Richard Bere letter to William Blathwayt

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That Pochin who was Condemned for
murdering one Beardswell, was by Smith who was
executed for the fact (not only before, but at the time
of his execution) cleared of being present with
him at the murder, the Said Smith Confessing, he was
at a distance from him when he did it in a little desert
Island where they then were, upon which he was
recomended to me by the Judges as a fit object of
mercy for a pardon, and therefore reprieved by me

That an overseer belonging to one
Captain Rimes, who was Condemned for murdering
a Servant of his Masters that lay sick of the Country
diseas, he being told by a man about the house, that
if he would make him rise and stirr about, he
might recover, upon that went to him where he
lay, and bid him rise, which the Servant refusing to
doe, he in a passion said he would either make him
rise, or would knock him on the head, and thereupon
made a Negro Boy that stood by strike him Severall
blows as he lay, one of which a little broke the Skin
of his head and he dying that day, the other was
prosecuted upon those words he Spoke, as the cause of it

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And accordingly had Sentence passed upon him, I sent
for the Negro Boy thirty miles purposely to see him to
Satisfie my Selfe, and could not judge ^ ^him to be above five
years of Age, and therefore not capable by his blows
of being the of his death, the Overseer himselfe not
giving him a blow, and finding he was prosecuted
rather out of malice then otherwise the chiefe Evidence
against him, having given out Severall times, he would
doe his Busness, I reprieved him, as thinking him
a fit object of Mercy

Sr

I have in the foregoing lines given you as near
as I can the Substance of what my Lord Spoke in the
morning Concerning the Persons, whose pardons you are
take out, and the reasons why his Lordship reprieved them
I leave it to your better Judgment to draw the Certificate
in the Method best pleases yourselfe I am

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These
for William Blathwayt Esquire
present

Letter concerning
Pochin & Milner