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Basics on musters and censuses of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania)

Background

New South Wales was the initial Australian colony, formed in 1788 as a place to send convicts, after the scope to send them to North America had ceased! Transportation to "the east coast of New South Wales or some one or other of the adjacent islands" was a fairly common sentence, for what we would today regard as fairly trivial offences. (More serious crimes resulted in the death penalty, but a proportion of these were also converted to transportation, for 7 years, 14 years or Life).

Another settlement was established on the River Derwent in 1803 - initially at Risdon Cove, and then moved across the river in 1804 to the site of Hobart Town, now simply Hobart. It became the separate colony of Van Diemen's Land [VDL] in 1825. The name was changed to Tasmania in 1856. Before 1825, NSW had formal jurisdiction.

Because of the need to keep track of the convicts, who were usually assigned to work gangs or as servants to farmers and other settlers, the convict population was regularly "mustered" annually, physically counted and various other details updated. The accuracy of these various musters was acknowledged as variable, at the time. The soldiers, officials, free settlers and their families were generally recorded at the same time.

Since 1841, no census survives. A number from the last century were lost in a major fire, and none from this century has been retained, apparently for reasons of protection of privacy, and a fear that failure to do so would put the accuracy of the census in doubt.

Apart from what is below, from 1810 to 1821 there are nominal lists of people who remained convicts and resident in the colony when Governor Macquarie took charge on 1 January 1810, updated for those who arrived up to September 1820, and for deaths, leaving the colony, etc. These alphabetic lists are apparently working lists updated from the annual musters and other records, few of which have survived in this period. They are therefore sometimes useful, but are not prepared as at a particular time, as for other items below.

(UK) Public Record Office (PRO) references are quoted where possible. Also references at the State Records NSW (SRNSW), the Mitchell Library (Sydney) (ML), and the name of any recent publication that has reproduced the muster or census.

In addition to the official records quoted below, a couple of publications provide biographies of those who arrived on the First and Second Fleets to Australia (arrived 1788 and 1790 respectively). These are: The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet, Mollie Gillen, Library of Australian History, Sydney, 1989, ISBN 0 908120 69 9 (SAG ref: A5/90/47), and The Second Fleet: Britain's Grim Convict Armada of 1790, Michael Flynn, Library of Australian History, Sydney, 1993, ISBN 0 908120 83 4 (SAG ref: A5/90/57).

River Derwent, VDL - Victualling List 17 October 1803 - 31 December 1804

This list covers the period of transfer from Port Phillip (now Melbourne) to River Derwent (now Hobart). Detail shown - Name and Quality (convict etc)
PRO ref: CO201/43
Published in Land Musters, Stock Returns and Lists: Van Diemen's Land 1803-1822, Irene Schaffer (ed), St David's Park Publishing, Hobart, 1991, ISBN 0 7246 2177 6 (SAG ref: D7/30/1803).

General Muster of NSW, Norfolk Island and VDL - August 1805

This has not survived.

Land & Stock Muster - Hobart Town, VDL - 17 October 1806

Detail shown - Name, Acreage (various crops) and Livestock (horses, cattle, oxen, sheep, goats, hogs).
ML ref: BT2
Published in Land Musters, Stock Returns and Lists: Van Diemen's Land 1803-1822, Irene Schaffer (ed), St David's Park Publishing, Hobart, 1991, ISBN 0 7246 2177 6 (SAG ref: D7/30/1803).

Land & Stock Muster - Port Dalrymple, VDL - 24 April 1807

Detail shown - Name, Acreage (various crops), Livestock (horses, cattle, sheep, swine, goats)
ML ref: BT2
Published in Land Musters, Stock Returns and Lists: Van Diemen's Land 1803-1822, Irene Schaffer (ed), St David's Park Publishing, Hobart, 1991, ISBN 0 7246 2177 6 (SAG ref: D7/30/1803).

Land & Stock Muster - Hobart Town, VDL - 14 July 1807

Detail shown - as for 1806, & On/Off Stores (self, wife, children, servants).
PRO ref: CO201/44
Published in Land Musters, Stock Returns and Lists: Van Diemen's Land 1803-1822, Irene Schaffer (ed), St David's Park Publishing, Hobart, 1991, ISBN 0 7246 2177 6 (SAG ref: D7/30/1803).

General Muster - River Derwent, VDL - 10 May 1809

Detail shown - Name, Quality (convict, etc), Acreage (various crops), On/Off Stores (self, wife, children), Situation (place, etc).
PRO ref: CO201/52
Published in Land Musters, Stock Returns and Lists: Van Diemen's Land 1803-1822, Irene Schaffer (ed), St David's Park Publishing, Hobart, 1991, ISBN 0 7246 2177 6 (SAG ref: D7/30/1803).

