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L. H. J.
Liber No. 48
April 24
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To begin then with the Affair of the Criminal in St. Mary's
County, which, according to your minute Detail, was thus: He had,
by repeated Acts of Villainy, rendered himself so obnoxious to the
People among whom he lived, that when he fled from Justice, a
Contribution was made, and a Reward offered, by the Gentlemen of
the Neighbourhood for apprehending him: Upon his Conviction,
the Principal of these Gentlemen were in vain applied to, and desired
to sollicit his Pardon: Afterward the Criminal changed his Religion,
and then those, or some of those very Gentlemen, who had before
declined solliciting his Pardon, petitioned me to grant a Reprieve,
without acquainting me with the Circumstance of his being a Convert
to the Church of Rome, and that he was thereby become Guilty of
High-Treason; which, it should seem, in your Opinion, clearly shews,
that the unhappy Wretch did, upon the Merit of becoming a Proselyte
to the Popish Religion, obtain the Reprieve the Benefit of which he
now enjoys; and that therefore, I suppose, I ought to suspect the
Loyalty of those who recommended him for Mercy, tho' they had,
on all Occasions before, shewn the firmest Attachment to his Maj-
esty, and Zeal for the Protestant Religion.
That the Gentlemen you allude to should offer a Reward for
apprehending a Felon, whom they desired to have brought to Justice,
does not seem at all strange; and perhaps you would have thought,
that, from their making Application afterwards in the same Person's
Favour, no Conclusion ought to be drawn to their Prejudice, if you
had recollected or heard, that in 1739 the Honourable the Speaker,
and most of the House of Delegates, waited on his Excellency the
late Governor, to sollicit and obtain a Pardon for a most notorious
Offender, then under Condemnation, for apprehending whom a very
large Reward had been offered and given by Virtue of an Act of
Assembly specially made for that Purpose: From the Circumstance,
then, abovementio'ned, I conceive, it cannot be fairly deduced; and
as you have not thought proper by other Arguments to prove, that
the Gentlemen who made Application to me in Favour of the Crimi-
nal in St. Mary's County, did, when they made such Application,
really know that he had changed his Religion, and on that Account
make it, I am afraid you have been a little too hasty in resolving
that the Motives you were pleased to suggest, and no other, did or
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P. 244
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could induce those Gentlemen to make such Application. I have had
an Opportunity of speaking to the worthy Person, whom you, I pre-
sume, distinguish by the Title of Lawyer and Judge, and am con-
vinced, that at the Time of signing the Petition he was a Stranger
to what you do not say, but would insinuate, he was acquainted
with: And tho' all the other Gentlemen may not have been ignorant
of that Matter, yet, I am satisfied, that it was not one of the Motives
that induced them to subscribe the Petition. I have already assured
you, and indeed you do me the Justice to believe, that I was not
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