Cover image for Letterbook of Correspondence addressed to the Muster Master.
Series:
Letterbook of Correspondence addressed to the Muster Master.
Series Number:
Access:
Open
Start Date:
30 Sep 1829
End Date:
17 Nov 1836
Creating Agency:
01 Jan 182531 Dec 1856
Related Series:
CSO1 General Correspondence.01 Jan 182431 Dec 1836

CON9 Muster-Master's Letterbook.01 Apr 183230 Nov 1832
Series notes:
The office of Muster Master was created by Lieutenant-Governor Arthur in March 1827 on a provisional basis, and was attached to the department of the Chief Police Magistrate. The Colonial Office at first questioned the appointment, but finally confirmed it provided that its expense be lessened by combining it with the office of Assistant Police Magistrate.

The Muster Master's duties were chiefly to maintain the complicated system of convict records upon which the efficiency of the penal administration largely rested; but it was also his responsibility to keep registers under various categories of the free population of the island. As Assistant Police Magistrate he was expected also to assist in the trial of convict offenders, but this office was entirely secondary to the due discharge of that of Muster Master. The letters here copied are chiefly enquiries for the records of convicts under various categories, but there is also important correspondence on the administration of convict records. The series apparently began and ended with this volume, which contains an index to personal names and subjects. File references are quoted.

These records are part of the holdings of the Tasmanian Archives
Items: