Report of W Thorbrooke, Chairman of the Nottinghamshire Quarter Sessions on 1 Collective...

Report of W Thorbrooke, Chairman of the Nottinghamshire Quarter Sessions on 1 Collective petition (ministers, churchwardens and overseers of Basford and Sutton, Nottinghamshire) on behalf of William Pickburn, stocking maker, convicted at the Nottinghamshire Epiphany Quarter Sessions 1822 'for being at night armed for the destruction of game' [poaching], on 'Mr Holden's Manor at Nuttal' [Nuttall, Nottinghamshire]. The prisoner was captured with an accomplice by the name of Brown who fired at a gamekeeper. The prisoner was caught (with Brown) but later escaped. Brown was captured but whilst resisting arrest was injured and later died. Pickburn was retaken without resistance. Grounds for clemency; the prisoner was intoxicated at the time of the crime, acted under the persuasion of Brown, the prisoner did not resist arrest, the trial was late and the prisoner's attorney had left the court, the prisoner is of previous good character and has a wife and four children to support who are now reliant on parochial relief. Initial sentence: not given. Recommendation: none made. Folios 257-259.