Report of John William Rose, Recorder of London, on 2 individual petitions (prisoner;...

Report of John William Rose, Recorder of London, on 2 individual petitions (prisoner; Elizabeth Scoldwell, prisoner's wife) and 2 collective petitions (8 Jurors; 15 people, from Soho, Cheapside, Charterhouse Square and vicinity in London/Middlesex) on behalf of Charles Scoldwell, an 'Officer of Justice' for the Sheriff of London and previously an Excise Officer, convicted at the Old Bailey in September 1796, for stealing 2 live tame ducks, value 3/-, on 23 July 'last', property of Thomas Spurling, baker at Bedfont in Middlesex, on 22 July 'last'. The prisoner was currently held in Newgate. Scoldwell had been visiting Spurling with the purpose of serving a writ regarding a debt. Evidences supplied by Thomas Spurling, Elizabeth Tyler, servant to the prosecutor; Joseph Sadler, stagecoach man; William Wager, keeper of the Duke's Head public house at Bedfont, John Taylor and the prisoner. Grounds for clemency: his late father in law was the Reverend Humphrey Larwell of Ridgewell in Essex, prisoner claims he was intoxicated and incapable of discerning what he was doing, has a wife and 5 small children, he killed the ducks not knowing they belonged to Spurling and took them to a pub where he enquired who they belonged to and offered satisfaction for them, and that Spurling was vindictive and continued the prosecution after a magistrate had sought to influence him to do otherwise. Initial sentence: 7 years transportation. Recommendation: speaks against mercy. Folios 357-366.