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1832 Government Regulations
Rewards for the Apprehension of Absconded Convicts
New South Wales,
1832

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The following are the Government regulations in relation to rewards paid for the capture of runaway (absconded) convicts,in New South Wales 1832.The regulations were introduced in April 1832 and give an insight into the administration of the penal system of colonial New South Wales.
Click Here for the names of absconders and other colonial convict information

REWARDS FOR APPRENDING RUNAWAYS

Colonial Secretary's Office Sydney 13th April 1832 His Excellency the Governor in Council, having taken into consideration the system of pecuniary rewards hitherto adopted in this Colony for the apprehension of Runaway Convicts, is pleased to direct that the following regulations be established, and those now in force annulled, from and after the 30th Day of April instant: 2.For the apprehension and conveyance before a Magistrate of every Runaway Convict, who shall have been absent twenty-four hours or upwards from Government work, or from the service of an Individual, there shall be paid as a reward the sum of ten shillings, which sum may be increased to twenty shillings if the Magistrate before whom the Convict is taken shall consider that, from any particular circumstances attending the capture, the constable or person capturing is entitled to a higher reward than ten shillings. 3.For the apprehension of a Runaway, who shall have been absent a similar period from an Iron Gang, there shall be paid the sum of twenty shillings, which sum may be increased to thirty shillings, if judged propery by the Magistrate for the foregoing reasons. 4. These rewards to be paid by the Principal Superintendent of Police, in Sydney, on the applicants producing and having as a voucher the Magistrate's certificate, prepared in the form hereunto annexed (A). 5.In addition, if any Runaway so apprehended, shall, during the period of his having been illegally at large, have committed any felonius offence of which he shall after his apprehension, be convicted, the constable or other person apprehending him shall, over and above the foregoing sums, receive a further reward of five pounds. This reward to be also paid by the Principal Superintendant of Police, in Sydney,upon the applicants producing a certificate of conviction under the hand of the Clerk of the Court before which the Runaway was convicted, in the form hereunto annexed (B). together with the certificate of the Magistrate, that the applicant had apprehended and brought before him the person so convicted. 6.Nothing herein contained is to deprive the person or persons apprehending notorius offenders of their claim to any reward the Government may think fit to bestow in cases of remarkable skill, courage or perseverence. 7.Where Runaways are apprehended by prisoners of the Crown, who are entitled by Government Regulations to an allowance of time in their probation for a Ticket of Leave, as a reward for such meritious conduct, no pecuniary reward shall be given, unless the prisoner shall waive his title to the allowance of time in his probation, and take the pecuniary reward in lieu. By His Excelleny's Command Alexander McLeay. FORM A DISTRICT OF__________. I ___________________ one of His Majesty's Justices iof the Peace for the Territory of New South Wales, acting in the said District, hereby certificate, at A.B has this day apprehended and brought before me the body of C.D. proved before me to be a Runaway from ____________________: and I do therefore adjudge him, the said A.B. a Reward of ________shillings, under the authority of the Government Order of the 13th April 1832, Given under my hand, at ___this day of_____18____ FORM B I hereby certify, that A.B, a Prisoner of the Crown, was tried before ________ on ______, and was convicted of _________. Given under my hand, at____this day of ____18_____
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