Report of Soulden Lawrence on 1 collective petition (98 people, including prosecutor,...

Report of Soulden Lawrence on 1 collective petition (98 people, including prosecutor, magistrates and others of New Sarum, Wiltshire) on behalf of William Smith, soldier of the 34th Foot Regiment, convicted (with 2 other soldiers, James Ovrin and James McCrackin), at the Wiltshire Assizes, Salisbury, on 10 March 1795, for highway robbery, taking 2 half-crowns, 12/-, 6 six-pences, 28 halfpence, a comb and a knife, property of Samuel Scott, on 16 August 1794. Evidences supplied by Samuel Scott. Smith had urged the others to murder so the judge did not respite his case. All 3 had received corporal punishment (by order of a Court Martial, Smith had 350 lashes instead of the 500 ordered, he could not sustain more because of his youth) before being turned over to the civil powers. There is a covering letter to the petition from the Earl of Pembroke and a certificate of good behaviour of the prisoner from James Waight, keeper of the Gaol at Fisherton Anger, Wiltshire. Grounds for clemency: age (18 years), was penitent, good behaviour whilst in prison; the prisoner had not recovered from the lashes received, and already served 7 months in prison. Initial sentence: death. (Ovrin and McCrackin death, subsequently commuted). Recommendation: speaks against mercy. Folios 21-29. See also HO 47/18/12, folios 49-51 for Smith and HO 47/18/58, folios 272-273 for Ovrin and McCrackin.