Prisoner name: David McCulloch, aged 45 years; also indicted as the said David McCulloch...

Prisoner name: David McCulloch, aged 45 years; also indicted as the said David McCulloch assisted by Robert Marshall Reid (now deceased) with Joseph Goodsir and James Reid.

Court and Date of Trial: Edinburghshire Circuit Court of Justiciary, Edinburgh, 23 July 1849.

Crime: Theft, Breach of Trust and Embezzlement, of £31,161 sterling from the British Linen Company Bank, Glasgow, and invested in speculative railway development.

Initial sentence: 21 years transportation.

Gaoler's Report: 'Character good'.

Outcome: 'Conditional pardon, 12 July 1855' (commuted to 14 years transportation); then 'Discharge on license 30 July 1855'. Held in Glasgow Gaol [Lanarkshire], Wakefield Prison [West Riding of Yorkshire] and Portland Prison [Dorset].

Petitions and letters: Printed indictment; initial petition from 28 inhabitants of [Glasgow] (known to the prisoner) including James Anderson (Lord Provost), 14 justices, eight clergymen and six others; letter from Alexander Hastie transmitting the initial petition to the Home Office and enclosing a petition from George Salmond (known to the prisoner); Lord Justice Clerk's notes of the case; his judges' report on the case; 27 subsequent applications with supporting letters and certificates; prisoner's convict report from Portland Prison.

Grounds for clemency cited as previous good character; respectable connexions; the sentence is excessively severe; fell victim to speculative mania; no intention to defraud; unable to restore the money, he voluntarily confessed to his employers and gave up all his assets in recompense; his remorse; his extensive family now rely on the parish for support; good conduct in prison; the ends of justice have been served.

[Lengthy petition No.10 from the prisoner dated 28 July 1851 sets out in full detail his self-confessed fall from respectability to penury].