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Fremantle Prison > Records

COMMUTATION LETTER

1856
Overview

Large, single page, handwritten commutation order for James Thorogood, dated 14 March 1856. Large, rectangular, single sheet of yellowed paper, with a short handwritten letter on the front. Addressed to 'Whitehall/ 14 March 1856', the letter is written at the direction of the Secretary of State for the Home Department and commutes James Thoroughgood's sentence from death to transportation for life. The signature at the bottom is indecipherable, but in the bottom left corner of the page is the name, W. Baron Alderson'.

Details

Details

Registration number
cwa-org-89-2008.1
Item type
Objects
Material
Paper
Contextual Information

James Thorogood was transported to Australia onboard the ship Nile, arriving in Fremantle on 1st January 1858. He was born in 1828, and his convict record records that he was unmarried, semiliterate and a farm labourer. He was sentenced to death in Chelmsford Essex for murder, however this was commuted to transportation. He was awarded his Ticket of Leave on 8th January 1861 and received a Conditional Pardon on 10th July 1866.

Year
1856
Primary significance criteria
Historic significance
Artistic or aesthetic significance
Scientific or research significance
Social or spiritual significance
Comparative significance criteria
Interpretive capacity
Object’s condition or completeness
Rare or representative
Well provenanced
Fremantle Prison

Fremantle Prison

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