16th September 1812: The Home Secretary rebukes Judge Dallas for continually respiting prisoners sentenced to death at Chester Special Commission

Whitehall 16. Sept: 1812

My dear Sir,

Every recommendation contained in your Letter of 29th of August respecting the Convicts are Chester, has been carried into effect, excepting that which relates to Greenhough, Lowndes, and Heywood; concerning whose cases I feel a considerable degree of difficulty.—They were capitally convicted, but their sentences have been commuted for that Species of Punishment, namely Transportation, which was inflicted upon Persons found guilty of Offences of the same description & Character, tho’ attended with Circumstances of less Aggravation.—Against these Persons the Sentence of the Law has been actually carried into execution, and towards them I think it could not be said that strict justice had been done if others who have been convicted of a higher Crime should now be placed in a more advantageous situation than themselves, without any other Circumstance having been stated in their favour than that of having conducted themselves in Prison with Decency & Propriety. I cannot therefore see any ground upon which a further mitigation of the Punishment of these unfortunate men can be justified.

Your Letter arrived whilst I was enjoying a very short recess, and was not put into my hands till this morning.

Believe me to be
&c &c &c
Sidmouth

[To] Robert Dallas Esqr.
&c &c &c
Brighton

Despite Sidmouth's letter, Greenhough Lowndes & Heywood's death sentences were respited and they were transported to Australia.

19th June 1812: Judge Dallas asks the Home Secretary's advice on the respited prisoners at Chester Castle

My Lord

I feel that I am going quite out of my province — but a Letter from the Constable of the Castle of Chester, expressed some anxiety, as to what is to be done with the three Convicts who were respited for ten days from the 15th should he not hear further – Your Lordship will excuse an excess of caution in my mentioning the circumstance

I have [etc]
Robt Dallas

Bedford Square
June 19th 1812

Will your Lordship have the goodness to direct the receipt of this note to be acknowledged by a line directed to me here?

Sidmouth replied the next day:

Whitehall 20 June 1812

My dear Sir,

Many thanks to you for your intimation — a further Respite for ten days of the three Convicts at Chester was sent by last night Post, and I have ordered that a duplicate Respite should be sent by that of tonight.—Let me beg the favour of you to make a Communication to this Effect to the Constable of the Castle of Chester.

I am
&c
Sidmouth

Robert Dallas Esqr
Bedford Square

10th March 1812: Town Clerk of Nottingham to Judge Bayley

Nottingham
10 March, 1812

My Lord,

I apprehend that your Lordship is apprized of the nature of my communication with the Secretary of State for the Home Department, by direction of the Magistrates of this place, representing the necessity for the continuance of a force in Nottingham during the Assizes adequate to the forming a strong Guard for both the Prisons and to the keeping up the present nightly military Patrole in the Town.

By means of a military force alone the Security of an immense and very valuable property in Frames employed and deposited in the Town accumulated to an enormous extent by the terror of the late dreadful system of Frame-breaking has been for the last two months placed in a state of safety, and by this alone the Magistrates are convinced its Security can be maintained until the experience of the Punishment of some of their Confederates shall convince these deluded men that it is out of their power to protect their Comrades, or avoid the just but severe Sentence of the Law.

I have detailed to Mr. Secretary Ryder some circumstances of private information which I have acquired as to the Plans of these men, who have reckoned with great exultation upon the removal of the Troops during the continuance of the Assizes, as an opening for them to accomplish what in the presence of the Military they dare not attempt.

The Secretary of State has written to me that the removal or continuance of the Troops awaits your Lordship’s directions previous to your entering the County of Nottingham.

Under these circumstances the Mayor and Aldermen are impressed with great anxiety as to the result of the determination which may be formed upon this subject, and they have requested me in their name to represent to your Lordship that they do not consider the Town and the property contained in it, or the Prisoners in the Gaol safe without such a military force remaining as is adequate to the purposes before alluded to.

They have reason to believe that plans for the liberation of the Prisoners are meditated and will be executed if the military be absent by a very numerous body of Men whom they know to possess arms and to have promised their Comrades protection and impunity.

If no military force be in the Town the leading Witnesses in some of the Prosecutions against the Framebreakers will in my Judgement be exposed to danger,and when their testimony may reach the life of some of these violators of the Law the lives of such persons may not be safe.

This very day I dispatched one of my Clerks to fetch into this Town from his own house in the Country one of the Prosecutors of several of these Indictments whose life l know to be seriously and deliberately threatened by these confederates in Iniquity.

Under such impressions as these the Magistrates have authorized me most urgently to solicit General Hawker on no account to permit the Troops to leave the Town as it seemed they had been intended to do until your Lordship should have peremptorily decided upon the continuance or removal during the Assizes and they hope that your Lordship will upon due consideration have the goodness to adopt such a determination as will place the continuance of our present state of Security out of all doubt.

I have [etc.]

Geo. Coldham,
Town Clerk

7th March 1812: Judge Bayley to Mr. Sherbrooke about preparations for the Nottingham Lent Assizes

Lincoln

7 March, 1812

Sir,

Your letter has just reached me, I can give no advise as to the propriety of keeping in the Town a military force to guard the Prisoners, or as to the distance to which they should be removed, but I think it highly important, the depot of Arms for the Local Militia should be effectually secured and the Gaol duly guarded. It is for Government however to take the proper measures, and give the proper directions for this purpose, and the utmost I can do is not to object to the Soldiers remaining in the Town during the Assizes, as the Assizes do not begin till Friday, I am rather surprized the Troops should have been ordered to March on Monday morning.

I am [etc.]

J. Bayley