although marriage was a key event in the life of convicts, no study has yet to focus on this event. In this paper, marriage patterns of Irish convict women are studied using a mixed methods approach. This study provides a better understanding of how women met their spouses and which women could marry. Three critical aspects of marriage are highlighted. First, being under incarceration or being prohibited by the law reduced access to the marriage market. Second, women who were perceived as more fertile and of a better character had a higher chance of finding a spouse. Third, women with longer sentences or who were pregnant out of wedlock had a higher incentive for marriage than most. Overall, three factors were key to marriage in Tasmania: access, value, and desire.