General Muster of Convicts and ex-Convicts in NSW - 1811;
Return of ex-Convict Settlers at Hobart Town, River Derwent, VDL - 1811;
General Musters at Port Dalrymple, VDL, and Norfolk Island - 1811

Taken in NSW at Windsor 05-11 February 1811; at Parramatta 13-20 February; at Liverpool 21 February; at Sydney 25 February to 05 March; in Hobart Town, VDL, on 21 March 1811; on Norfolk Island on 6 August 1811; and at Port Dalrymple, VDL, on 30 June 1811.
The surviving volumes give no details of the subject's life or family in 1811, apart from whether mustered in NSW, HT, NI or PD. The remaining data is all arrival or pre-arrival data - Name, Sex, Ship of Arrival, Trial Date and Place, Sentence, and Arrival Status (convict etc)
The original musters, however, appear to have collected information on residence, present status, age group of children and ration status, as well as details of land and livestock, as collations of these statistics survive.
PRO ref: HO10/5 and 10/42; SRNSW ref: 4/1224 and 4/1233
Published as General Musters of NSW, Norfolk Island and Van Diemen's Land, 1811, Australian Biographical and Genealogical Record, Sydney, 1987, ISBN 0 949032 05 0 (SAG ref: B7/30/1811).

Muster of Free Persons - Hobart Town, VDL - September to October 1818

Detail shown - Name, Ship of Arrival, Name of Ship's Master, Where & When Convicted, Sentence, On/Off Stores (self, children).
SRNSW ref: 4/1235.2
Published in The Forgotten Generation of Norfolk Island & Van Diemen's Land, Reg Wright, Library of Australian History, Sydney, 1986, ISBN 0 908120 62 1 (SAG ref: A3/1/11).

General Muster, Land & Stock Muster - Hobart Town etc, VDL - October 1819
Muster of Free Persons, Land & Stock Muster - Port Dalrymple - October 1819

Detail shown - Name, Ship of Arrival, Description (convict, etc), Where/When Tried, Sentence, Grant/Lease, By Whom Granted/Leased/Located, Acreage (various crops plus total), Livestock (horses, cattle, sheep), Grain On Hand, On/Off Stores (self, wife, children, government servants), Free Men Employed, Number in Family, Remarks.
SRNSW ref: 4/1235.2, 4/1235.3, 4/1235.4, 4/1235.6, X740
Published in Land Musters, Stock Returns and Lists: Van Diemen's Land 1803-1822, Irene Schaffer (ed), St David's Park Publishing, Hobart, 1991, ISBN 0 7246 2177 6 (SAG ref: D7/30/1803).

Muster of Convicts - Hobart Town, VDL - October 1820

Detail shown - not known.
SRNSW ref: 4/1235.7

General Muster, Land & Stock Muster - Port Dalrymple, VDL - November, 1820

Detail shown - not known for General Muster, but excludes military; Land & Stock, as for Hobart, 1819.
SRNSW ref: 4/1235.8, 4/1235.9

Convict Muster - Hobart Town, VDL - October to November 1821 General Muster - Port Dalrymple, VDL - October 1821

Detail shown - not known.
SRNSW ref: 4/1235.10

General Muster, Land & Stock Muster - Port Dalrymple, VDL - November, 1820

Muster of Free Persons - Hobart Town, VDL - 1822

Detail shown - Name, Ship of Arrival or Colony Whence Came, Arrival Year, Sentence, Where/When Tried, Children.
PRO ref: HO10/18

Land & Stock Muster - Port Dalrymple, VDL - October to November, 1822

Detail shown - as for Hobart, 1819.
SRNSW ref: 4/1235.12

Convict Muster - Van Diemen's Land - October to November 1823

Detail shown - not known.
PRO ref: HO10/45

Census of New South Wales - 1841

A household census was taken on 2 March 1841, from which a small proportion of household returns survive. Apart from the names of both the head of the household and the proprietor, only statistical (i.e. aggregated) information about the household. Nonetheless, if you know the likely family structure, it is possible to relate some information to known individuals.
Details shown - Householder Name, Place, Proprietor Name, Dwelling Construction, Number of Persons (total and free), together with statistical breakdown by Age, Civil Condition (convict, free etc), Religion and Occupation, all subdivided by Sex and Marital Status.
SRNSW ref: X946 - X951, 4/1243, 4/1244
An on-line name index to this material is available here.