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To His Excellency Joseph M^c Minn Gov^r
of the State of Tennessee ~

Your Petitioners hereto subscribed
humbly represent to your Excellency, that,
at the last Circuit Court, began and holden
at Murfreesboro', in & for the County of
Rutherford, on the second Monday of Sep-
-tember last, James Jervis Maxwell of David-
-son County, was arraigned at the bar of the
Circuit Court of said County of Davidson, on
an indictment found against the said Max-
well, at the May session of said Circuit Court,
as therein alledged, for the murder of Caleb
Hewitt late sheriff for the said County of
Davidson; & the said J.J. Maxwell being per-
=suaded that an impartial & unprejudiced
verdict, could not be obtained in the said
County of Davidson, on affadavit, procured
a change of venue to the County of Rutherford;
Whereupon at the session of the Circuit Court
for Rutherford County in the month of September
last, on trial on said Indictment, the Jury
after long deliberaton, whether they should
acquit the said James J. Maxwell, or convict him
in the first degree, eventually returned a