Tickets of Leave approved after 1842

For many years people believed that after the Ipswich area was opened to what the Europeans referred to as "free settlement" in 1842 that the convicts had all been removed, but this is not the case. Many of the convicts who were stationed here in the 1820s and 1830s would have left but others could have remained in Limestone (Ipswich) towards the end of the period. When the Moreton Bay Penal Colony closed, some convicts holding a Ticket of Leave or a Certificate of Freedom asked for permission to remain in the area.

Many ex-convicts from across the border, including people from New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) were given Tickets of Leave to go north which resulted in many Ticket of Leave Holders moving to Brisbane, Ipswich, the Darling Downs and other places in Queensland. It is highly likely that the Ticket of Leavers were troublesome convicts who were repeat offenders and the solution for southern States was to send those ex-convicts north.

In November 1859, The Moreton Bay Courier reported that tickets of leave had been cancelled for sixteen men who were absent from muster at Ipswich and were considered to be illegally at large.

While transportation of convicts to New South Wales officially ceased in 1842, exiles were transported from Britain between 1846 and 1850. Tickets of leave or conditional pardons were granted to exiles upon arrival in NSW as they had already served part of their sentence in Britain. They were allowed to work for pay but had to remain in the district to which they had been assigned. 

Paul Budde, in his convict history of Brisbane relates that after the closure of the penal settlement in 1839, that prisoner numbers in Moreton Bay were reduced dramatically to 300 and this number was later reduced to 94 convicts. Paul went on to say that "More than a third of the remaining convicts were employed to look after the government's very valuable cattle and sheep assets, mainly in Limestone."

People granted a Ticket of Leave (TOL) could acquire property and could work for themselves as long as they remained in the district noted on their TOL and that they attended muster as required. Failure to do so could result in the ticket being cancelled.

The men and women listed below are some of the ex-convicts known to have been given Tickets of Leave for Ipswich. It is not an exhaustive list, so if you are a descendant of a Ticket of Leave holder please contact us to share your family's history.