Samuel Bennett

Level 17

NANCY K EDWARDS on 23rd July 2022

Samuel Bennett's brother Thomas was also sentenced to transportation. Refer: National Archives, Kew. Reference: HO 17/51/153 Date: 1833 Sept 8 Description: Prisoner name: Thomas Bennett alias Thomas Ricketts. Court and date of trial: Surrey Summer Assizes, Croydon, 5 August 1833. Crime: Highway Robbery near Staines. Initial sentence: Transportation for Life. Gaoler's report: Character Bad - in prison before. Annotated (Outcome): Nil. Petitioner(s): Thomas Bennett and Sarah Bennett, parents of the prisoner. Grounds for clemency (Petition Details): The prisoner is one of fourteen children of a respectable family. His father is night watchman at Windsor Castle. His parent's believe the case against him was not fully proved. Other papers: Note that Sir Herbert Taylor has presented the petition to the King, who cannot act on it without a recommendation from the judge.

Level 17

NANCY K EDWARDS on 23rd July 2022

The National Archives, Kew. Reference: HO 17/89/101 Date: 1833 [Jan] Description: Prisoner name: Samuel Bennett. Prisoner age: 25. Court and date of trial: Berkshire Quarter Sessions, Reading, January 1833. Crime: Stealing glass and woodwork. Initial sentence: 14 years transportation. Gaoler's report: Character etc very bad. Once convicted and twice in Reading goal before. Annotated (Outcome): Send abroad. Petitioner(s): Thomas Bennett, watchman at Windsor Castle, and Sarah Bennett, his wife, of Windsor, Berkshire, the prisoner's parents, undersigned by 21 [inhabitants of Windsor]. Grounds for clemency (Petition Details): Respectable family; youth; sentence severe for crime. Additional Information: Prisoner ordered to York hulk.

Level 17

NANCY K EDWARDS on 23rd July 2022

BERKS EPIPHANY SESSION--READING WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2 Samuel Bennett 25, Edward Christopher, 21, and Benjamin Cooper, 21, labourers, were indicted for stealing, on the 24th November, at the parish of Clewer, six sash windows, the property of the Rev. A. P. Kelley. Mr. Talfourd stated the case for the prosecution, and called Samuel Wiggins, an old man, who stated he lived at Clewer ; he assisted his daughter, Jane Rance, in taking care of Mr. Kelley's premises; on the 23d and 24th December, he missed eight sash frames from the green-house. Jane Rance corroborated the testimony of her father. Jane Readings, a very extraordinary looking young woman, with a countenance not unlike that of Liston in the character of " Moll Flaggon," was next placed in the witness-box : after a great deal of hesitating, she said she lived in the house in which Bennett was a lodger ; on the Wednesday night, she saw the prisoners bring something into the house, and afterwards all left but Bennett, who went to bed with her; she did not know what it was that they brought. [This witness prevaricated so much in the course of her testimony, that after repeated cautions she was ordered to be detained.] Grimes, constable of Clewer, proved searching the house of Bennett, and finding under the floor several sash frames, which upon fitting them proved to belong to Mr. Kelley's green-house.-- Saml. Carter stated that the prisoner Bennett rented a cottage of him which was next door to the one in which he lived himself, and that when the constable came to him he " gave him toleration to sarch where he pleased." Bennett came into his bed-room before he was up, and asked him to purchase some sash frames, but he refused to do so. There was only a slight partition between his house and Bennett's, which they called "punch and panel," and he distinctly heard the rattling of glass. He searched the house with a constable, and found some broken glass in a drawer, and likewise some frames under the floor. In his cross-examination by Mr. Shepherd, as to there being any delicacy in the prisoner's going into his bed-room, he said he thought it was a great liberty on the part of Bennett, and " he was more freer than welcome." John Carter, son of the last witness, saw the prisoner Cooper and Jane Readings come out of Bennett's house on the morning after the robbery, each having a bundle, from which he heard the rattling of something like glass. Mr. Shepherd, on the part of the prisoners, submitted that there was no evidence to convict Christopher and Cooper. The only allusion made to them was by the witness Readings, and she had so contradicted herself that no credit could properly be given to her testimony. This objection was overruled, as was also another, with respect to an improper description of the property in the indictment. Bennett and Cooper were found guilty ; Christopher was acquitted. Evidence being put in of a former conviction of the prisoner Bennett, he was sentenced to 14 years' transportation, and Cooper to 12 months' hard labour. This trial occupied nearly three hours. The woman Readings, whose conduct during her examination induced the magistrates to detain her, was placed at the bar, and sentenced to one months' hard labour for the gross prevarication she evinced in giving her testimony. Lord Radnor, however, interposed, and asked what power the Court had to commit for a month under such circumstances without a fair trial 7 He had not heard the evidence, but he was sure they were not justified in that course. His Lordship then explained to the bench the law in such a case.—Lord Downshire, on finding he had exceeded the bounds of his duty, thanked his noble friend for setting him right; and the woman was then committed for contempt of court, and ordered to be brought up at the end of the sessions.

Level 17

NANCY K EDWARDS on 21st July 2022

"Stakesby" Appropriation List of 216 Male Convicts arrived per "Stakesby" 6th September 1833. Name: Samuel Bennett 26 Trade: Brickmaker Assignment: Public Works

Level 17

NANCY K EDWARDS on 21st July 2022

On Thursday morning the six undermentioned convicts were removed from the County Gaol to the York Hulk, Gosport, namely, Samuel Bennett, James Simms, Thomas Harper, William Looker, jun., for fourteen years, and William Looker, sen. and William Blackwell, for seven years transportation.

Level 17

NANCY K EDWARDS on 21st July 2022

On Thursday morning the six undermentioned convicts were removed from the County Gaol to the York Hulk, Gosport, namely, Samuel Bennett, James Simms, Thomas Harper, William Looker, jun., for fourteen years, and William Looker, sen. and William Blackwell, for seven years transportation.