TICKET OF LEAVE

Born in 1834, William Bartlett was a horse dealer convicted of rape and sentenced to 15 years transportation. He arrived in Fremantle on board the Hougoumont, the last convict ship to arrive in Australia, in 1868. William served time in Pentoville Prison and Portsmouth, before he was transported to WA from Chatham.

At the time of his sentence, William was married to Ellen Bartlett, and they had one daughter, Alice Maud Mary Bartlett, who was born in 1861. After William was transported, his wife Ellen never remarried, and was a maid and dressmaker. Their daughter Alice died aged 14 years in 1875. Ellen died in 1886.

After being transported, William worked out of the Geraldton, Greenough and Oakabella areas for landowners including H. Woodman, F. Allendale, G. Baston. Mr. Bell, Pearson, Wiley, Hoskin ad Burges. While in the Murchison area William was caught on H. DeBurg’s property stealing a pig. The reason he gave was that he was hungry. William was later found wondering the streets of Geraldton with no means of support, when he was arrested for vagrancy and placed in Geraldton Gaol on 6 April 1894 for 8 days. He was then remanded to the Mt. Eliza Poor House. William died in the colonial hospital, of an embolism of the brain, on 16 April 1894, aged 65.

The Ticket-of-Leave system was first introduced by Governor Philip King in 1801. Its principal aim was to reduce the burden on the colonial administration of providing food from the government’s limited stores to convicts who were transported from Britain to Australia. Convicts who were deemed able to support themselves were awarded a Ticket-of-Leave. They could also be awarded for good behaviour, and permitted the holder to seek employment within a specified district. Holders where not, however, permitted to leave the district without the permission of the colonial government. Each change of employer or district was recorded on the convict’s Ticket.

Originally the Ticket-of-Leave was given without any relation to the period of the sentence a convict had already served. Some ‘gentlemen convicts’ or aristocratic men were issued their Tickets on arrival in the colony. By 1811, the need to first serve at least part of your original sentence was established and by 1821 regulations were introduced specifying the lengths of a sentence that had to be served before a convict could be considered for a Ticket. These were four years for an original seven-year sentence, six to eight years for a 14 year sentence and 10 to 12 years for those given a life sentence. Once the full original sentence had been served, a ‘certificate of freedom’ was awarded.

Ticket-of-Leave holders were allowed to marry or to bring their families across from Britain. They were also able to acquire property, but they were not permitted to carry weapons or board a ship. Convicts who observed these conditions until the completion of one half of their original sentence were entitled to a conditional pardon, which removed all restrictions except the ban on leaving the colony. Convicts who did not observe these conditions could be arrested without a warrant, tried without recourse to the Supreme Court, and would forfeit their property.

A Ticket-of-Leave had two physical components; the first known as the ‘Ticket proper’ was issued to the convict, and it was mandatory for them to carry it on their person at all times, which has resulted in very few original Tickets-of-Leave surviving into modern times. The second component was the ‘butt’, which was kept on file by the Colonial Government as a reference.