Convict Tickets of Leave

Overview

Incentive for good behaviour

Convict discipline depended not only on punishment but also on incentives and rewards. The best inducement to 'good behaviour was the prospect of a shortening of the convict's period of servitude'. (Hirst, Convict Society, p.33). There were a number of incentives and rewards for good behaviour including tickets of leave, ticket of leave passports, tickets of exemptions from government labour and pardons.

Introduction of the system

Governor King introduced the ticket of leave system in 1801. It helped reduce costs by allowing those who could support themselves honestly to do so. But it was also a reward for good behaviour and in time would become 'the most common form of remission of sentence'. (Hirst, Convict Society, p.53).

Conditions for eligibility

Governor Macquarie specified that at least three years be served before a convict became eligible for any concession, though he was known to break this rule. (Hirst, Convict Society, p.53). Bigge criticised him for behaving too generously and following the appearance of the Commissioner’s reports, the minimum requirements for time served were extended and additional checks were introduced to ensure that only the well behaved received tickets.

Changes to eligibility

By a Government Order, dated 1 January 1827, convicts were eligible to be considered for a ticket of leave under the following criteria:

• Convicts for 7 years having served 4 years with 1, or 5 years with 2 masters
• Convicts for 14 years having served 6 years with 1, and 8 years with 2, or 10 years with 3 masters
• Convicts for life having served 8 years with 1, 10 years with 2, or 12 years with 3 masters.

A convict could still be considered eligible, even though the number of masters whom they had served exceeded the number specified above, provided it could clearly be shown that their removal from their place of residence was not occasioned by misconduct. (Plunkett, Australian Magistrate, pp.404-6).

Benefits to convicts

Ticket of leave men, were seen as the elite of the workforce, and before 1821 were often employed as constables and overseers and on becoming free were frequently 'preferred to the man who had served his full term as a convict'. (Hirst, Convict Society, p.102).

Cancellation of tickets

A ticket of leave could be cancelled at any time for a misdemeanour and those who held them did not become free until pardoned or the sentence had expired. A ticket of leave was issued for a specific district in which the holder was to remain. In order to travel outside the district a ticket of leave passport was required.

Ticket of Leave Passports

A prisoner holding a ticket of leave needed to have official permission to move outside the district for which his ticket was issued. A ticket of leave passport is often indicated with the annotation PP. The passport was usually issued for a 12 month period after which time it could be renewed and another passport issued for a further period. A ticket of leave passport specifies that the convict be allowed to travel between two localities usually for work purposes and may mention the employer's name.

Exemptions from Government Labour

As stated in a Circular to Magistrates from the Colonial Secretary dated 1st January 1830 the Exemption Ticket allowed:

A Ticket of Exemption did not allow a convict to be self-employed or to own property (as a Ticket of Leave allowed). It appears that the Tickets of Exemption were used as a form of assignment to relatives. The detail provided can help to easily trace the life or details of an individual convict.

Restrictions to holders

The British government in 1832 tightened the conditions for tickets of leave still further. It removed early grants for special cases such as for capturing runaways and took away the right of ticket holders to sue or be sued, thus removing 'all legal protection for their property', this latter right was not reinstated until 1843. (Shaw, Convicts and the Colonies, p.231). Under the new law the minimum periods to be served before becoming eligible for tickets of leave and pardons were the same and provision was made for more conditional pardons. (Shaw, Convicts and the Colonies, p.231).

Approving an application

In January 1843 Governor Gipps, writing about the duties of the Principal Superintendent of Convicts stated that, 'the investigation of claims to indulgences and especially to tickets of leave is the most labourious'. (HRA, vol. 22, p.456). The convicts' records were checked and the application after being annotated by the local magistrate(s) was forwarded to the Principal Superintendent of Convicts who sent them to the Governor. The process was very thorough and there are instances in which local bench recommendations were returned or rejected due to inadequate information being supplied. (Golder, High and Responsible Office, p.34). When the application had been approved it went back through the system and the local bench would issue the ticket.

Surviving records

The earliest surviving tickets of leave records from July 1810-October 1814 are to be found in NRS-1166. There is a gap in the records of tickets of leave issued from November 1814-July 1824 when Registers of tickets of leave, NRS-12200 begin. The Principal Superintendent of Convicts' records have been listed first, as they contain the main series Ticket of leave butts, 1827-1875, NRS-12202. Then the other records where information may be found have been listed alphabetically by agency.

The Convicts Index should be consulted in the first instance.

Note: Many applications for tickets of leave are located in the series Colonial Secretary: Letters received, NRS-897 and NRS-905 and Special bundles NRS-898 and NRS-906.

Indexes to the records

Search across the following indexes in the Convicts Index

• Index to tickets of exemption from government labour, 1827-1832
• Index to tickets of leave, certificates of emancipation and pardons, 1810-1819
• Index to tickets of leave, 1810-1875 (compiled by Dr Perry McIntyre)
• Index to ticket of leave passports, 1835-1869
• Index to certificates of freedom, 1823-1869
• Index to conditional pardons, 1826-1870

Other indexes to check:

• Index to the Colonial Secretary's Papers, 1788-1825
• Colonial Secretary's Correspondence: Index to convicts and others, 1826–1895 (compiled by Joan Reese)
• Colonial Secretary's Correspondence: Index to letters sent re convicts, 1826–May 1855 (compiled by Joan Reese)
• Contemporary Colonial Secretary's Indexes and Registers, 1826-1900, NRS-922

Record series

Principal Superintendent of Convicts

Colonial Secretary

Convict Classification Board

The board was set up in January 1849 to classify convicts according to their character and conduct rather than their sentence. The board was chiefly concerned with considering the cases of individual convicts with the view to promoting them, remitting sentences, and indulgences such as tickets of leave. It divided the convicts into three divisions and then into classes within the divisions. Various incentives and rewards were available to each division.

Courts of Petty Sessions

These were formally known as Bench of Magistrates and were the local court to which a convict would attend for trial, punishment, muster and to apply for a ticket of leave or other indulgence.

Police

When the convict establishment was broken up at the end of 1855, the Convict Branch of the Police took over its duties until the remaining convicts were freed or died.

Records held elsewhere

Additional sources

NSW Government Gazettes, 1832-1850 have been indexed in the Australasian Genealogical Computer Index (AGCI) available through the Society of Australian Genealogists