Report of S. Worrall, Bristol Town Clerk and Assessor to the Magistrates, under the...

Report of S. Worrall, Bristol Town Clerk and Assessor to the Magistrates, under the direction of the Bristol magistrates on 1 collective petition (26 people, from Ludlow in Shropshire) on behalf of Henry Bock alias Buck, of Bromfield in Shropshire, convicted (with George Fry also for stealing, and Ann Carey, for receiving) at the Epiphany Bristol Quarter Sessions on 18 January 1790, for stealing 100 yards of silk ribbon, value 40/-, property of Sophia Fussell, milliner, on 17 December 1789 in St. Augustine in Bristol. There is also an account of the trial and a covering letter from Thomas Harley. Worral's report refers to the prisoner as previously involved in criminal acts and he, with Clements and two others 'had pick'd a Farmer's Pocket at the last Fair held at Froome in the County of Somerset, of a Bill Value Twenty Pounds and a Sum of Money'. Evidences supplied by Mary Jarman, apprentice to Fussell; Sophia Fussell, John Clements, William Humphreys and the prisoner Fry. Grounds for clemency: first offence, previous good character, parents were of good character, had the prisoner asked any of the petitioners (all respectable people) to give character references in court they would have done and this may have lessened the sentence, 1 of the witnesses (Clements, an accomplice who turned king's evidence) is of bad character, the prisoner was unwilling to let his parents know of his arrest and thus was unable to afford counsel so allowing Clements's testimony to receive credit from the jury, the crime was not aggravated, and there is an offer for the prisoner to enlist in HM. Navy. Initial sentence: Bock and Fry, 7 years transportation; Cary, 14 years transportation. Recommendation: no mercy.

Folios 437-443.