Nova Scotia Archives

Mi'kmaw Teaching and Learning Resources

Petition by Francis Bouriceau requesting release of Gabriel Meuse from the Provincial Penitentiary. He is sentenced to one year for perjury. Pleading mitigation of 'extreme poverty.' Petition not approved.
view page 1 2 3 4 view transcript 1 2 3 4

close

note: transcription publicly contributed - please contact us with comments, errors or omisions

103
To His Excellency the
Right Honorable the Earl
of Mulgrave, Lieutenant
Governor of Nova Scotia
re re re
The Memorial of the Undersigned
Respectfully Sheweth

That in the last September Term of the
Supreme Court at Digby, Gabriel Meuse having
pleaded Guilty to an indictment preferred
against him for perjury, was sentenced to be
imprisoned for one year in the Provincial
penitentiary. Your Memorialists, from what
took place at the Trial, feel that the accused
under the pressure of extreme poverty, yielded to strong
temptation, and that the circumstances greatly
mitigated the offence with which he was charged.

Your Memorialists would therefore
respectfully request that Your Excellency would
be pleased to take the case of the prisoner into
your favorable consideration, and to remit a
portion of the sentence passed upon him by


Date: 1859

Retrieval no.: Commissioner of Public Records — Mi'kmaq and Government Relations series Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 431 number 103

Questions to Consider

  • When do you think the document was written?



  • Who do you think wrote the document?



  • Why do you think the document was written



  • Who do you think received the document?



  • Who do you think this document was written for?



  • What information do you think this document provides? What do you think it tells us about the past?



  • How do you think the document reflects the attitudes and values of the time period in which it was written?



  • What impact do you think the document had at the time it was written?



    • Do you think those were different impacts for different people?



               

Nova Scotia Archives — https://archives.novascotia.ca/teaching-learning/mikmaq/archives/?ID=339

Crown copyright © 2026, Province of Nova Scotia.