Prisoner name(s): John Mitchell ( or John Mitchel). Prisoner age: 'a boy'....

Prisoner name(s): John Mitchell ( or John Mitchel).

Prisoner age: 'a boy'.

Prisoner occupation: Labourer.

Court and date of trial: Monmouth Town Sessions, Monmouthshire, 14 May 1829.

Crime: Non-payment of a fine of one guinea and eleven shillings costs resulting from an assault upon Ann Charles (wife of Thomas Charles, labourer) on 6 May 1829 in the Barley Mow public house, Monmouth.

Initial sentence: Two months imprisonment.

Annotated (Outcome): Nil.

Petitioner(s): Herbert Harris (defence attorney) two applications.

Grounds for clemency (Petition Details): Not in a good state of health; the convict's father was in dispute with the magistrates on a personal matter before the crime and both the charge and the sentence were vindictive; the charge was erroneous as there was no complaint about an assault, only about a theft; it was wrong that there could be no appeal against a sentence imposed by lay persons raised to the bench less than a year previously.

Other papers: Printed committal by Edmund Bond Prosser (Mayor of Monmouth) and James Burton (Bailiff) the trial magistrates. Letter from Herbert Harris to the Home Department pursuing a reply to his petition. Letter of response from Edmund Bond Prosser. Letter from Herbert Harris to Robert Peel complaining at the lack of justice in the case, particularly that inquiries were probably made to the magistrates themselves respecting their own conduct.

Additional Information: An account of the crime and the underlying dispute is given.