I just finished reading Chris Paton's "Lost: Transportation"
article in the June edition of Your
Family Tree (or Your Family History
as it is branded here in Australia).
Very interesting, and I bet there are more than a few Australians who
didn't know that convicted felons were transported to America before the War of
Independence (not genealogists, of course 
).
But there would be even more Australians (and perhaps Chris, too) who
did not know that after America ceased to be a potential destination to
off-load these convicts, the British Government decided to use West Africa as a
place of transportation.
).
But there would be even more Australians (and perhaps Chris, too) who
did not know that after America ceased to be a potential destination to
off-load these convicts, the British Government decided to use West Africa as a
place of transportation.
The exercise was a spectacular failure, mainly due to the
high death rates due to tropical disease and the tendency of the convicts to escape (often as crew on the
slaving ships). Thanks (at least in
part) to this failure the Government then decided to start a colony in New
South Wales.
For any who want to read more about this little known
episode in transportation, Emma Christopher's book A Merciless Place should satisfy their curiosity. A review of the book can be found at http://www.newsweekly.com.au/article.php?id=5015.
Chris also rather simplified his description of the Ticket
of Leave system, but which a convict whose sentence had not expired could
effectively be "out on parole".
The rules and regulations regarding the issuing of Tickets of Leave
varied over time and from Governor to Governor, as did the amount of time the
convict had to serve before being eligible to receive one. These periods could be as short as two to
three years at some periods.
There were some periods where no Tickets of Leave were
issued, and male convicts seem far more likely than females to be granted
one. A terrific explanation of the
Ticket of Leave system by Sid Hammell can be read at http://users.tpg.com.au/shammell/contents.htm.
For what it's worth, I have five convict and only one of
them, Cordelia Knight who was transported for life, ever seems to have been
granted a Ticket of Leave. It was
revoked 20 years later after she ran away, but she was given a Conditional
Pardon shortly afterwards.
