Prisoner name: Benjamin Sparks (or Benjamin Sparkes) and Thomas Burbury (or Thomas...

Prisoner name: Benjamin Sparks (or Benjamin Sparkes) and Thomas Burbury (or Thomas Burberry).

Prisoner age: Sparks aged 20, Burbury aged 22.

Prisoner occupation: Burbury a ribbon weaver.

Court and date of trial: Coventry Lent Assizes, March 1832.

Crime: Destroying a power loom used in silk manufacture, belonging to Josiah Beck, in Coventry on 7 November 1831.

Initial sentence: Death, commuted to transportation for life (Burbury). Sparks reprieved.

Gaoler's report: Day of execution 9 April.

Petitioner(s): 12 members of jury.

William Burberry of Sovereign Place, Coventry, former quarter master in 4th Dragoons, the prisoner's father.

The prisoners, undersigned by 129 inhabitants of Coventry.

139 members of Congregation of Protestant Dissenters of Well Street Chapel, Coventry.

Two petitions from Religious Society of Friends, Coventry, one signed by 13 members and one by 20 members.

Vicar, curate, churchwardens and vestrymen of parish of Holy Trinity, Coventry.

46 master ribbon manufacturers of Coventry.

131 members of Society and Congregation of Wesleyan Methodists, Coventry.

104 members of Congregation of Protestant Dissenters of Cow Lane Chapel, Coventry.

161 members of Congregation of Protestant Dissenters of Vicar Lane Chapel, Coventry.

96 members of Congregation of Protestant Dissenters of West Orchard Chapel, Coventry.

86 clergy, churchwardens and principal inhabitants of parish of St John, Coventry.

Two petitions from Josiah Beck of Coventry, machine maker, the prosecutor.

10 inhabitants of Coventry.

Grounds for clemency (Petition Details): Youth; good character; Jury recommend mercy; not a political crime; prisoner Burbury protected prosecutor against injury; families dependent on their wages.

Other papers: Printed hand bill of proceedings of meeting of ribbon manufacturers of Coventry, 8 November 1831.

Judge's notes of case against prisoners and five others for destroying machinery, with letter from Sir James Parke, trial judge, expressing satisfaction with verdict.

Letter from James Beck, Coventry, castigating the civil authorities for neglecting their duty to supress the riot.

Letter from Fitzroy Somerset, Horse Guards, forwarding petition from William Burberry.

Letter from Thomas Wilmot, Coventry, explaining that at the time of the offence the ribbon weavers were in a state of great distress by lack of employment.

19 affidavits in favour of prisoner Burbury: William Hill, confectioner and Charlotte Hill, his wife; John Bassett, John Burbury, Joseph Foster, David Walker, John Wright, all weavers, William Barton, warehouseman, Henry Conway, apprentice, Thomas Buckler, printer, Elizabeth Bromsgrove, weaver, and Hannah Facer, warper, Mary Bake, widow, Elizabeth Cooper wife of William Cooper, hosier, Peter Gregory, parish clerk of St John the Baptist, James Peggs, dissenting minister, Samuel Wilson, machine maker, Charles Walsall, watchmaker, William Roberts, machine filer, Richard Marriott, attorney, with two covering letters from Percy FitzPatrick.

Letters in favour of prisoners from George Baddeley, secretary of the Committee of Ribbon Weavers of Coventry (two letters), Edward Goode, weaver (two letters), Edward Celine (two letters), Lord Warwick, the Reverend Samuel Stanley Paris, minister of St John's parish (two letters), Richard Marriott, Percy FitzPatrick (two letters), Peter Gregory, collector of poor rates, Holy Trinity parish, T B Troughton and Sons, Josiah Beck (two letters), James Peggs (three letters), John Sibree, dissenting minister, H Waddington, Society of Weavers, J Hands, Joseph Parkes -'no good can result from the execution - every evil will', James Beck, William Ward.

Letter from Samuel Carter, gaoler, informing that date of execution changed to 11 April.

Letter from J Parke stating that it pained him to pass a capital sentence but that the matter is now entirely with the Home Secretary.

Letter from Walter Farquhar Hook, vicar of Trinity parish, and S S Paris, undersigned by nine religious leaders, appealing to the king, with reply.

Covering letter for final petition from E Celine.

Additional Information: Prisoners held in Coventry gaol. Burbury transported to Van Diemen's Land. Appointed constable in Launceston.