28th June 1812: Further ten day respite for the three condemned convicts at Chester Castle

The Lancaster Gazette of 4th July reported that on Sunday 28th June, the three remaining prisoners who were condemned to death at the Chester Special Commission in May - Richard Lowndes, William Greenhough & John Heywood - were reprieved for 10 days for a second time. The paper posited a theory as to why this had happened:

It appears, from the very limited period of each suspension of the sentence, to be the intention of Government to make the deluded and disaffected answerable for the lives of the unfortunate men; or in other words, to render them hostages for the tranquillity of the county, in the eventual preservation of which, their lives may be spared.

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With this article, the Lancaster Gazette was quoting the Chester Chronicle.