Catalogue description Prisoner name: Joseph Forrester . Prisoner details: Aged 23. Court and date of trial:...

Prisoner name: Joseph Forrester.

Prisoner details: Aged 23.

Court and date of trial: Old Bailey January sessions, 1829.

Crime: Breaking window and stealing jewellery (diamond pins) from shop of Charles Plumley of Ludgate Hill.

Initial sentence: Death, commuted to transportation for life.

Annotated: Considered at Report in Council, 11 February 1829. Nil. Inform cannot recommend a pardon without previous recommendation from the Lieutenant Governor of the Colony, 10 January 1839.

Petitioner(s): Joseph Forrester, the prisoner, undersigned by Charles Plumley, the prosecutor, and 37 inhabitants of the Strand and neighbourhood, many being jewellers, goldsmiths and silversmiths, including the prisoner's former employers, testifying to prisoner's youth, inexperience and respectable family connections. Eight prominent citizens of Perth. Six magistrates of Perth, including Robert Ross, Provost. Ten prominent citizens of Perth, including R Mathews, Lord Provost. Lord Provost, David Greig, and six magistrates of Perth.

Grounds for clemency: The prisoner is young and comes from a very respectable family in Perth; he was orphaned at an early age; this is his first offence; he was lured into the crime, which he now deplores, by 'an abandoned female'.

Correspondence: Letters from Patrick Forrester, Hull; James M Patton, Perth; Robert Ross, Provost of Perth; G Murray, Colonial Office; Benjamin Bull and William Forrester, the prisoner's brother, of 52 Red Lion Street, Clerkenwell.

Additional Information: Prisoner held in Newgate gaol then on board Leviathan hulk. Transported to Hobart Town, Van Diemen's Land. Native of Perth, Scotland where he served apprenticeship to his uncle, Robert Keay, jeweller. Came to London two years previously and worked for 12 months for William and Charles King, 18 Bridgewater Square, wholesale jewellers, then for J French, 5 Newcastle Place, wholesale jeweller.