2

was only equated by the certainty of the offence, his
character having hitherto been unstain^d, with any actions
which youths of good fame & respectable families sometimes
commit, and upon his Examination & commitment a
thorough conviction rested upon our minds as well as the
minds of others present of the participation
of an other or more in the deed which impression
notwithstanding the trial of the offender is past, is still
retaind by numbers in the neighbourhood.

The offender has not of our knowledge petitioned
for mercy himself. - nor did the parent have a
disposition to withhold from the rigid services of the law
the Child; when held up to public scrutiny & to
public justice but resigned (to that power essential in
in all free governments) the correcction of a near
allied member of his family without complaint & with
=out remonstrance - nor has a single relative thus
asked his liberty. But persons unconnected by affinity
or consanguinity to his famiy - have through respect
and for the restoration of Ease & comfort to them, and
from feelings of sympathy for the deluded youth, Thus
petitioned your Excellency for his release. The petition first
forwarded you - we can say was from the kind hands of
strangers and nothing more than the impression form^d
upon the trial, led their minds to conceive him to be an
object of Executive mercy. The present petition being
from the neighbourhood in which his parents reside
we hope will strengthen the grounds of the principle on
which his freedom is solicited. We would remark
that the youth is poor & pennyless. The father with a large
family of small children to support is an object of
commiseration & pity-

James Reid
Wm D. Orr
Community Magistrates -