Benjamin Higgins - Saltley Reformatory Inmate

Benjamin Higgins - Saltley Reformatory Inmate
1st Sentence Served - 1853

No. in Admissions Register:	45
Date of admission:	24 December 1853
Weekly payments:	-
Age:	14
Education:	Indifferent
Previous employment:	Errand boy
Crimes, how often and in what prison:	Birmingham, 6
Training in reformatory:	Farm labour
When left reformatory:	15 June 1854
Parentage and family:	Both living
Residence:	-
Trade of father:	-
With whom the boy is placed:	-
Address:	-
Trade:	-

Notes:

7 October 1854 in the Minute Book of the Reformatory it is recorded that Higgins has been committed to prison.

18 March 1856 Re-admitted to Reformatory – see entry 85

2nd Sentence Served - 1856

No. in Admissions Register:	85
Date of admission:	19 March 1856
Weekly payments:	-
Age:	16
Education:	Good
Previous employment:	-
Crimes, how often and in what prison:	-
Training in reformatory:	30 March 1856
When left reformatory:	-
Parentage and family:	-
Residence:	-
Trade of father:	-
With whom the boy is placed:	-
Address:	-
Trade:	-
When and how left reformatory	25 Jun 1856 - Joined the Royal Engineers (Royal Sappers and Miners)

Notes

24 December 1853 Previously admitted to Reformatory -see no.45

9 April 1856 It is recorded in the Reformatory Minute Book: 242. Mr Ratcliff reported that Higgins, a boy who had previously been in the Institution, but left in 1854, and who again commenced a system of thieving and was sentenced to four years penal servitude, but released after fifteen months imprisonment, having conducted himself so satisfactorily as to obtain a free pardon, with which he returned to Saltley and was admitted without authority of the Committee.

Resolved: that the boy be allowed to remain a month. and that a situation if possible be provided for him.

12 May 1856 A subsequent Minute in the Minute Book states: 254. Mr Ratcliff reported that he had communicated Minute 242 to Mr Ellis, and to the boy Higgins, and that the boy stated his uncle would most probably write to him.

255. Resolved: that Mr Ellis be written to enquiring if Higgins had left the Institution, and if not the Committee cannot allow him to remain.

30 June 1856 As a follow-up, the Minute book records: 264. On reading Minute 254, Mr Ratcliff reported that instead of leaving the Institution on the 9th of May according to Minute 242, he was permitted to remain until the 21st when he enlisted into the Royal Sappers and Miners. He then returned to the Institution where he remained until the end of the month; he then left for a few days, but returned and then stayed at the school until June the 25th, when he finally left for Chatham.

During the interval while Higgins was improperly at the school, without the knowledge or sanction of the Committee. He headed a party of boys on the 28th May and assaulted and robbed a young man named Allen, on the high road, and this circumstance though known to Mr Ellis, had not been reported to the Committee or Secretaries.

Mr Allen and Mr Ellis were then brought in and respectively made their statements of the facts.

Mr Allen having then retired - 265 Resolved: that Mr Allen be informed that the Committee have ascertained that Higgins is at Chatham and that he is liable to prosecution, if Mr Allen is advised to proceed against him.