AustLit

Mark Jeffrey was an Englishman who was transported to Australia for his crimes, particularly a series of thefts and burglaries. An 'incorrigible reprobate' rather than a wrongly condemned innocent, Jeffrey spent the greater part of his life in Australian prison institutions (in Norfolk Island, Dead Island and Port Arthur), and there 'experienced at first hand the changes that occurred in penal discipline during the latter half of the nineteenth century' (Hiener and Hiener, Introduction to A Burglar's Life, 1968, ix). He is said to have turned religious eventually. His autobiography A Burglar's Life became quite popular and has been republished several times, but its authorship has also been questioned and attributed to James Lester Burke rather than to the convict himself.