John Barrington’s Appeal.

Copied from The National Archives of Ireland microfilm (ref CRF 1837 B 129 ) in the Australian National Library in Canberra. 

I have copied this, spelling and formatting 'as is' to give a feel of the document.

(Note pinned on cover )

Kildare

John Barrington
Transportation -- Sheep stealing
Prisoner denies his guilt and alleges
that he purchased the sheep. It is
numerously signed.

(Cover page)

To his Excellency The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland etc etc etc

The Memorial of John Barrington a prisoner now in Athy Gaol under sentence of Transportation

(Main document)

To His Excellency Earl Mulgrave Lord Lieutenant, Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland.

The Memorial of John Barrington of Bennelsbridge near the town of Athy in the County of Kildare, a prisoner now in Athy Gaol under sentence of Transportation.

Humbly Shewethe

That your Excellencies Mem^ist was tried at the last Assizes held at Naas and found Guilty for having in his pofsefsion one Ewe Sheep supposed to be stolen from one Mrs Margaret Kenna of Kilmead in the County of Kildare.

That Mem^ist is one of the descendants of the most upright honest and Industrious family to be found for upwards of a century in the County of whom for said period never was Stained or marked for any theft or dishonesty.

That the Informations of your Mem^ist accusers and even their testimony on Mem^ist trial before the Right Hon Justice Doherty did not extend further than to the best of their Belief as to the Identity of said Ewe Sheep, but it so happens that on the night of the Eighth of February last that being the accusers Said Sheep was stolen, that Mem^ist was on his way from the market of Dunlavin and near the town of Ballilore about the hours of Between Six and Seven OClock in the Evening met a man with said sheep on the road from whom he purchased Said Sheep for the sum of £1-4-0.

That Mem^ist did not afterwards conceal Said Sheep nor even after Said Sheep been found and taken up did he Mem^ist make any attempt to Elope, not fearing but he could on Enquiry account fairly how he came by Said Sheep.

That on Mem^ist trial these facts had been proved by a man named Byrne who was in Mem^ist company when he purchased Said Sheep, but his Lordship Seemed to think when Mem^ist did not nor could not produce the person from Whom he had actually purchased the Said Sheep, that it was a Circumstance for the Consideration of Jury.

That your Mem^ist is the father of five helplefs Small young Children Chiefly depending on his Industry for their Support, which if it is the will of Providence that your Mem^ist be banished from his native County, will be the means of his poor children and their mother to be driven to utter ruin, distrefs and misery.

That your Excellency may perceive by the Certificate and Signatures of the Several Respectable persons and Gentlemen of the neighbourhood wherein Mem^ist Resided and herewith annexed that your Memorialist is a fit object for your Excellencies Consideration.

May it therefore Graciously Please your Excellency thro your humane and Christian feelings, and due consideration of the distrefs that now threatens your Mem^ist poor wife and Children and after making inquiry on the notes on his Lordships Book of Mem^ist trial before whom Mem^ist was so tried, and on reading the aforesaid Certificate hereunto annexed, that your Excellency may be Graciously Pleased to order and direct that your Mem^ist Sentence may be mitigated to any limitation of Confinement in his native Country or to make Such other order as to Your Excellency Shall Seem meet And your Memorialist Will ever Pray.

Athy Gaol John Barrington

28 March 1837

County of Kildare

To Wit

We the undersigned do Certify that we have read the above memorial and from the facts stated herein we believe the Mem^ist herein named to be a fit object for his Excellencys Consideration.

(Then follows some 39 signatures, many of which I have found hard to read)