sent a circular letter to the magistrates saying: "The number of applications made yesterday for free pardons or emancipations having far exceeded the Governor's expectations, and being in fact more than double the number he can comply with for two years to come, it is his desire that you shall not countersign any further or new applications of that nature, until those you have already certified shall have been finally disposed of".[1] In 1814 he received five hundred memorials, and consequently directed that no more should be presented in 1815,[2] and in 1816[3] he ordered that none should be presented in 1817. Finally in 1820 he refused to receive petitions for conditional pardons or tickets-of-leave.[4] Bigge was present when those for 1819 were presented to Macquarie, and gave an account of the proceedings.[5] "The crowd … was very great; and observing their impatience the Governor addressed them, and informed them that he would grant no tickets-of-leave to those who had not been three years in the country, nor any other indulgence, except in conformity to the terms of his Proclamation of the year 1813."[6] This address produced no effect. There was great difficulty in preserving order in the presentation of the petitions to the Governor, who, on perusing the statements and looking at the certificates, either wrote in pencil or in the margin the initial letters of the indulgence that was to be given, or rejected the petition altogether. The petitions exceeded seven hundred; they were collected by the major of brigade and two clerks, who, with the superintendent of convicts, were the only persons present.
From the returns sent in to Bigge it appeared that at this period Macquarie did actually grant two free and sixty-five conditional pardons as well as thirty-eight tickets-of-leave which were exceptions to his regulations.[7]
- ↑ Quoted in G.G.O., 10th December, 1814.
- ↑ G.G.O., 10th December, 1814.
- ↑ Ibid., 1816.
- ↑ Ibid., 11th November, 1820.
- ↑ Bigge's Report, I. The Governor was ill in December, 1819, and therefore received the petitions, etc., early in January, 1820.
- ↑ i.e., G.G.O. of 1813.
- ↑ In Return in Appendix to Bigge's Reports. R.O., MS. The number of pardons granted varied little from year to year. In 1813 there were fifty-one free pardons given and in 1814 thirty-nine. But from 1815 to 1820 the number never rose above twenty. In 1818 there were 312 conditional pardons granted, but in other years, from 1813 to 1820, there were never more than 170.
