4 individual petitions (prisoner and 2 are undersigned by Robert Williams, gaoler)...

4 individual petitions (prisoner and 2 are undersigned by Robert Williams, gaoler) on behalf of David Edwards, upper servant and innkeeper of Nantwich, Cheshire and for 12 years in Ruabon, Denbighshire, convicted at the Quarter Sessions in Denbigh on 27 January 1825 (committed 24 November 1824), of stealing a common fowl, value 1/-.

• There is also a note undersigning petition by John Jones, gaol chaplain and Robert Williams, gaoler certifying prisoner's good conduct during confinement.
• A letter from R Newcome, clerk to visiting magistrates of County of Denbigh, enclosing petition certifying prisoner's good behaviour and that he deserves the same consideration as Evan Williams. He also mentions that David Edwards has been liberated from the House of Correction at Wrexham for a petty offence just previous to this offence.
• A note by Robert Williams, gaoler certifying prisoner's good conduct and the amount of time served.
• A note by Robert Newcome, clerk to visiting magistrates of County of Denbigh, and John Jones, gaol chaplain undersigning petition certifying to prisoner's good conduct.
• A letter from R Newcome to Home Department reminding them that in their letter of 14 May 1825 they would mitigate prisoner's sentence once he had served the same amount of time as Evan Williams.

Grounds for clemency: age (over 80 years); feeble and emaciated - will not survive duration of sentence; Judge Watkin William Wynn (baronet), recommended a remission of sentence and that only his grey hairs saved him from a whipping; served 2 months before trial as was committed on 24 November 1824; good behaviour during confinement; first offence; previous good character - worked hard as a servant and then innkeeper; fell into difficulties and became a pauper in his old age when he and his aged wife were only allowed 1/6 a week from the parish; served the same term of confinement as Evan Williams, another prisoner convicted on the same charge with petitioner who received 10 months; another 2 cases were tried at same sessions - John Davies, convicted of stealing wheat to the value of 10/- was sentenced to 6 months in gaol and Humphrey Evans convicted of stealing a silver spoon to the value of 5/- was sentenced to 3 months in gaol and this has led him to feel he has been treated unfairly and the judge is deeply prejudiced against poachers; case of Isaac Shaw, aged 10 sentenced at last Cheshire sessions to 3 months in gaol for stealing game hens and fellow prisoner Robert Foulkes was tried and convicted to only 6 months for stealing geese to the value of 5/- in aggravating circumstances - feels there is a contrast in the administration of justice and disparity of punishment; petty crime was converted to grand larceny at trial. Initial sentence: 2 years imprisonment with hard labour in the gaol of Ruthin in county of Denbighshire, North Wales. Annotated: remission - October 1825. EL18

References and Date