Report of Richard Perryn on 1 individual petition (Mr Baring, MP for Exeter) on behalf...

Report of Richard Perryn on 1 individual petition (Mr Baring, MP for Exeter) on behalf of John Harris, of Hampton in Shute, convicted at the 'last' Devon Assizes at Exeter for stealing 1 ewe sheep, property of Samuel French, on 8 July 1786. Evidences supplied by Robert Froom junior, Thomas Potter, Henry Loud/Lowd, (all of Shute) Benjamin Follett and Giles Davie (both of Lyme Regis). The judge chose Harris as an example at the assizes (2 others capitally convicted of similar offences were reprieved in his circuit letter). Grounds for clemency: people who hold land under Sir John William Pole the leases of which are determinable on the death of the prisoner and would lose their lands which would result poverty for them and their families, also that the mutton found in the prisoner's house could have been placed there by someone else. Initial sentence: death. Recommendation: none made.

Folios 298-304.