During the period 1598-1868 the punishments for even trivial crimes were often very severe, but a more humane sentence was available in the form of transportation to a penal colony. Penal colonies were established in North America and the Caribbean, but after the successful rebellion of the American colonies a new location was sought - and was found in Australia.

The first colony was to be established in January of 1788, initially at Botany Bay, but due to the unsuitability of the site within days it was moved north to Sydney Cove. This was First Fleet, and Second and Third Fleets followed in 1789 and 1790.

The first Tattersall transportees arrived in 181/19, and in all there were seven such transportees. An eighth individual with a variant name, Tattersell, was also transported.

The practice of transportation was officially abandoned in 1868 but for a number of years before that it was an unlikely sentence.

It is worth pointing out that not all transportees were hardened criminals. One could be sentenced to transportation for stealing food, and various dissidents were also shipped out of Britain to remove their influence from the body politic, lest Irish Home Rule (gracious!) or Trade Unionism (oh, my!) become established in a land of privilege and complacency.

By way of example, Henry Tattersall, transported in 1835, was obviously a hardened criminal at the age of 14 as he was transported for a term of 14 years, for theft of  an earthen jug and eight shillings at Haslingden in Lancashire. 

Portions of this note were cribbed from several Wikipedia articles, while the names of transportees were found on the ancestry.com site.

Henry Tattersall's convict story may be found on the "Convicts to Australia" site.