Catalogue description Prisoner name: Isaac Bennett and Thomas Williamson. Prisoner age: Bennett aged 30,...

Prisoner name: Isaac Bennett and Thomas Williamson.

Prisoner age: Bennett aged 30, Williamson aged 19.

Prisoner occupation: Bennett, a collier of Norbury, Cheshire. Williamson, a labourer of Bullocksmithy, Cheshire.

Court and date of trial: Chester Lent Assizes, March 1834.

Crime: Sheep stealing - from William Turner.

Initial sentence: Transportation for life (both).

Gaoler's report: 'Characters bad'

Annotated: 'Ordered to Justitia'. Ordered to the Penitentiary for one year, 2 May 1834. Free pardon 18 May 1835.

Petitioner(s): 48 inhabitants of Bullocksmithy. Martha Bennett (Isaac Bennett's wife) and Thomas Williamson (convict) undersigned by William Turner (prosecutor), the Reverend William Worsley (incumbent of Norbury) and 29 inhabitants of Norbury and Bullocksmithy.

Grounds for clemency: For the sake of their aged and venerable parents; Bennett has a wife and five children under 12 years of age now destitute; the prosecutor has joined in the petition.

Other papers: Letter from Baron Gurney to the Home Department confirming that imprisonment [rather than transportation] would meet his views. Letter from John Dunstan [Governor of Chester Castle Gaol] saying that the convicts have already left his gaol but that a Peter Winstanley is deserving of mitigation and mentioning his enlistment in Don Pedro's Service. A report by B Chapman, Governor of the General Penitentiary, listing Williamson's misconduct offences. A report by B Chapman, Governor of the General Penitentiary, giving Bennett a good conduct character.

Additional Information: Williamson was received into the General Penitentiary on 5 May 1834 and Bennett was received on 13 May 1834. Baron Gurney recommends that if sentence is commuted to one year in gaol it should consist of alternate weeks hard labour and solitary confinement. The Governor's report also notes that a William Lloyd was received from the Ganymede hulk on the same day and died in the Penitentiary on 11 August 1834.