Report of Sir Henry Hawley, Chairman of the Maidstone Quarter Sessions, on 2 individual...

Report of Sir Henry Hawley, Chairman of the Maidstone Quarter Sessions, on 2 individual petitions (the prisoners) on behalf of Henry Thomsett and William Thomsett, father and son, smugglers, of Offam [Otham, Kent]), convicted at the Kent Maidstone Quarter Sessions, on 15 January 1803, for taking 2 horses, owned by Henry Thomsett, out of the manor pound (pound breech), property of the Earl of Thanet. The horses were in the pound due to a prosecution against Henry Thomsett by one of the Earl of Thanet's [name not given] tenants. The prisoners consider themselves to be traders, the magistrates consider the prisoners smugglers. The prisoners keep horses but own no land; the horses forage for food in the lanes and pastures belonging to other parishioner's. The sentence was exceptionally harsh due to the way the prisoners earn their livelihood, and this the Hawley admits. There are covering letters to the petition from Henry Thomsett (to Mr Wickham) and Joseph White (named in the petition as 'Solicitor for the Crown'). Grounds for clemency: the prisoners gave evidence for the Crown in a case for high treason against O'Connor and others in 1798, the horses were removed by the son as in distress and in need of food and water, the father did not know the son had removed the horses. Initial sentence: 12 months imprisonment and a fine of £10 each. Recommendation: mercy, the initial sentence more severe than necessary. Folios 106-113.