Report of John Skynner on 1 individual petition (prisoner) and 1 collective petition...

Report of John Skynner on 1 individual petition (prisoner) and 1 collective petition (14 members of the grand jury) on behalf of Thomas Greenwood, convicted at the Northamptonshire Summer Assizes, on 23 June 1784, for a burglary and stealing 1 silver pint mug and 2 silver plated tankards from the public house of Francis Gillins. There is a covering letter from Sir Justinian Isham, jury foreman, which enclosed the collective petition. Evidences supplied by Francis Gillins, innkeeper; Francis Simmons, worker at a public house in Hinckley and John Schofield, the Northampton Gaol Keeper. The judge draws attention to the planned crimes he claims to have informed on by stating that this should perhaps count against him as evidence of his criminal connections ('to render him improper to have his liberty in this Country'). Grounds for clemency: the prisoner's father, owing large amounts of money on bonds, died insolvent 14 years ago, prisoner and his mother entered into unsuccessful business partnerships as woolstaplers in Leeds (West Riding of Yorkshire) to repay the money but lost everything when goods sent to America were not paid for and Bankruptcy proceedings started and he lost the whole of his estates and effects, forced to leave home he travelled as an auctioneer and hawker before pressed into the navy on board the Atlanta man-of-war and served in the navy for 3 years in America, evidence against him was circumstantial only, has served 2 years imprisonment (so his sentence was unlikely to be carried out) during which time his mental and physical health was damaged, while in gaol has informed on several planned robberies (at Peterborough, Postland, Kenilworth, Litchfield, Tameworth and 'Proprietors of the Canals near Stew Pondy in Worcestershire' [Stewponey in Kinver in Staffordshire], he also informed on a planned gaol break and he offered to transport himself for the time of sentence. Initial sentence: 7 years transportation. Recommendation: that the prisoner be able to transport himself.

Folios 270-278.