James M. Bingham to Beriah Magoffin
1861-10-30
- Date of Creation
- October 30, 1861
- Place of Creation
- Knox County, Kentucky
- Document Genre
- Correspondence
- Repository
- Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives
- Collection
- Office of the Governor, Beriah Magoffin: Governor's Official Correspondence File, Petitions for Pardons and Remissions, 1859-1862
- Box / Folder
- MG18-485
- CWGK Accession Number
- KYR-0001-020-0640
- Rights
- This image and its transcription are freely available to the public. Images appear courtesy of Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. Transcriptions and annotations were created by Kentucky Historical Society staff, volunteers, and interns. When referencing this document, please use our preferred citation.; The use of transcriptions, images, or annotations from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce any material on CWGK is required.
- FTP Identifier
- 32209048
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Citation
James M. Bingham to Beriah Magoffin, 1861-10-30, Office of the Governor, Beriah Magoffin: Governor's Official Correspondence File, Petitions for Pardons and Remissions, 1859-1862, Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/KYR-0001-020-0640 (November 14, 2026).
To his Excellency Beriah Magoffin Governor of Kentucky.
The undersigned your petitioner would respectfully represent that at the
He states that the offense was committed shortly after the passage of the act which made it illegal. that ^He^ lives in a remote portion of the county and can neither read nor write and did not therefore Know or even suspect he was violating the law of land.
He states that he was at the time in the employment of the master of the negro and after working in the field with the negro all the week engaged in a game of marbles on Saturday evening not dreaming that he was thereby violating the laws of his country.
He states that he is a boy and was at the time the offense was committed only sixteen years of age and as he had been working in company a with the negro thought there was no impropriety in his engaging in the game. He states that he is poor and unable to pay said fine, that shortly after the fine was imposed he petitioned you Excellency and obtained a respite for the term of twelve moths but the time for which the collection of the fine was respited having expired An A execution for his body is now in the hands of the sheriff and unless remitted by your Excellency he will be imprisoned in the Jail of his county to satisfy said fine. The premises considered he
prays that your Excellency may remit said fine and save him from imprisonment.
James M. Bingham
Knox
Cir. Ct.
$10 } Gaming
J. M. Bingham
Remission Issd
Remitted
B. M.