Report of William Mainwaring on 1 individual petition (prisoner) on behalf of Joseph...

Report of William Mainwaring on 1 individual petition (prisoner) on behalf of Joseph Smith, tailor, convicted at the Westminster Quarter Sessions in June 1798, for stealing a pocket book, value 2d, property of Richard Mansel Phillips, on 10 April 1798. Evidences supplied by Richard Mansel Phillips and others. Mainwaring writes: 'Joseph Smith is a known common Thief and is one of those called Gentlemen Pickpockets, assuming the dress and appearance of a Gentleman and frequenting places of Public resort and mixing with genteel People.' The prisoner was confined in prison 3 months before his trial because of a delay in his trial. The jury was told that Phillips was about to be ordered abroad on public service, and the prisoner applied for his trial to be put off until June and also swore that 1 of his witnesses, important to his trial, would also be abroad in Ireland. When the prisoner was tried no such witness appeared for him. Grounds for clemency: reported to the authorities on a gang of housebreakers, possibility of him being reformed so that he may take up his former trade as a tailor. Initial sentence: 7 years transportation. Recommendation: 1 or 2 years imprisonment in Cold Bath Fields House of Correction. Folios 302-303.