Capital Punishment Database: NSW 1826-1837 (Castle Database)

Sly, the forger, suffered death at last on Monday morning …At a given signal by the Under Sheriff, the spring sustaining the drop was withdrawn – the culprit fell to the length of his rope – and soon his convulsed frame ceased to exhibit signs of animation. The guard drew off – the spectators gradually followed – and the body, after being the sport of the winds during the usual period, was lowered into the rude shell prepared for its interment.

Thus died John Sly, engraver. However his life may have been regulated, yet, in the closing scene of his existence, he displayed a fortitude which would have become a philosopher, united to the devotion of a sincere Christian.

(The Australian, 31 December 1829).

John Sly was one of the hundreds of people executed in Sydney by hanging, for a crime committed in colonial New South Wales under the rule of Governors Ralph Darling (1826-1831) and Richard Bourke (1832-1837).

The names, crimes and fate of the 1300 people who were sentenced to death between 1826 and 1837 are contained in the Castle Database. Some were executed, and many others were reprieved by the Governor and the Executive Council only to face a term of transportation to places such as Norfolk Island or Moreton Bay.

You can search for persons by First Name, Surname, Sentence Date, Gender, Crime and Aboriginality here.

You can access information about every person sentenced to death in the database here.

The Francis Forbes Society is pleased to make the Castle Database available as a major new research resource for academic researchers, criminologists, genealogists, family historians and others interested in our colonial legal history.

The database was compiled by Sydney barrister, Tim Castle, from original source material principally held by State Records of NSW for his thesis, “The End of the Line: Capital Punishment and Mercy in Colonial New South Wales 1826-1836”. Tim received a University Medal from the University of New England in 2006 for the thesis and also the Max Kelly Medal from the History Council of New South Wales in 2007 for an essay based on this work.

A full description of the database methodology and sources is available here.

Work on the database is now part of an ongoing project of the Forbes Society by Tim Castle and Dr Lisa Ford of Macquarie University. You can contact these researchers through the feedback form on this site, with any comments or suggestions.

Further detail about some of the people named in the database and their cases can be found on-line at the Macquarie University web-site, Decisions of the Superior Courts of New South Wales 1788-1899.

Database © 2005-2007 Tim Castle

Website © 2007 The Francis Forbes Society for Australian Legal History