Prisoner name(s): John Palmer alias John Money Dennington and John Mortimer Algar....

Prisoner name(s): John Palmer alias John Money Dennington and John Mortimer Algar.

Prisoner age: John Palmer 21.

Prisoner occupation: John Palmer was an apprentice carpenter in Kent. John Mortimer Algar was in service to a gentleman residing in Bressingham, Norfolk for five years.

Court and date of trial: Norfolk Lent Assizes held at Thetford on 15 March 1828.

Crime: Uttering forged Bank Of England Notes. John Palmer purchased eight £5 notes, two £1 notes and two sovereigns through William Brewster (alias William Hardy) a shopkeeper of 54 White Horse Lane,[London] and Zippel or Ezekiel (alias Thomas Rowland) the landlord of the Three Compasses Pub in Shadwell Old Market, [London]. John Palmer disposed of the money in Norfolk with the assistance of John Mortimer Algar.

Initial sentence: [Death], commuted to unknown for John Palmer and transportation for life for John Mortimer Algar.

Annotated (Outcome): John Palmer: respited 2 April 1828, pardon prepared 3 April; John Mortimer Algar was granted a conditional pardon in 1838.

Petitioner(s): Two petitions from Nine Norfolk magistrates.

W Freshfield & Sons, solicitors to the Bank of England (prosecutor) of New Bank Buildings, [London].

Two petitions from Edmund Wodehouse magistrate of Norwich, [Norfolk].

James Hales undersheriff of Thetford, Norwich, [Norfolk].

15 inhabitants of Norwich, [Norfolk] on behalf of John Palmer including Lord Stafford.

Nine inhabitants of Trowse Millgate, Norwich, [Norfolk] on behalf of John Palmer.

Six petitions from John Postle (friend of John Palmer's natural father) magistrate of Colney, Norwich, Norfolk].

66 inhabitants of Brandon, [Norfolk] on behalf of John Mortimer Algar.

Two petitions from Lord Glenelg's office in Downing Street, London in favour of John Mortimer Algar.

Two petitions from Sir Richard Bourke KCB of London the former Captain General Governor and Commander in Chief of New South Wales including a memorial from Sir John Jamison (John Mortimer Algar's employer/assigned colonist).

Grounds for clemency (Petition Details): John Palmer: mother is distraught; father had died by the time his master carpenter had been declared bankrupt; youth and inexperience made him an easy target for depraved senior persons who taught him the habits of dishonesty and idleness; a talented young man who could become a useful and honest member of society; the prisoners' executions will have no salutary influence on the public mind because justice in Norwich is currently inconsistent; evidence of the prisoners' good characters were held back at the trial because they were expecting to be shown indulgence by pleading a minor part in the offence; by 1838 John Mortimer Algar was in a position to receive mercy; he had served the time required by law to qualify for a pardon and possessed a ticket of leave.

Other papers: John Palmer's two confessions sent by Reverend William Broon, the Chaplain of Norwich County Gaol, [Norfolk].

Two letters from John Johnson the governor of Norwich Castle, [Norfolk].

Home office report on W Freshfield's evidence.

Letter from W Freshfield & Sons.

Note from Edmund Wodehouse.

Note from Thomas Anysh of the Home Office, [London].

Additional Information: The prisoners were tried by Judge Baron Garrow.

The Norwich magistrates recommended that the prisoners be transported for life. This was not a unanimous recommendation for John Palmer.

John Palmer is the illegitimate son of the deceased Lieutenant General Money of Trowse Newton, Norfolk.

John Palmer absconded from Norwich in 1827 for a poaching transaction.

John Mortimer Algar arrived in New South Wales on the Lord Melville in 1829.