182 AN EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF PAUL JONES. 
whenever found necessary for their defence in case they shall 
ever be quarrelled for delivering the same to him in the penalty 
of £10 sterling in case he failed therein.’’ This was subscribed 
at Kirkcudbright on 13th November, and was witnessed by John 
‘Thomson, clerk to William Gordon, and James M‘Gowan, shoe- 
maker, Kirkcudbright. On 15th November, 1770, a petition was 
presented by Jones to the Earl of March, in which he states that 
at present he is incarcerated in the Tolbooth of Kirkcudbright in 
virtue of a warrant issued by his lordship’s deputy on Maxwell’s 
information. He proceeds to say that he is conscious of his 
innocence, and that there is not the least cause or reason for 
harassing him or detaining him in prison upon the complaint, as 
the same is absolutely false and groundless; that from the pre- 
cognition taken in the affair under his lordship’s warrant there is 
not the least evidence or presumption that Mungo Maxwell died 
of any abuse received from the petitioner, nor was there any 
proof brought of his being actually dead. In these circum- 
stances he applied to his lordship to be liberated on bail to 
stand trial for the alleged crime. That bail he says he is ready 
to find, whether by himself or by the help of his friends he does 
not say. He confidently anticipated liberation, as he does not 
entertain a doubt of his lordship complying with the request, and 
his argument that there was not the smallest presumption of his 
guilt was of itself sufficient to entitle him to be liberated. 
Further, his health and fortune and a valuable ship and cargo 
entrusted by his employers to his care were all at stake, and must 
suffer considerably if he is not immediately set at a liberty. 
Besides all this, he had good reason to believe that Robert 
Maxwell, the informer, would consent to his being liberated 
upon bail to stand trial. In respect of all this he appealed to 
his lordship to order the Magistrates of Kirkcudbright and their 
jailer to set him at liberty upon his finding sufficient caution to 
stand trial. The petition is signed by Thomas Stothart. Then 
follows the deliverance, in which the Vice-Admiral Deputy 
states he has considered the petition, and in respect of the 
consent of the informer, Robert Maxwell, finds that the crime 
charged against Jones was bailable, and grants warrant to the 
Magistrates to set him at liberty “furth of their Tolbooth upon 
his finding sufficient caution, and that he should appear and 
answer to any indictment or criminal libel that might be brought 
