Tyburn Ticket
Preserved but no longer current.
A certificate which, under a statute of William III, was granted to prosecutors who had secured a capital con- viction against a criminal, exempting them from all parish and ward offices within the parish in which the felony had been committed. This, with the privilege it conferred, might be sold once, and once only, and the Stamford Mercury for March 27th, 1818, announced the sale of one for £280. The Act was repealed by 58 Geo. Ill, c. 70.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Tyburn Ticket” mean?
A certificate which, under a statute of William III, was granted to prosecutors who had secured a capital con- viction against a criminal, exempting them from all parish and ward offices within the parish in which the felony had been committed. This, with the privilege it conferred, might be sold once, and once only, and the Stamford Mercury for March 27th, 1818, announced the sale of one for £280. The Act was repealed by 58 Geo. Ill, c. 70.
Is “Tyburn Ticket” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.