Punishment for serious offences were difficult due to the vast distances the convict and settler would have to cover in order to get to the court of criminal judicature in Hobart.

It was under Sorell that Michael Howe's bushranger-gang was broken with most of its members hanged, returning order to much of the island including the upper Derwent and Clyde river area which contained the colonies richest farmland.

Sorell systemised land grants and cleaned up the woeful bookkeeping he had inherited from Davey, reducing corruption and under the table deals between government officials and the settlers.

The masterpiece that Sorell would always be known for, however, was the foundation of the Macquarie Harbour Penal Settlement in 1821, a place he referred to as for 'ultra banishment and punishment' for convicts whom were in danger of becoming bushrangers and had committed secondary crimes in the colony.

There were several children of his marriage and of his relationship with Mrs Kent who had followed him to the colony, one of whom, William Sorell, junior, was appointed registrar of the Supreme Court of Tasmania at Hobart in 1824, and held this position until his death in 1860.