Defence

Overview

Details

Records

Overview

Prison Type   Convict Hulk

Date opened   1849

Date closed   1857

Ports   Portsmouth
Woolwich

Map location   in the vicinity

County   Hampshire

Attached Ship   Unite (1853-56)

Critical Remarks

On plans for abolition being made in 1855, prisoners began to be sent to Chatham Convict Prison (ID 1007). However, a fire which destroyed the hulk in 1856 meant that the remaining convicts had to be dispatched to a temporary prison requisitioned from the navy at Lewes (see ID 1009). The destruction of the Defence brought the convict hulk establishment in England to a close.

Prison Info

Prison Type   Convict Hulk

Date opened   1849

Date closed   1857

Ports   Portsmouth
Woolwich

Map location   in the vicinity
Lat.   51.495394  Long.   0.070793

County   Hampshire

Attached Ship   Unite (1853-56)

Critical Remarks

On plans for abolition being made in 1855, prisoners began to be sent to Chatham Convict Prison (ID 1007). However, a fire which destroyed the hulk in 1856 meant that the remaining convicts had to be dispatched to a temporary prison requisitioned from the navy at Lewes (see ID 1009). The destruction of the Defence brought the convict hulk establishment in England to a close.

Prisoner Statistics

 

Year 1853

Annual   -  

Daily Daily average   -   521

Principal Primary Sources

  • Report of the Manager of the Convict Hulk Establishment, for the year 1849 (Parl. Papers, 1850, XXIX.13), p.9; Report of the directors of convict prisons on the discipline and management of the hulk establishment. For the year 1850 (Parl. Papers, 1851, XXVIII.213), p.28; Directors of Convict Prisons: Reports on Discipline and Management of Pentonville, Parkhurst, Millbank, Portland, Portsmouth, Dartmoor, and Brixton Prisons, and Hulks, 1853 (Parl. Papers, 1854, XXXIII.181), p.264; Directors of Convict Prisons: Reports on Discipline and Management of Pentonville, Parkhurst, Millbank, Portland, Portsmouth, Dartmoor, and Brixton Prisons, and Hulks, 1854 (Parl. Papers, 1854-55, XXV.33), p.317; Directors of Convict Prisons: Reports on Discipline and Management of Pentonville, Parkhurst, Millbank, Portland, Portsmouth, Dartmoor, and Brixton Prisons, and Hulks, 1855 (Parl. Papers, 1856, XXXV.1), p.242; Directors of Convict Prisons: Reports on Discipline and Management of Pentonville, Parkhurst, Millbank, Portland, Portsmouth, Dartmoor, and Brixton Prisons, and Hulks, 1856 (Parl. Papers, 1857 Session 2, XXIII.65), p.373

Additional Primary Sources

  • Henry Mayhew and John Binny, The Criminal Prisons of London and Scenes of Prison Life (London, 1862), p. 208, 228

Secondary Sources

  • Charles Campbell, The Intolerable Hulks: British Shipboard Confinement, 1776-1857 (Bowie, MD., 1993), pp. 235-258

Prisoners

Archive name: The National Archives

Catalogue ref: HO 8/100-108

Collection: Home Office

Description: Quarterly returns of prisoners in Hulks and Convict Prisons - Defence, Gosport

Dates: 1849-1851


Archive name: The National Archives

Catalogue ref: HO 8/112-132

Collection: Home Office

Description: Quarterly returns of prisoners in Hulks and Convict Prisons - Defence, Gosport

Dates: 1852-1857


Archive name: The National Archives

Catalogue ref: PCOM 2/131

Collection: Prison Commission

Description: Register of prisoners on the Hulk Defence

Dates: 1857-1860


Archive name: The National Archives

Catalogue ref: PCOM 2/132

Collection: Prison Commission

Description: Register of prisoners on the Hulks Defence and Stirling Castle

Dates: 1843-1852


Archive name: The National Archives

Catalogue ref: PCOM 2/133

Collection: Prison Commission

Description: Register of prisoners on the Hulks Defence and Stirling Castle

Dates: 1848-1857