Tasmanian Conduct Record

[Megan Roberts]

I am in the process of attempting to write another book on convicts, and for one of them, Owen Griffiths, I have come across something that I haven't seen before and wondered if anyone else could suggest what it means.

The last entry reads "struck off the record". This is the comment that has me puzzling.

The link below is to the record in question:

https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON34-1-3$init=CON34-1-3P456

[christanel]

Hi Megan
The full link doesn't work for me and I can only get to it by putting the address into a search engine leaving off $init=CON34-1-3P456 then scrolling down the left hand side until I get image 456. What I see is Struck off Record Dec 58. Record for Owen Griffiths. Is this the one you are looking at?
Christina

[Megan Roberts]

Christina

You have the right record.

Megan

[Jomot1]

Just guessing here really, but it looks like his ToL was revoked as he'd absconded, and whatever was struck off the records it was in 1853. This is the same year that transportation to VDL ended, so I would guess that the two events were connected.

[Megan Roberts]

Thanks for your thoughts.

[fullscott]

The term "Struck off Records" occurs often in the WW1 Service Records, so I assume it is the standard phrase to mark the end of any military/monetary responsibility.
Perhaps:
He absconded 1850. They stopped looking 1853. ??

[Megan Roberts]

It's interesting to see that the phrase appears in World War 1 records, since all the convict records were kept by British authorities.
It's possible that as transportation came to an and that they were closing down the open records.

[Lenore]

Just because transportation ceased it doesn't mean they didn't have a full complement of convicts on the books that still required supervision. They didn't all get a Get-Out-Of-Gaol-Free card. Griffiths had arrived in July 1832, and had been convicted in 1831, so by the time he was struck off the record in December 1853 he had served close to 23 years. They may have decided that constituted a Life sentence. Struck off the record is a Military term. It just means they have come to the end of their service - or in this case, servitude. If you were to look in the Gazettes or newspapers in Trove for Griffiths in 1853/54, it may tend to explain more about what it meant for Griffiths.