Benjamin Brooks - Saltley Reformatory Inmate
| No. in Admissions Register: | 925 |
| Age: | 11 |
| Whence received: | H M Prison Stafford |
| Description: | |
| Complexion: | Fresh |
| Hair colour: | Brown |
| Eyes colour: | Blue |
| Height: | 4 ft 4¾ ins |
| Particular marks: | White patch right side of abdomen; mole on right cheek; rather round shouldered |
| State of health: | Good |
| Able-bodied? | Yes |
| Date of admission: | 22 August 1889 |
| Late residence: | Magee Street [McGhie?], Hednesford |
| Parish he belongs to: | Hednesford |
| Customary work and mode of life: | None |
| Whether illegitimate: | No |
| State of education: | |
| Reads: | Imperfectly |
| Writes: | Imperfectly |
| Offence: | Stealing growing peas |
| Circumstances which may have led to it: | Neglect of parents. Mother dead |
| Date of sentence, by whom and court: | 22 July 1889; F C Perry and G T Hartley; Penkridge |
| Where imprisoned: | H M Prison Stafford |
| Sentence: | 1 month in prison, 3 years at Saltley |
| Previous committals: | |
| Number: | 4 |
| Length: | 1) Fined 5s; 2) fined 3s 6d; 3) fined 12s 6d; 4) 6 strokes |
| For what: | 1) Non-attendance [at school]; 2) wilful damage to lamp; 3) wilful damage to fence; 4) stealing money |
| Father's name: | Joseph Brooks |
| Occupation: | Miner |
| Mother's name: | - |
| Occupation: | - |
| Parents dead? | Mother |
| Survivor married again? | No |
| Parents' treatment of child: | Lacks mother's control |
| Character of parents | Reported good |
| Parents' wages: | 12s to 15s per week |
| Amount parents agree to pay: | Not reported |
| Parents address: | Magee Street [McGhie?], Hednesford |
| Superintendent of police (to collect payments): | - |
| Person making this return: | - |
| Notes: | |
| 16 February 1889 There is a report of a previous offence in the Walsall Observer and South Staffordshire Chronicle Saturday 16 February 1889 p.6 col.5: DAMAGE TO A STREET LAMP. - At the same Court [Hednesford Police Court], a lad named Benjamin Brookes, residing with his parents, was charged with damaging a street lamp in Mount Street, on January 22nd. - Mr. W. McGregor, manager to the gasworks, appeared in support of the charge, and reported that the damage amounted to 1s. 6d. - The lad pleaded guilty, but the Bench allowed the case to be withdrawn upon the lad's father undertaking to pay the damage, and the Bench cautioned defendant that if he did such a thing again he would get into serious trouble. | |
| 25 March 1889 There is a report of the remand hearing for another previous offence in the Lichfield Mercury Friday 29 March 1889 p.8 col.4: HEDNESFORD. STEALING MONEY. - Three boys, named William Haycock, Benjamin Brookes, and Joseph Ingram, who reside with their parents at Hednesford, were arrested on Tuesday for stealing 3s 7d. belonging to Joseph Brooks, miner, West Cannock Street, father of Benjamin Brooks. On Monday, the boys stole the money while prosecutor was at work. They hid 1s 4d of the money, the rest being spent principally in tobacco, marbles, pies, cocoanuts, pigs pudding, &c. Proceedings were taken, and they were bailed out till Monday week, when they will appear at the Cannock sitting of the magistrates. In the same paper of 12 April 1889 p.7 col.7 Brookes was sentenced to 6 strokes from a birch rod, and Ingram and Haycock 12 strokes each | |
| 10 May 1889 There is a report of yet another previous offence in the Lichfield Mercury Friday 10 May 1889 p.8 col.5: DESTROYING A FENCE. - Benjamin Brookes and J. Ingram, two boys, of Hednesford, were charged on a summons with breaking a post and pulling up a fence. - Scot Enny, a boy, said he saw Brookes and Ingram pulling up the fence on a Monday evening, three weeks ago. - Defendants said the fence was loose. - William Pickering, farmer, and a tenant of the Cannock Conduit Trustees, deposed that he saw the boys on the 15th of April. They ware pulling up the fence. The Chairman said that Brookes was a very bad boy and they hardly knew how to deal with him. He would have to pay damage 1s, fine 1s, and costs 10s 3d, and Ingram would be fined the same amount. | |
| 27 July 1889 There is a report of the crime that sent him to Saltley in the Staffordshire Chronicle Saturday 27 July 1889 p.5 col.4: THEFTS BY LADS. - Benjamin Brooks (11), and James Thomas lngram (12), two little boys from Hednesford, were charged with stealing a quantity of growing peas, value 6d., the property of Frederick Smart, on July 14, at Mount Street, Hednesford. Prosecutor, a joiner, deposed to missing the peas on Sunday morning, the 14th, and George Morgan, miner, of the same place, said he saw the lads cross a field and a number of gardens into the garden of the prosecutor, whose peas they proceeded to pluck. He could not get at them because there was a quick hedge between. - Mr. Perry said one of the boys had been before the magistrates three times previously, and the other twice. The parents seemed to have neglected their duty. The boys were sent to gaol for one month each, and to a reformatory for three years afterwards. The parents had probably to thank themselves for the disgrace thus brought upon them. | |
| 21 August 1892 Sentence expired, discharged from Saltley | |