Report of Charles Bragge on 1 collective petition (13 people, from Dudley in Worcestershire...

Report of Charles Bragge on 1 collective petition (13 people, from Dudley in Worcestershire and countersigned by Mr Brooker, Minister of St. Edmunds) and 3 individual petitions/letters (George Gilbert senior, the prisoners father; Admiral Hugh Pigot and Isaac Hawkins Browne) on behalf of George Gilbert, convicted at the 'late' Staffordshire Assizes, for stealing a silver watch, property of Thomas Selvey, his employer. There is a further letter from Isaac Hawkins Browne. Evidences supplied by Thomas Selvey, Samuel White, a carpenter at Wolverhampton and William Devey, a watchmaker at Dudley. Grounds for clemency: youth (17 years), first offence, previous good character (stated also by ex-employers), parents are 'Creditable people', prisoner was recommended to mercy by the jury (fearing a capital sentence), not guilty of the crime - the watch was stolen by a stranger, family very distressed by events, the attorney employer by the prisoner's father was at fault in proving poor advice and a poor defence, the prisoner's farther had voted ('I served you at the Last Contest') for Pigot at the previous elections at Bridgnorth and would always have done so having 4 votes in the family, and that 2 families would be destroyed in the sentence carried out. Initial sentence: transportation. Recommendation: none made.

Folios 450-462.