Report of James Watson on 1 individual petition (prisoner) and 1 collective petition...

Report of James Watson on 1 individual petition (prisoner) and 1 collective petition (12 people, the trial jury) on behalf of James Chandler, captain, master and half owner of brig or vessel called the Winchester, convicted at the Hampshire Summer Assizes at Winchester in 1791, for stealing 12 pieces linen cloth, value £108, property of James Christie, Thomas Fletcher, Joseph Fletcher, John Shaw and Thomas Darlington, at Alverstoke in Hampshire in May 1791. The prisoner's counsel stated that the prisoner should not be convicted as the act was not felonious as the goods were not taken from actual possession of the owner. The report and petition give some information on the work and voyages of the Winchester. Evidences supplied by John Neville, of Newry in Ireland; James Blake, mate on the Winchester; George Bishop, Richard Smith, of Portsmouth Common and Peter Wallis. Grounds for clemency: has a wife and several children to support, the case was conducted only under a particular and mistaken construction of the law, the linen was sold to pay the debts incurred by work done on the Winchester to enable it to complete its journey to London, prisoner offers to transport himself, trial jury considered this to be a civil (and not) criminal issue and so not guilty of a crime at all. Initial sentence: 7 years transportation. Recommendation: none made. Folios 3-17.