Prisoner name: Robert Hall aged 21. Court and Date of Trial: Norfolk Assizes March...

HO 18/231/22

1848-1854

Prisoner name: Robert Hall aged 21.

Court and Date of Trial: Norfolk Assizes March 1846.

Crime: Arson.

Initial sentence: Transportation for twenty years.

Gaoler's Report: Character not known.

Outcome: On Thames at Bermuda. Died.

Petitions and letters: Three petitions by 53, 45 and 7 inhabitants of Knapton Norfolk pleading doubts as to the prisoner's guilt as he was not the person who set fire to the hay stacks, the evidence of the police was unworthy of credit and asking for a mitigation of the sentence; three petitions by Peter Hall prisoner's father, pleading prisoner's good conduct, badly advised by counsel, good conduct in prison and at Bermuda and asking for a mitigation of the sentence; petition by Venerable Archdeacon Glover and Reverend W Barnes stating their belief that the prisoner is innocent, confirming prisoner's good conduct in Bermuda, offer of employment and asking for a mitigation of the sentence; petition and letters by Reverend W Barnes forwarding particulars of prisoner's conduct at Bermuda and pleading similar grounds; letter from J Windham, committing magistrate, opposing any mitigation of the sentence as the prisoner is a bad character and guilty of the offence; despatch from Charles Elliot, governor of Bermuda, forwarding petition and stating that the prisoner has served six years and his conduct has been good; letter forwarding despatch from Governor of Bermuda to Home Office; draft letter from HW [Waddington] to Glover and Barnes advising them that approaching the Governor of Bermuda was irregular and all correspondence should be through the Home Office; printed letter from Edward Postle, magistrate, to the magistrates of Norfolk, concerning the conduct of the Chief Constable of Norfolk in regard to collecting evidence and his treatment of Superintendent Henry Hubbersley; report by Baron Parke, trial judge, with notes of evidence stating that he was satisfied with the verdict; affidavits by Henry Lakey, John Coleby, Charlotte Pooley, Samuel Sewell, Robert Watts, Benjamin Gee, Charles Edingthorpe; letter from J Coleman; letter from Reverend Barnes applying on behalf of the prisoner's father for any monies due to the convict on his death.

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Public Record(s)

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