Certificate of the Earl of Carlisle concerning Pochin and Milner

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I do hereby certify that Joseph Pochin
mentioned in the Petition here ^ unto annexed
was condemned in Jamaica upon
a supposition that He was accessary guilty
to of the murder of one Beardwell
but that one Smith who was
executed for The Fact confessed as
well before as at the time of his
execution that the said Pochin was
not present with him when The
Murther was committed in a desert
Island where They were upon
which consideration ^ The Prisner being recommanded
to me by The Judges of Jamaica as
a fitt object of His Majesties mercy in
granting him a Pardon I thought
fitt to reprieve
and The Governor
by His Commission having no Power to pardon Treason
or Wilf murther in any case
whatsoever I thought fitt to reprieve
him till His Majesties Pleasure were known

And I do further certify
that John Milner the other Prisner

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mentioned in the same petition was
an Overseer to one Captain Rimes
and that there being a Servant
under his care lying very sick
He was told by a man in the
same house that His disease being
a kind of ^ a Drowsy Lethargy He would be
cured
recover if he were forced to rise &
stirr about whereupon This
Overseer said He would If it were
so He warranted he would either
make him rise or knock him on
the Head and going to the
Place where He lay bid a yong
Negro Boy of five about five years
of Age take a stick & make
him rise which The Child doing
with a Blow broke The Skin of
His Head, and The Servant
dying that day The Overseer
was thereupon condemned for
murder because of the words
He had spoken before. After
Whereupon I sent for the Negro
Boy and judging him so little as not

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to be capable of being cause of The
Servant's death by the blows He
gave him and finding that The
Overseer, who did not strike him at
all was prosecuted rather out of
malice than otherwise, The Chief
Evidence against him, having given out
severall times He would do His Business
I therefore reprieved him as being
a fitt object of His Majesties mercy & Pardon

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Certificate of
my Lord of Carlisle
about Pochin & Milner

Original Format

Ink on paper

Citation

Carlisle, Charles Howard, Earl of, 1629-1685, “Certificate of the Earl of Carlisle concerning Pochin and Milner,” William Blathwayt papers at the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, accessed March 29, 2024, https://cwfblathwayt.omeka.net/items/show/1454.