1668, Samuel Dunninge, John Carter, William Wright, Margaret Tyson and Susan Williams plead with the King to be transported to Virginia

Transcription from ‘Petitions in the State Papers: 1660s’, in Petitions in the State Papers, 1600-1699, ed. Brodie Waddell, British History Online, Samuell Dunninge, John Carter, Margret Tison, Susan Williams, prisoners in Surrey county gaol. SP 29/232 f. 244 (1668).

To the Kings most excellent majestie

The humble petition of Samuell Dunninge John Carter William Wright Margret Tison Susan Williams prisoners in the county gole for Surry 

Humbly sheweth That your poore petitioners hath bin for some small fellonies convicted and ordred to the said gole until such time as some marchant would transport us into some of your majesties collonies which we most willingly submitt to, we now haveing found a marchant now bound for your majesties collony of Virginia and we being most willing to goe

Your petitioners most humbly prayes that your majestie will gratiously be pleased to grant the marchant an order that we may be transported to the place aforesaid with the marchant that we may be out of this dolefull place of want and miserie

And your petitioners shall ever as in duty pray etc

Samuel Dunninge

John Carter

Margret Tyson

Susan Williams

[Paratext:] Att the court at Whitehall the 20th January 67/8 His majesty is graciously pleased to referre it to Master Justice Browne who went this circuit the last assizes, to take account of these petitioners condicion, what judgment hath passed upon them, and to certify the same to his majesty who will then give further order as it shall appeare to be fitt and according to law

Arlington

Report by Celia Jones

Samuel Dunninge, John Carter, William Wright, Margaret Tyson and Susan Williams had been imprisoned in a Surrey gaol for theft pending transportation. In this petition they claim that to have found a merchant who will transport them to Virginia.

The Petitioners

Surrey County Gaol was at this time housed in the Marshalsea in Southwark High Street, and appears to have been particularly noxious and unhealthy.[1]

Other documents in the Calendar for State Papers provide further context for this petition, recording that Justice Samuel Browne’s report of 24 January 1668 noted that the petitioners were convicted of felony for goods of small value, that the two women were reprieved because of pregnancy, and that as they are young and able persons, and this their first offence, they are fit objects for pardon, and fit to be transported’. An additional entry listed Dunning, Carter and Wright as ‘left since the last assizes’.[2]

Further information about some of the petitioners and their alleged crimes is also included. Margaret Tyson was the wife of Thomas Tyson of Southwark. She was convicted of being an accessory to a felony committed by Thomas Austen and Richard Hearne, for which they were outlawed, but she was reprieved on the grounds of pregnancy.

Susan Williams was the wife of Roger Williams, a labourer of St Olave’s Southwark. She was convicted of stealing goods valued at 20 shillings and 7 shillings 2 pence but was reprieved also on the grounds of pregnancy.

Samuel Dunning and John Carter were both labourers from Walton-upon-Thames. They were convicted of ‘felony for stealing goods of John Frank’ worth almost 4 shillings.[3]

References

[1]‘Southwark Prisons’, in Survey of London: Volume 25, St George’s Fields (The Parishes of St. George the Martyr Southwark and St. Mary Newington), ed. Ida Darlington (London, 1955), pp. 9-21. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol25/pp9-21.

[2] ‘Charles II: January 1668’, in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles II, 1667-8, ed. Mary Anne Everett Green (London, 1893), pp. 153-204. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/domestic/chas2/1667-8/pp153-204.

[3] ‘Charles II: January 1668’, in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles II, 1667-8, ed. Mary Anne Everett Green (London, 1893), pp. 153-204. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/domestic/chas2/1667-8/pp153-204.

This report is part of a series on ‘Petitioners in the reign of Charles II, 1660-1685’, created through a U3A Shared Learning Project on ‘Investigating the Lives of Seventeenth-Century Petitioners’.