Butt of Ticket of Leave

The Convict Records of Australia.

Tickets of Leave, 1827-75.

Each butt provides the following information: prisoner's number, name ship and year of arrival, master of ship, native place, trade or calling, offence, place and date of trial, sentence, year of birth, physical description, district the prisoner is allocated to, the Bench which recommended him/her, and the date of issue of Ticket. There are also notes on many of the butts referring to matters such as change of district, and conditional pardons.

The Convict Records of Australia reflect the forced emigration to the continent of Australia of 165,000 people in the 180 years between 1788-1868, representing the beginning of the modern age of globalization by a government agency. These records contain information relating to all aspects of convicts’ lives, including: physical appearance, literacy level, trade or calling, crime and sentence, behavior in incarceration, further punishment, pardon, ticket of leave, and marriage. The forensic details about individual convicts have enabled historians to build a picture of the human capital that shaped the economy, demography, and culture of early colonial Australia.