Catalogue description Report of Simon Le Blanc on 1 collective petition (110 people, from Hereford,...

Report of Simon Le Blanc on 1 collective petition (110 people, from Hereford, Herefordshire including the prisoner and magistrates of Leominster) on behalf of John Hunt, butcher, convicted at the Herefordshire Assizes, for being found in the possession of counterfeit bank notes, value £1 and £2, on 14 November 1801. The prisoner was arrested twice, as the first time he absconded. Evidences supplied by James Lane, farmer; John Owen, Serjeant at Mace, Hereford; John Bagley, Serjeant at Mace; James Williams, swordbearer, Hereford; Thomas Watkins, servant to Mr Jay, tanner; William Bennett, grocer; Jonathan Alder, an assistant at the Gloucester County Gaol, and Thomas Glover, Inspector of Bank Notes at the Bank of England. There is a copy of a letter from William Powles, Mayor to Messrs Winter, Kaye, Beckwith and Freshfield stating that Hunt's wife has been to see him about signing a petition for mercy to be shown to her husband, the mayor has refused and wishes that 'the Law should take its course.' The bottom of the letter is a copy of the reply from Winter, Kaye, Beckwith and Freshfield, informing the Mayor that the Bank of England 'will not interfere to Obtain either a pardon or any Mitigation of his Punishment. We trust the Magistrates + respectable Inhabitants will not countenance so improper an application.' There is a letter from Joseph Kaye to William Baldwin, a covering letter to the previous correspondence, outlining the case and stating that had the prisoner been given a good character before the trial the Bank of England would not have prosecuted. Grounds for clemency: did not know the notes were forged, came into possession of them during the course of business and the prisoner had a poor wife and 7 small children to support. Initial sentence: 14 years transportation. Recommendation: no mercy. Folios 3-11. [Folios 1-2 are blank].