Order In Council Commuting the Sentence of James Donnelly, 1858
![[ Sir John A. Macdonald, Unknown, University of Western Ontario Archives RC20025 ]](../../../images/site/52539_2.jpg "[ Sir John A. Macdonald, Unknown, University of Western Ontario Archives RC20025 ]")
Order in Council
26th July 1858
Government House, Toronto
Monday 26th July 1858
[...] His Excellency
The Governor General
[...] His Excellency was pleased to lay before the Council the Report and notes of Evidence of the Honorable Chief Justice Sir J.B. Robinson, in the case of James Donnelly, who was tried before him at the recent assize held at Goderich, for the murder of one Patrick Farrell, and being convicted thereof, was sentenced to death, to be executed on the 17th of September next.
His Excellency also laid before the Council certain Petitions from the wife of the Convict, from several Inhabitants of the Township of Biddulph, and from the Reeves of the several municipalities in the United Counties of Huron & Bruce, praying for a commutation of the said sentence.
The circumstances of this case having been fully considered by His Excellency in Council, in consideration with the opinion of the learned Chief Justice who tried the case, and the recommendations of the Hon. Attorney General [illegible] in favor of a commutation of the said sentence, His Excellency was pleased to order, And it is hereby ordered, that the sentence is passed in the above named James Donnelly, be commuted to imprisonment in the Provinces Penitentiary, for the term of seven years.