Convict love token from T. Jones to Mary, 1819

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Type: Convict love tokens
Materials: Metal - non specific
Collection: Timothy Millett collection
Accession number: 2008.0039.0035

Description

A convict love token, made up of a round metal disc, engraved on both sides. One side features the text 'When / this you see / Remember me / when I am / far away / T Jones / March 1 / 1819'. The other side features the text 'Dear / Mary take / not this amiss / for your well / wisher has / sent you / this My / Js'.

This token may relate to Thomas Jones, 16, shoemaker, who was tried and convicted at the Middlesex Gaol Delivery on 17 February 1819 for the theft of a shawl from John Brown's draper's shop on the corner of Parliament Street, Whitehall, on 2 February 1819. He was sentenced to seven years' transportation. Jones sailed for Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) on the Guilford on 12 May 1820. Jones's indent records that he measured 5 feet 3 1/2 inches (1.6 metres), had dark hair and a fair to ruddy complexion. Jones appears to have made tokens for two people: this one for 'Mary', and one for his brother John.

About the collection

The Timothy Millett collection comprises 307 convict love tokens dating from 1762 to 1856, and seven contemporary documents relating to the criminal justice system including: recommendations to commute the death sentences of Hester Sampson and Thomas Hayes to life transportation; a calendar of prisoners awaiting trial in the goals of Durham, Newcastle and Northumberland; a request to the Middlesex assizes for rewards to be paid; a printed copy of George Skene's last speech prior to execution; a printed broadside listing prisoners in Dorchester jail awaiting transportation; and a 60 page handwritten account of the life of Thomas Jones, who was transported twice and finally hanged at Winchester Prison in 1856. Convict love tokens, typically made from smoothed-down coins and engraved or stippled with a message, derive from traditional sailors' farewells. The production of these 'leaden hearts' rose as criminal indictments increased in Britain, with the majority produced during the 1820s and 1830s. As mementos made by or for convicts facing transportation (or death) to leave behind for their loved ones, the tokens provide a poignant, personal insight into the transportation system.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 6:20:35 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2026-08-10. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.