FL14371004

1670a

To The Reverend Tho. Hassall

Sir,

I hope you will excuse me, for writing
these few lines to you, but hearing of your strict
integrity, and your love of justice, and your
Christian feelings, and that you are the Chaplain
of Berrima Gaol and hearing of your practical
knowledge with [indecipherable] of that Establish-
ment, induces me to write to you about
a prisoner named C. Williams, who is doing a
sentence of 7 seven years, unjustly, innocent,
and who is the victim of a rascally plot.
Got up by a man named Stewart, myself, and a
Mrs Pyne of Mudgee, to get Williams into Gaol,
so that Stewart would be able to get his wife Mrs
Stewart back, that was living with Williams.
Our plot succeeded, and Stewart got his wife
back. Sir, I have known the man Stewart
for the last thirty years, he was in the Army
with me, and sorry I am to say that I allowed
him to make a dupe of me, to get an innocent
man convicted. Sir, The reason I write this,
is, I am leaving the country, and my conscience
prompts me to tell the truth, so that it may
do some good for Williams. Sir, I have made
two Statements of what took place, and I sent
one to Judge Fawcett and the other to G.H.
Cox of Mudgee, and I sent the boots that I
wore, the time of the Plot, to Mr. Cox also. Sir,
I went to Williams house, pretending I was
looking for work, and he gave me leave to stay
at his house for three or four days, and Williams
being afterwards away with his coach, I found
his working boots & allowed mine to correspond
with his, by knocking out some of the nails.
And his boots helped to convict him. Sir, if