Definition
Tation is an archaic legal term referring to the act of returning to England before the lawful term of transportation or banishment has expired. A person sentenced to transportation — exile to a penal colony or foreign territory as criminal punishment — committed tation by coming back to England prior to the completion or formal remission of that sentence. The return itself constituted a distinct offense, typically punishable by death or further severe penalty.
Common Confusion
Tation should not be confused with the broader concept of transportation as a punishment, nor with pardon or ticket-of-leave, which were formal mechanisms by which a transported convict might lawfully return or gain conditional freedom. Tation specifically describes the unauthorized, premature return — the unlawful act, not the sentence or its lawful conclusion.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is nearly extinct in modern legal usage and will appear almost exclusively in historical English criminal law materials, particularly sources from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries when transportation to American colonies and later to Australia was a major feature of English penal practice. Researchers working in Old Bailey records, Quarter Sessions materials, or parliamentary debates on penal reform will encounter the underlying offense — returning from transportation — described variously as "returning from transportation," "being at large," or occasionally by this term. The formal codification of transportation and its penalties evolved considerably over this period, so the applicable statute and the precise consequence of unlawful return shifted depending on the era. Researchers should anchor any encounter with this term to the specific period and governing statute, as the punishment for premature return ranged from automatic execution to secondary transportation depending on the legislative moment.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary defines tation simply as "coming back to England before the term of punishment is determined." This compressed entry reflects how thoroughly the term had fallen from active use even by the time Black's was compiled — it survives in the dictionary more as a fossil of English penal history than as a term with living legal application. Historical dictionaries offer little elaboration, and the entry's brevity is itself informative: by the late nineteenth century, transportation as a sentence had effectively ended (Australia ceased receiving convicts by 1868), rendering tation a dead letter. No meaningful divergence exists across historical dictionary sources because the term appears to have had only this single, narrow application. Researchers should not expect to find robust doctrinal development around this term; its legal life was purely statutory and practical, not conceptual.
Jurisdictional Note
Tation is exclusively an English legal term arising from the English system of penal transportation. It has no recognized counterpart in American, Scottish, or other common law jurisdictions, and no modern jurisdiction uses the term in operative law.