Two reports of James Heath on 3 individual petitions (the prisoner, Harriet Thomas...

Two reports of James Heath on 3 individual petitions (the prisoner, Harriet Thomas and Robert Thomson, pilot at Deal, [Kent]) and 1 collective petition (225 fellow prisoners at the Surrey County Gaol) on behalf of James MacConnell, merchant, convicted at the Surrey Assizes at Kingston, held on 24 March 1803, for the forgery of an endorsement on a bill of exchange, value £450, to be drawn by ----- Manning of North America, on the account of Messrs Dickason & Burgess in London, in favour of Robert McDowell of Grenada, the bill was endorsed in the name of John Mc Dowell. The case was prosecuted by the Post Office. The General Post Office in London could not find John McDowell. The 'direction' of the letter was written on a list and hung up in the yard of the post office. A person unknown added the address in pencil, Kings Bench, St. Georges Fields. The letter was then given to the Kings Bench Prison postman who knew there was a debtor there by the name of James McConnel and gave the letter to the prisoner. A friend of the prisoner, ------ Richards, also a former convict, presented the bill for payment. The bill had been indorsed J McConnel in the prisoner's handwriting. The prisoner had been a merchant of Dunkirk. In the first report Heath considered it improbable that a merchant of Dunkirk would correspond with a planter of Grenada. He also mentions a petition on behalf of William Stephens, which he [Heath] refused to accept as it was charged with a heavy postage. Stephens was convicted of burglary, from a house near Guildford, at 'the last' Surrey Assizes, value £30, but 'he Stole every Thing, that he could find'. The judge says he 'Stands nearly in the same Predicament as Joseph Rose whose case I have reported; and I have left Stephens for Execution on the same Grounds as I left Rose.' In the second report the notes of Lord Auckland were not taken into consideration as they had fallen from the packet and become mixed up with other papers. Heath notes that 'It seems to me to be a clear Rule that a Prisoner cannot entitle himself to the Royal Mercy unless he makes a Confession of his Crime, especially when that Crime is clearly proved, and if he has possessed himself of the Property of another unless he very early make a restitution to the utmost of his ability.' He disparages Aucklands comments. With regard to the prisoners services abroad, Heath leaves this to the Home Secretary's discretion. There is a covering letter from Mr Parkin, to 'observations' 'which W.P. put into the Hands of Lord Auckland, some days ago.' There are letters from: Auckland inferring that the prisoner gave into temptation after he obtained the bill by accident and there was no fraudulent practice in that only in endorsing the bill; Lachland Grant [Lackland Grant], fellow convict, who was prepared to give evidence at the trial but was not called. Grant states that McConnel expected remittances from 'the very same House from which the Bill came' Heath, stating the contents of the bundle he received for McConnel's case. Also enclosed are: T. Freeling, a covering letter to the petition Auckland and Spencer, (copy) of the 'Postmaster General's minute on Mr King's of the 1 April 1803;' Viscount Melville, a covering letter to the petition the prisoner to N. B. Lewis, giving a detailed statement of the people he has helped escape from Dunkirk, including Government officials, merchants, Naval Captain's, pilots to the English Fleet, and Army Officers J. E. Brown to Thomas Chitty asking him to recollect the prisoners services to him at Dunkirk; a reply from Chitty to Brown George Shee, a covering letter to paperwork Lord Pelham to George Shee., Pelham wishes there to be an enquiry into the case. If the prisoner supplies a confession of guilt, or the names of the people who assisted him in passing the note then the prisoner shall be further respited Thomas Chitty to Colonel Calvert asking him to state that the prisoner assisted people in escaping from Dunkirk. Grounds for clemency: has spent a considerable time in prison, the prisoner thought the letter was for him, the prisoner assisted many British prisoners of war in Dunkirk and elsewhere to escape and return home (which brought him to the attention of the French authorities), if given a short time he would be able to secure the signatures of many respectable people, his poverty made it impossible for him to secure witnesses at his trial. Initial sentence: death. Recommendation: Heath strongly speaks against mercy. Pelham commutes the sentence to transportation for life after consideration of all the papers as one item is considered to be a confession of guilt by the convict, which is what Heath had required. Folios 163-228.