Bury petition

[Boggles]

Hi

Appears to be a petition against Burys execution 6 pages but a lot of overlaps as >A3.

This rounds up pretty much all the docs I have on this subject.

[Boggles]

page 2

[Boggles]

page 3. Having trouble with my compression size here due to 300mb limit. Let me know if you want it closer

[Boggles]

page 3 overlapped

[Boggles]

bottom bits

[Boggles]

last bit

[Cogidubnus]

Hi Boggles

Sorry not to have responded earlier...work's been a little fraught at times...alas it gets in the way of more important matters!

Could you possibly let me have (by email if possible to avoid the image size complications) closer images of each page...is this the one you mentioned previously by the way?

All the best

Dave

[Boggles]

Hi Dave,

thanks for this. These are rubbish copies. -
If you can PM your email and i will scan better copies and send sometime next week when i go back home. Much apprecaited

[Cogidubnus]

On the contrary Boggles, thank you! I've pm'd you as suggested.

Assuming it's ok with you I'll share the copies with Eileen as she's expressed an interest?

Every good wish

Dave

[Cogidubnus]

Petition against Bury's execution

Hi Boggles

Have you sorted out those better quality copies of the various portions of the petition?

I'd love to have a go at interpreting same...

Every good wish

Dave

[Cogidubnus]

Tweedie Petition re WH Bury

I've now received better quality reproductions, from Will, of the Tweedie Petition (Thanks mate!) and believe it reads:-

Unto The Most Honourable, The Marquess of Lothian KT, Her Majesty’s Secretary for Scotland

The Petition of David James Tweedie, Solicitor, Commercial Street, Dundee humbly sheweth that the Petitioner acted as Agent for the defence of William Henry Bury who was tried at Dundee on Thursday twenty eighth of March for the murder of his wife Mrs Ellen Elliot or Bury. The trial lasted for a period of thirteen hours and evidence entirely circumstantial and medical was adduced by the Crown. There was also medical evidence produced for the defence. Altogether there were examined five medical gentlemen during the course of the trial. In due course the Jury retired to consider the whole case and after deliberation for a period, as near as the petitioner can say, of thirty five minutes they returned and the Chancellor of the Jury delivered their verdict as follows “The jury unanimously find the prisoner guilty as libelled, but strongly recommend him to the mercy of the court”. Lord Young, who presided at the trial, asked the question “On what grounds do you recommend him to mercy” & one of the jurymen thereupon replied that the ground of the recommendation was the conflicting nature of the medical evidence. Lord Young thereupon pointed out that there could be no ground for recommendation there. He asked them to reconsider their verdict on the ground that it left a doubt as to whether the jury were satisfied of the prisoner’s guilt. The jury again retired and after an absence of five minutes, as near as may be, they returned with a verdict finding the prisoner guilty as libelled. The Petitioner would humbly point out that when they returned for the second time they departed entirely from the recommendation to mercy and he would further humbly ask consideration of the effect of the verdict which was first returned. In doing so the petitioner most respectfully would suggest that this fact must be taken into consideration, namely that during the five minutes in which they deliberated for a second time no new facts or evidence could have been adduced to cause them to change their minds. The effect of this verdict, as at first returned, ought therefore logically, as well as humanely, to have been a verdict of not proven. It was clear that the jury had very considerable doubt and the Petitioner would most respectfully and humbly ask that the effect of that verdict should be considered to be a verdict of not proven, or at least that in a verdict where so much doubt was expressed, that the extreme sentence of the law ought not in this case to be carried out.

Further and in the second case the Petitioner most anxiously desires that at least inquiry ought to be made into the mental condition of the prisoner’s deceased Mother. The Petitioner is informed and has from the twenty seventh of February known that the prisoner’s mother Mary Bury or Berry, a widow and a dressmaker by occupation, was admitted into the Worcester County and City Lunatic Asylum Powick? near Worcester in May 1860 from Stourbridge, that she remained there until 30th March 1864 - when she died. In 1860 she had three children the age of the youngest being nine months. It is believed that there were two boys and one girl. One of the boys and the girl have since died and the prisoner alone survives. It is according to the law, and practice of Criminal Procedure in Scotland incompetent and irregular even to inquire, far less to prove the mental condition of a prisoner’s parents and this accounts for no use having been made by the Petitioner of the knowledge in his possession. It is at least probable that the crime charged against the prisoner was committed when laboring under extreme mental excitement, and the fact of his Mother’s mental condition, may, the Petitioner thinks, have induced the same. Owing to the short period of time which remains before the sentence which has been appointed to be carried out, and also the fact that the prisoner is an entire stranger to Dundee, the petitioner instead of asking for signatures to a petition for the Royal Clemency, after careful consideration has resolved to present this petition in his own name and he humbly asks that inquiries should be directed to the two facts which have been stated and himself believing them to be true most anxiously and most respectfully prays that in this case the Royal Clemency should be accorded to William Henry Bury and that he should be reprieved from the sentence which has been ordered to be passed upon him.

May it therefore please your Lordship to receive this petition and your Petitioner will ever pray

D J Tweedie

(NB signature looks more like D G Tweedie!)

Hope this helps

All the best

Dave

[Boggles]

Good effort

[johns]

Good work there.

I noticed a "?" after Powick. There is an area of Worcester called Powick and spelled this way I can confirm if indeed you are questioning this.

Regards
John

[Cogidubnus]

Powick

Thanks John, Yes I'd meant to check that out before posting, but it was getting late and I was tired (and, to be honest, I clean forgot!)...

All the best

Dave