2 reports of George Chetwynd, Chairman of the Staffordshire Quarter Sessions on 1...

2 reports of George Chetwynd, Chairman of the Staffordshire Quarter Sessions on 1 individual petition (the prisoner) on behalf of Charles Flint, trainee lawyer/attorney's clerk (tried with John Wilkes, dealer in earthenware; Joseph Hawkins, cordwainer; and others) convicted at the Staffordshire Michaelmas Quarter Sessions 1823 of an attempt to rescue Wilkes and Hawkins (after a riot and damage to certain crops of grass and herbage property of Joseph Picken). There is a copy of a letter from Robert Peel remitting the sentence; a letter from P Seckerson to Chetwynd regarding the management of the estate of Sir George Jerningham and the preparation of the indictment; a letter from Thomas Brutton (includes a transcribed copy of a letter from Abraham Flint); an unsigned note; a calendar of the prisoner for trial at the Lent Assizes 1824 (dated December 1823); 3 letters from William Tooke; a letter from Chetwynd submitting a libel from Charles Flint published in the Litchfield Mercury, 31 October 1823; a statement of the libel; and a copy of the minutes of evidence. The petition contains a long and detailed account of the events. Grounds for clemency: of previous good character, the prisoner has to associate with vagrants and vagabonds, refused any nourishment other than the gaol allowance, the judge had not interpreted the law correctly, had led the jury into an improper verdict and his liver complaint was exacerbated by prison food. Initial Sentence: 6 months imprisonment with hard labour and to pay a fine of £100. Recommendation: no mercy, a lenient sentence. Folios 13-59.