Report of R. Beatniffe, Recorder of Hull, on 1 individual petition (prisoner) on...

Report of R. Beatniffe, Recorder of Hull, on 1 individual petition (prisoner) on behalf of John Baynes, labourer and a poor Scotchman who was on his way from Scotland to Norfolk to work on the harvest, convicted at the Hull Midsummer Quarter Sessions in the East Riding of Yorkshire on 12 July 1787, for an assault with a pistol with intent to rob Ann Gardham, servant to William Caddy, at Kirk Ella on 25 May 1787. Evidences supplied by Robert Levitt, constable; John Baynes, William Bibbing, a miller from Anlaby; John Dodworth, a husbandman from Kirk Ella, J. Young and the prisoner. There are letters from Samuel Thornton and Thomas Jackson, the under sheriff of Hull. The prisoner claimed that he called at the house of William Caddy in Kirk Ella to beg a halfpence to pay his fare on the Humber ferry from Hessle. Gardham opened the door and he asked her to request her employers for a half penny. She refused (too early in the morning to come begging) so he left the house but noticed 3 bricklayers at work nearby. He had no pistol or intention of robbing the house. He had been later informed that Gardham had told William Bibbing that she had not seen a pistol. 1 of the bricklayers Adam Jarvis was to have appeared at his trial on his behalf but Mr Caddy said he had no occasion to go. William Bibbing confirmed the events before Ralph Darling, a magistrate, but added that the prisoner had told Ann Gardham that he would shoot her if she did not give him money affirming that he had a pistol in his pocket but she never saw the pistol. John Dodsworth said that he was at work in his own yard adjoining that of William Caddy when Gardham was gave information to Joseph Sykes touching a complaint against the prisoner and his wife heard Ann say 'Damn the fellow I will have him hanged'. His daughter Ann Dodsworth, a friend of Gardham, heard her say that no pistol would be found on the prisoner as he would have thrown it away. His son, aged 12, met the prisoner who asked him the way to Hessle. Thomas Jackson also collected evidences from John Young as to the character of the prisoner. Young was a surgeon at Hull General Infirmary. In the previous year Young had treated the prisoner for the ague, and saw that he was very poor but inoffensive and harmless. Young asked his friends for a few shillings to see the prisoner on his way to Norfolk. 3 months later he came and offered to repay the money and Young testified to his honest character. Finally Adam Jarvis, bricklayer, claimed there was no outcry when the prisoner called at the house until 20 minutes later when Ann's brother asked if he had seen Bayne and if he would go in search of him. This he did and found the prisoner on the ferry boat from which he was removed and searched but no pistol was found. Grounds for clemency: not guilty, if the depositions not forwarded to the magistrate had been available at the trial it would be 'probable' that the prisoner would have been found not guilty, and the confusion in regard to the prosecutrix's testimony. Initial sentence: 7 years transportation. Recommendation: mercy.

Folios 398-410.