• Title
  Letter written by Sir George Yonge to an unknown correspondent, 9 April 1776
• Creator
  Creator unknown
• Call number
  SAFE/MLMSS 6923 (Safe 1/204)
  
• Level of description
  fonds
• Date
  
  9 April 1776
• Type of material
  Textual Records
• Reference code
  403516
• Issue Copy
  Microfilm : MLMSS 6923, filed at Safe 1/204)
  
• Physical Description
  0.01 metres of textual material (1 folder) - manuscript
  
• ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
  
  Sir George Yonge, Member of Parliament for Honiton, opposed the Hulks Bill which was put before the House of Commons by the Prime Minister, Lord North, in April 1776. The catalyst for the Bill, intended as a temporary solution only, was Britain's loss of its American colonies following the American War of Independence. The Declaration of American Independence was signed in 1776.
  The Hulks Bill proposed that prisoners who would otherwise have been transported to America be confined in hulks and punished with hard labour.
  In his letter, Yonge proposes an alternative to the Bill whereby Trinity House would accept some prisoners for impressment with the remainder put to public works. Yonge's efforts in opposing the Bill were unsuccessful and the Bill received Royal Assent on 23 May 1776 as 16 Geo. III, c. 43, but it proved largely unsatisfactory because of high cost and the conditions in the hulks. Transportation was resumed in 1787 to a new destination on the east coast of Australia.
• Finding Aids
  Read transcription here: archival-classic.sl.nsw.gov.au/_transcript/2017/D00007/a128016.html
• General note
  
  Digital order no: a128016
• Creator/Author/Artist
  Yonge, George, Sir, 1731-1812
  
• Subject
  Britain. Parliament--Legislation.
  Prisoners, Transportation of.
  Transportation of convicts.
  
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE3141686

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