Convict love token engraved with the names J. Lea and M.A. Johnson, 1835

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Type: Convict love tokens
Materials: Metal - non specific
Collection: Timothy Millett collection
Accession number: 2008.0039.0172

Description

A convict love token, made up of a coin, engraved on both sides with stippled text. One side features the text 'J Lea / M A Johnson / 1835' inside an ornate border. The other side features the text 'When this you / see remember me / and bear me in your / mind let all the world / say what they will / speak of me as you / find'. The token has a hole in it that was pierced after the token was engraved.

This token may relate to Joseph Lea, a boot and clothes cleaner, who was tried and convicted at the Central Criminal Court for stealing a watch, knife sovereign, 3 shillings and a sixpence belonging to William Stevenson, his master. He was also convicted of stealing a coat from Charles Martin. Lea was sentenced to seven years' transportation, and sailed for New South Wales on the Norfolk on 27 October 1836, arriving 12 February 1837.

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, 5:01:07 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2025-02-23. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.