Henry Jephcott - Saltley Reformatory Inmate
| No. in Admissions Register: | 1016 |
| Age: | 12 years 6 months |
| Whence received: | H M Prison Warwick |
| Description: | |
| Complexion: | Pale |
| Hair colour: | Brown |
| Eyes colour: | Hazel |
| Height: | 4 ft 6¾ ins |
| Particular marks: | Mole under left shoulder |
| State of health: | Good |
| Able-bodied? | Thin and badly nourished |
| Date of admission: | 8 October 1892 |
| Late residence: | 186 Spon Lane, Coventry |
| Parish he belongs to: | St Michael's, Coventry |
| Customary work and mode of life: | None, Has been an associate of youths who have been apprehended and charged with several cases of warehouse breaking and is doubtless implicated in other cases of a similar nature, of which there have been eleven traced to the gang |
| Whether illegitimate: | No |
| State of education: | |
| Reads: | Imperfectly |
| Writes: | Imperfectly |
| Offence: | Attempting to rob a till |
| Circumstances which may have led to it: | - |
| Date of sentence, by whom and court: | 26 September 1892; J Singer, C J Hills, and G A Pridmore; Coventry Petty Sessions |
| Where imprisoned: | H M Prison Warwick |
| Sentence: | 14 days in prison, 5 years at Saltley |
| Previous committals: | |
| Number: | 2 |
| Length: | 1) (12 May 1892) to come up if called upon; 2) (9 August 1892) 12 strokes |
| For what: | 1) Stealing a bag containing 3s 3d; 2) breaking and entering railway station, Brandon |
| Father's name: | Henry Jephcott |
| Occupation: | Plumber and painter |
| Mother's name: | Mary Jane Jephcott |
| Occupation: | - |
| Parents dead? | Neither |
| Survivor married again? | - |
| Parents' treatment of child: | - |
| Character of parents | Both reported as of good character |
| Parents' wages: | 20s to 25s per week |
| Amount parents agree to pay: | - |
| Parents address: | 186 Spon Lane, Coventry |
| Superintendent of police (to collect payments): | - |
| Person making this return: | - |
| Notes: | |
| 8 January 1892 The boy's father was in court, as reported in the Coventry Herald Friday 8 January 1892 p.6 col.3: APPEAL AGAINST AN AFFILIATION ORDER. - Henry Jephcott, a plumber, of Spon-street, Coventry, appealed against an affiliation order made by the Atherstone magistrates in favour of Elizabeth Foster, domestic servant, of Bentley, near Atherstone. Mr. Fitzgerald appeared for the respondent, and Mr. Hugo Young for the appellant. - Mr. Young contended that there was no corroboration, and also that there was a serious flaw in the magistrates' order, inasmuch as the appellant was ordered to maintain a female child, whereas it was a male child. Mr. Fitzgerald said that this was a clerical error on the part of the magistrates' clerk, and that the Court had power to amend it. - The Court ordered the word "female" to be struck out as a surplusage; and withheld their decision on the point of corroboration until the whole case had been heard. - Mr. Young entered his protest against this course being adopted. - Mr. Fitzgerald commented on the fact that the appellant was not called to deny the paternity of the child. - The order was quashed on the ground of want of corroboration. No order was made as to costs. | |
| 12 May 1892 A previous offence was reported in the Coventry Evening Telegraph Thursday 12 May 1892 p.2 col.6: A NICE TRIO. Joseph Lomas, 9c. 6h., Spon Street [9 court 6 house]; Henry Jephcote, 186, Spon Street, and James Stafford, 20, Conduit Yard, juveniles, were charged with stealing from 10, Queen Victoria Road, a box containing 3s. 3d., the goods and moneys of Mary Ann Blakeman. - On Friday evening, about seven o'clock, one of the boys went into the prosecutrix's shop and asked for a pint of oil. He was served, and shortly after the box containing the money was missed. The prisoners, on being questioned by Detective-constable Ross, admitted the theft, Stafford saying that they had made up their minds to have the box. They found a bottle, and Jephcott gave Stafford a penny to purchase the oil, whilst he took the box, which was on a shelf at the back of the shop door Lomas kept watch. - Mr. Masser appeared for Jephcott, and asked the Bench to deal with the case under the First Offenders' Act. - The Chief Constable gave Lomas and Stafford very bad characters, and the Bench sentenced the former to 14 days' hard labour, and five years at a reformatory, whilst Jephcott and Stafford were bound over in their own recognisances to come before the Court when called upon. | |
| 19 August 1892 Another previous offence was reported in the Coventry Herald Friday 19 August 1892 p.5 col.7: BREAKING INTO BRANDON STATION. - Richard Ireland (14), iron caster, 7c. 6h. Fleet-street [7 court 6 house], and Henry Jephcott (11), 186, Spon-street, Coventry, were charged with stealing 5s. from Brandon Station on August 9th. - On the morning of this date, it was stated, prisoners were on the platform awaiting a train for Coventry. During the temporary absence of the booking clerk the window was forced and the money taken. When the loss was discovered prisoners had disappeared but they were overtaken near Willenhall by an employee named Spires, to whom they at once returned the money. - Jephcott, who had previously been before the Court, was ordered to receive 12 strokes with a birch rod, and in the case of Ireland the Bench directed the mother to be bound over to produce the lad when required. |
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| 26 September 1892 The crime that sent him to Saltley was reported in the Coventry Evening Telegraph Monday 26 September 1892 p.3 col.2: A SAD CASE OF YOUTHFUL DEPRAVITY. Henry Jephcott (12), 186, Spon Street, was charged with having been found on enclosed premises with intent to commit a felony. - The Chief Constable said the lad was seen last Friday morning playing about the rear of Mr Swain's grocery stores in Smithford Street. Later on the assistant went into the shop and saw the lad leaning over the counter with his hand among the money in the till, which was open. On seeing the assistant the lad ran away. Several sums of money had been missed from the till. - H. W. Draper, the assistant in question, said he saw the lad's features distinctly, and identified him shortly afterwards on the Market Hall steps. He was apprehended by Police-constable Ross, but denied the charge. - The Chief Constable said that in May last the prisoner was charged with stealing a box, and in August, along with two other boys, he was ordered to receive twelve strokes with the birch rod. He was connected with the gang that were already in custody, and they made statements implicating him, but without that there was a bad record against him. - The father said he had done all he could for the lad, who had got mixed up with the older lads in Spon Street. - The Chairman said he had no alternative but to send him to prison for fourteen days, and afterwards to the reformatory for five years. On hearing the sentence the lad became greatly excited, crying out, "Mr. Mayor, Mr. Singer, have mercy upon me." He was removed below, weeping bitterly. | |
| 5 November 1892 The Reformatory Committee Log Book report records that Jephcott absconded from the School. The report reads: A newly admitted boy, Henry Jephcott, who was only admitted on the 8th of October, absconded on the 5th of November, and though every possible effort has been made to find him, not the slightest trace of him has been discovered. There seems to me to be strong evidence that this case of absconding is a little out of the ordinary run of such offences, and I am distinctly of the opinion that when the boy is found we shall learn that it was the result of a deliberate plot on the part of his parents and relatives to get him away, although I have no evidence that I can produce at the moment. | |
| 28 October 1895 Re-admitted to the School from absconding | |
| 27 November 1895 The Register of Boys on Licence records that Jephcott was licensed to go out and work for Mr Gough, Hagley Road, Birmingham | |
| 7 October 1897 Sentence expired whilst out on licence, discharged from Saltley | |