Henry Cowley aka Taylor - Saltley Reformatory Inmate
| No. in Admissions Register: | 1104 |
| Age: | 15 (born 7 February 1880) |
| Whence received: | H M Prison Stafford |
| Description: | |
| Complexion: | Fresh |
| Hair colour: | Dark |
| Eyes colour: | Light grey |
| Height: | 4 ft 9ΒΌ ins |
| Particular marks: | Scar on right forehead, burn on right ankle |
| State of health: | Good |
| Able-bodied? | Yes |
| Date of admission: | 10 September 1895 |
| Late residence: | 4 John Street, Walsall |
| Parish he belongs to: | - |
| Customary work and mode of life: | Frequently sleeping out and is suspected of theft, with which he has not been charged |
| Whether illegitimate: | Yes - parents married after birth of child |
| State of education: | |
| Reads: | Imperfectly |
| Writes: | Imperfectly |
| Offence: | Vagrancy |
| Circumstances which may have led to it: | Parental neglect |
| Date of sentence, by whom and court: | 26 August 1895; J Noake and Samuel Russell; Walsall Petty Sessions |
| Where imprisoned: | H M Prison Stafford |
| Sentence: | 14 days in prison, detained at Saltley until 19 years of age |
| Previous committals: | |
| Number: | Nil |
| Length: | - |
| For what: | - |
| Father's name: | Henry Taylor |
| Occupation: | Rag gatherer |
| Mother's name: | Clara Taylor |
| Occupation: | Rag gatherer |
| Parents dead? | Neither |
| Survivor married again? | - |
| Parents' treatment of child: | Bad on father's part |
| Character of parents | Boy says that his father is idle and dissolute and that his mother has hard work to keep a home together |
| Parents' wages: | Uncertain |
| Amount parents agree to pay: | - |
| Parents address: | 4 John Street, Walsall |
| Superintendent of police (to collect payments): | - |
| Person making this return: | Joseph Noaks |
| Notes: | |
| 31 August 1895 The crime that sent him to Saltley was reported in the Staffordshire Advertiser Saturday 31 August 1895 p.7 col.3: ANOTHER GANG OF YOUNG MARAUDERS. - Henry Taylor, otherwise Cowley, 15 John Street, Martin Leonard, 12, Blue-lane, and Edward Lee, 11, Wolverhampton-street, were charged with sleeping out, and evidence was given showing that they were found at two o'clock in a stable belonging to Mr. Thomas King, Pleck-road. It was stated that Mr. King had been troubled by the boys and others previously, and that he was in constant fear that the place should be set on fire. The Chief Constable added that and Lee and Leonard were in custody in July, charged with stealing apples, and that Taylor ought to have been with them on that occasion, but he escaped, leaving his jacket in the hands of the constable who had apprehended the other two. The boys were in the habit, with others, who could not at the moment be reached, of sleeping out and committing depredations, and their parents had no control over them. All three were sentenced to fourteen days imprisonment, orders being also made for Taylor to he kept in a reformatory until he had attained the age of nineteen years, and for Leonard and Lee to be kept at an industrial school until they had respectively reached the age of sixteen years. | |
| 2 March 1897 Influenza, better by 3 March | |
| 7 February 1899 Sentence expired, discharged from Saltley | |