Prisoner name(s): John Randall and Joseph Randall. Prisoner age: John Randall...

Prisoner name(s): John Randall and Joseph Randall.

Prisoner age: John Randall 23 and Joseph Randall 22.

Court and date of trial: Somerset Lent Assizes in 1828.

Crime: Stealing four pairs of shoes. John Randall attempted to steal three pairs of shoes from the shop of Joseph Crane, a shoemaker of Boatstall Lane, Bath, [Somerset]. Joseph Randall stole one pair of shoes from the shop of Mary Ann Plase, a shopkeeper of Monmouth Street, Bath, [Somerset].

Initial sentence: John Randall received fourteen years transportation. Joseph Randall received transportation for life.

Gaoler's report: Character, connections and former course of life bad. Both convicted of felony before.

Annotated (Outcome): Nil.

Petitioner(s): John Randall (prisoners' father), a mason of Bath, [Somerset] undersigned by 11 inhabitants of Bath, [Somerset] including the prisoners' prosecutors.

Grounds for clemency (Petition Details): The petitioner's father is solely dependent on the prisoners' support and subsistence in his old age; the prisoners were convicted because the petitioner was unable to employ an advocate; John Randall was intoxicated when he went to the prosecutor's shop to buy two pairs of shoes; John Randall mistakenly put three pairs of shoes into his apron; John Randall had no intention of stealing them; John Randall apologised for his mistake and immediately returned the shoes to the prosecutor's wife; Joseph Randall met a strange man who asked him to pawn a pair of shoes; the man absconded before Joseph Randall was able to identify him; the prisoners will come to repent keeping improper company; the prisoners will become honest and useful members of society.