Report of John William Rose, Recorder of London, on 3 individual petitions (Sir John...

Report of John William Rose, Recorder of London, on 3 individual petitions (Sir John Peter, His Majesty's Consul in the Austrian Netherlands; Captain Henry Jones, of the Bay of Honduras, and the prisoner) on behalf of William Jones, shopkeeper, convicted at the Old Bailey in December 1783 (in the petition January 1784), for feloniously receiving 14 brass and steel locks and 17 iron keys, value £13:17:0, property of James Oldham, ironmonger at Holborn in Middlesex. Evidences supplied by James Oldham, Mr Isaacs, constable; Jonathan Redgrave, Elizabeth Dunn, Francis Brett, 'kept an Iron-shop'; Amos Adams, George Woodwood and James Watkins, paper stainer. There is also an enclosure letter from William S. Jones, the prisoner's father and a copy made of the letter/petition from Sir John Peter. Grounds for clemency: very good conduct since conviction authenticated by respectable people, mother and father would be much comforted by his return, when the ship transporting him was in the English Channel there was a mutiny which presented the opportunity to escape (he did not), that he was ill on the journey to Honduras (as per his sentence) and spent some time first in Jamaica before continuing to Honduras and that ill health continued and saw him move to Ostend (where he lived for 4 years). Initial sentence: 14 years transportation. Recommendation: mercy, to find sureties for the time equal to remainder of his sentence.

Folios 159-171.