Report of Robert Dallas on 2 collective petitions (9 people, comprising the prisoner,...

Report of Robert Dallas on 2 collective petitions (9 people, comprising the prisoner, prosecutor, ministers, constables, the overseer and others of Duckinfield [Dukinfield], Cheshire; and 9 people, including an overseer of Duckinfield [Duckinfield] and a previous employer of the prisoner) on behalf of Samuel Andrew, hatter, convicted at the Chester Assizes in September 1808, for burglary and theft of linen cloth, shoes, stockings and other materials from Daniel Roberts, shopkeeper at Mottram Longdendale [Mottram-in-Longdendale] on 4 May 1808. Evidences supplied by Daniel Roberts, shopkeeper (grocery and drapery); James Bostock, constable at Stockport; ------- Birch, constable; Sarah Hatfield; William Home, and James Yearsley, dyer. There is a covering letter from William Wilberforce; a certificate of good character from John Richardson, manufacturer of hats, the prisoner's previous employer; a certificate of good behaviour from Matthew Hudson, constable of Chester Castle; and a certificate of good character from John Rowland, to whom the prisoner was apprenticed for 7 years. Grounds for clemency: previous good character, first offence, is penitent and contrite, he has a wife with respectable connections and 3 children dependent on him all now in great distress being dependent on his labour, he has an offer of employment and there were no aggravating circumstances to the theft. Initial sentence: death, commuted to transportation for life. Recommendation: none made but no real objects to mercy. Folios 23-36.