• The House of Correction in the Burgage part of the town served as a "Bridewell" for the whole county. A new structure went up in 1808 on the site of the old one, and a new wing was added in 1868. Altogether there were 118 cells with officer and warders' quarters. The whole prison could accommodate 132 males and 18 females in 1881. This prison closed in 1880.
   
• It is unknown if any rosters of prisoners were archived, but court and petty session records may show if any of your relatives were inmates here. The Census returns are the likeliest places to find individual incarcerated between 1841 and 1881.
   
• In 1876, John DEWHIRST was the governor and Miss Eliza DEWHIRST was the matron. John was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire. Eliza was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire.
   
• Stephen RICHARDS has a photograph of the Gateway to the House of Correction on Geo-graph, taken in June, 2012.
   
• Alan MURRAY-RUST also has a photograph of the Gateway to the former House of Correction on Geo-graph, taken in August, 2020.
   
• Jonathan THACKER has a photograph of the Lodge to the former House of Correction on Geo-graph, taken in July, 2017.
   

It's true that many of our ancestors were convicted of crimes that got them transported to Australia or to prisons outside of Nottinghamshire.

Brian BINNS tells us (in 2016) that his 5 x great grandmother, Martha BINNS, was transported to "The American Colonies" for 7 years in 1775 after being found guilty of a felony.

Alas, I know of no records in early America that recorded such activity. Most family historians in America are unaware that their country was a recipient of prisoners at one time. I know that no British prisoners were transported to America after 1783.

• Australia, Transported Convicts: see these two Research Guides from The National Archives.
• Blacksheepancestors: UK Executions
• An extract from the book "Home Office 1782-1982" which includes some details about the prison service - Prisons over Two Centuries.

• The Complete Newgate Calendar is now online.
• Old Bailey Online - the Proceedings of the Old Bailey, London's Central Criminal Court, 1674 to 1913: "A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court."
• Derek Wilcox's Black Sheep Index - "an index of Victims and Villains (and some heroes too) extracted from newspaper reports of court cases and inquests between 1865-1900" (archived copy).
• Capital punishment in the 18th & 19th centuries - many listings and articles.
• About Prison History - from the Open University's  International Centre for the History of Crime, Policing and Justice.
• The Digital Panopticon - "allows you to search millions of records from around fifty datasets, relating to the lives of 90,000 convicts from the Old Bailey".