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The Parkhurst apprentices were juvenile prisoners from Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight, sentenced to "transportation beyond the seas" and transported to Australia and New Zealand between 1842 and 1852. Either before leaving England〔Gill (2004), page 1: "Once in the colony, they were pardoned on two conditions..."〕 or on arrival at their destination,〔Statham (1981), page 6" "... these boys had received conditional pardons prior to leaving England..."〕 they were pardoned on the conditions that they be "apprenticed" to local employers, and that they not return to England during the term of their sentence. In the ten years between 1842 and 1852 nearly 1500 boys aged from twelve to eighteen were transported to Australia and New Zealand from Parkhurst Prison. ==Parkhurst apprentices in Western Australia== Early in 1839, Governor of Western Australia John Hutt received from the Colonial Office a circular asking if the colony would be prepared to accept juvenile prisoners who had first been reformed in "penitentiaries especially adapted for the purpose of their education and reformation". After seeking comment from the Western Australian Agricultural Society, Hutt responded that "The Majority of the Community would not object to boys not above 15 years of age...." but that the labour market could not support more than 30 boys per year. Between 1842 and 1849, Western Australia accepted 234 Parkhurst apprentices, all males aged between 10 and 21 years. As Western Australia was not then a penal colony, contemporary documents scrupulously avoided referring to the youths as "convicts", and most historians have maintained the distinction. An opposing view, held for example by Gill (2004), is that the Parkhurst apprentices were convicts, and that their apprenticeship constituted convict assignment.〔Robbins, W.M. review of Gill's (2004) ''Convict Assignment'' at http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/lab/88/br_1.html (vol 88. May 2005) 'In short, Gill argues that convict transportation to WA arrived in a disguised form and at an earlier time than is commonly thought. Between 1842 and 1852 Gill finds that 243 young British juvenile offenders were transported to WA even though officially they were described as 'apprentices' '〕 Parkhurst apprentices were employed by a broad cross-section of Western Australia's businessmen and officials, including many of the colony's ruling class. Among the long list of Parkhurst apprentice employers were Governor Andrew Clarke, Frederick Irwin, George Fletcher Moore, Anthony O'Grady Lefroy, William Locke Brockman, Thomas Brown, George Walpole Leake, Walter Padbury, Stephen Stanley Parker, Rosendo Salvado Thomas Peel JR and George Shenton Sr. The assimilation of Parkhurst apprentices played an important role in the later acceptance of convicts in Western Australia. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Parkhurst apprentices」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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