This 720 ton ship was built in Sunderland in 1854. It was employed as a convict transport for Western Australia and left Plymouth, England on June 15, 1856 bound for the Swan River Colony. She carried the seventeenth of 37 shipments of male convicts destined for Western Australia. The voyage took 84 days and the Runnymede arrived in Fremantle on September 7, 1856 with 89 passengers and 248 convicts [Erickson]. William Burrows and Henry Edmonds were the captain and surgeon respectively.

There were no deaths recorded on the convict shipping and description lists and 248 convict numbers were assigned for the voyage ranging from (3983 to 4230).

Of the 89 passengers mentioned above, all 89 were pensioner guards and their families, the number being made up of 30 pensioner guards, 19 wives, 18 sons and 22 daughters.