Convict transportation and the metropolis

Duncan Campbell, the successful and influential eighteenth century West Indies merchant, is better known today for his role as the administrative lynchpin of convict transportation to Australia. As overseer of the Thames prison hulks between 1776 and 1801 he was a key figure in the founding of the British penal colony at Sydney in New South Wales. The collection consists of six volumes of business letterbooks covering the period 1772-1788, Campbell’s private letterbooks for 1766-1797 and miscellaneous papers, c.1776.