Petition for the Release of John Boyes

The following article was published in the Hampshire Telegraph on Monday 12^th August 1833.

“ We have noticed that a Petition, in behalf of the unfortunate man Boyes, was in circulation for signatures. It was presented to Lord Melbourne yesterday, and by the philanthropic exertions of Mr. Ekless, of Bursledon, it was previously and most numerously signed. It was we are authorised to state, most kindly received, and the best results may be anticipated. The following is the petition: —

TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.
The Petition of certain of His Majesty's loyal Subjects, Owners and Occupiers of Land, and other Inhabitants, in the County of Southampton, HUMBLY SHEWETH,
That JOHN BOYES, late of Owslebury, near Winchester, in the County of Southampton, Yeoman, but now a Convict, serving out his sentence of seven years’ transportation in New Holland; was convicted at the late Special Commission held at Winchester, on a charge of larceny, arising out of transactions that occurred during the agricultural riots. That it came out in evidence, that the said John Boyes carried a written paper, with the people that had assembled in his heighbourhood, requesting the signatures of the different landed proprietors and farmers, which paper contained a pledge, that the farmers would give to their married labourers, 12s, and to their single men, 9s. per week; pledging the land proprietors also, that they on their parts would make such reductions on their rents as should enable the farmers to meet the just and reasonable request of their labourers. That the said John Boyes was induced, from the solicitations of his more opulent neighbours, to take charge of the said paper, believing, as they said they did, that the hope held out therein would appease the labourers then assembled, and that his (John Boyes’s) presence would controul them, and prevent the destruction of property. That John Boyes accordingly did take charge of the said paper, and obtained the signatures of several landed proprietors and farmers, and that being at Mrs. Long’s for the same purpose (that of obtaining her signature to the paper), money was demanded and obtained, but that John Boyes did not in any way encourage such unlawful demand, or share in the proceeds thereof; however, being there with his paper, he was indicted as aiding and abetting in that unlawful act, which led to his conviction, and induced the sentence under which he is now suffering. That by his persuasion the same mob abstained from assembling the next morning as was proposed and generally wished, and thus the neighbourhood was, by his praiseworthy exertions, tranquilised without the interpolation of any constabulary or military force. That in corroboration of the foregoing allegations, your Majesty's Petitioners beg to inform your Majesty, that so far from John Boyes having been thought in the slightest degree knowingly to encourage any breah of the peace, or unlawful act whatever, by his more respectable neighbours, that Mr. Carew Mildmay Ricketts, Steward to Lady Mildmay (on whose Manor the said John Boyes lived, and in whose employ he held a confidential situation up to the time of his conviction), has said, at different times to different persons, and especially to many of your Majesty's Petitioners, ‘that so far from believing that John Boyes had any bad motive for his conduct, that he, Mr. Carew Mildmay Rickets, verily believed that his, John Boyes’s, example and presence with the mob, prevented a great deal of mischief, and that he belived a more honest and punctual man than John Boyes did not exist.’ That so far from John Boyes considering himself as responsible for any acts of others, committed during the agricultural riots, he (not being in custody) from day to day attended the Special Commission, voluntarily coming forward to meet the different charges against him, making a manly defence on two seperate indictments; on both of which he was declared, not guilty, That, notwithstanding these proofs of innocence, a third indictment was preferred against him in another Court, before another Judge and Jury, when conscious of the integrity of his motives, and knowing that no acts of a different character from those adduced on his former trials could be proved against him, he fearlessly left his case in the hands of the Jury, in full confidence of the same successful result, but which unhappily led to his conviction and consequent punishment. That the said John Boyes has left a wife and ten children to deplore his loss, who, to the agony and distress arising from having under such circumstances lost their protector, have from the time of his conviction been kept in a state of cruel suspence as to the security of their little property, arising from the proceedings taken by the Lady of the Manor, on the plea and presumption that he, John Boyes (the same man whom the same Lady’s Steward, Mr. Carew Mildmay Ricketts, aforesaid declared to be so honest), being a convicted felon, that the property on which his defenceless wife and family now live, being copyhold under the said Lady of the Manor, that the said property is escheated and forfeited accordingly. That Your Majesty’s Petitioners will not describe the doings in this soul-stirring affair, because thay would not wish to rend your Majesty's feeling and benevolent heart with its cruel details, but believing as your Majesty’s Petitioners firmly do, in the allegations contained in this petition, believing with Mr. Carew Mildmay Ricketts, that the presence of John Boyes with the mob was attended with the happiest consequences, in preventing a great deal of mischief; and feeling as they do most strongly an anxious desire that the unhappy Wife and Family might have the benefit of his protection, to cheer and console them in the painful trials they seem destined to endure, that, therefore, your Majesty’s Petitioners do most earnestly implore your Majesty, graciously to extend mercy, that God-like attribute of your Majesty’s Royal Prerogative, to the unhappy man — restore him to the arms of his disconsolate Wife and Family, and to that society of which he was a useful member up to the day, when from the persuasion of others, much more competent judges than himself of its illegality, he was unhappily induced to join (from the best of motives) an unlawful assembly which led to the painful consequences herein-before described, — And your Majesty’s Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, &c.”
 

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