The records were transferred in 1938 by arrangement with the Admiralty. They consist of 107 volumes of letters to the Ticket Office from the Admiralty Office, 1774 to 1815, relating to seamen's pay (class mark, ADM/J). (These form part of the series at the Public Record Office which holds the remainder, 1815 to 1822.) There are also sixteen volumes of abstracts of, and indexes to, Admiralty orders, 1698 to 1785 (ADM/K). Also included in this section is one volume containing pay-books for the Queen, 1694 to 1697, the Quaker ketch, 1683 to 1696, and Queenborough, 1694 to 1697.

Administrative / biographical background
The Ticket Office, a department in the Navy Office, was established in 1674. Its principal responsibilities were redemption of 'tickets' which were often issued to seamen instead of pay, the maintenance of lists of seamen on ships' books, the adjustment of pay-books according to the muster books, and the registering of the pay and allowances of seamen, naval officers and dockyard officers and artificers. Usually there was a clerk from the office at each port who attended the payment of ships' crews and dockyard workers. The office staff grew from three established clerks in 1689 to eighteen in 1758 and remained thereafter around that size until 1829 when the office was abolished and sixteen of the clerks were transferred to a new Ticket and Wages branch of the Navy Office.