19 Crimes

It’s the Industrial Revolution, people were increasingly moving to cities, prisons were overcrowded, and petty crime was on the rise. After the Revolution of 1776 prevented transportation to America, Queen Victoria decided banishment to Australia would solve these problems.

Between 1788 and 1868, 165,000 convicts made the long voyage by sea to Australia. Times were tough for criminals, but these individuals were tougher. They survived the boat ride and the exile. Now their stories survive into the 21st century with 19 Crimes.

Nineteen crimes turned convicts into colonists. Upon conviction British rogues guilty of a least one of the 19 crimes were sentenced to live in Australia, rather than death. This punishment by "transportation" began in 1787 and many of the lawless died at sea. For the rough-hewn prisoners who made it to shore, a new world awaited. As pioneers in a frontier penal colony, they forged a new country and new lives, brick by brick. This wine celebrates the rules they broke and the culture they built.

1. Grand Larceny, theft above the value of one shilling
2. Petty Larceny, theft under one shilling.
3. Buying or receiving stolen goods, jewels, and plate...
4. Stealing lead, iron, or copper, or buying or receiving.
5. Impersonating an Egyptian.
6. Stealing from furnished lodgings.
7. Setting fire to underwood.
8. Stealing letters, advancing the postage, and secreting the money.
9. Assault with an intent to rob.
10. Stealing fish from a pond or river.
11. Stealing roots, trees, or plants, or destroying them.
12. Bigamy.
13. Assaulting, cutting, or burning clothes.
14. Counterfeiting the copper coin...
15. Clandestine marriage.
16. Stealing a shroud out of a grave.
17. Watermen carrying too many passengers on the Thames, if any drowned.
18. Incorrigible rogues who broke out of Prison and persons reprieved from capital punishment.
19. Embeuling Naval Stores, in certain cases.