Saltley Reformatory

James Parker - Saltley Reformatory Inmate

No. in Admissions Register:	763
Age:	15
Whence received:	H M Prison Birmingham
Description:
Complexion:	Fresh
Hair colour:	Brown
Eyes colour:	Hazel
Visage:	Oval
Particular marks:	Scar on right side of forehead
State of health:	Good
Able-bodied?	Yes
Date of admission:	29 January 1885
Late residence:	5 court 2 house Harding Street, Birmingham
Parish he belongs to:	Birmingham
Customary work and mode of life:	Labourer
Whether illegitimate:	No
State of education:
Reads:	Not at all
Writes:	Not at all
Offence:	Stealing 2 boots
Circumstances which may have led to it:	Bad companions
Date of sentence, by whom and court:	16 January 1885; T C S Kynnersley; Birmingham Court of Summary Jurisdiction
Where imprisoned:	H M Prison, Birmingham
Sentence:	14 days hard labour in prison, 5 years at Saltley
Previous committals:
Number:	2
Length:	-
For what:	1) Stealing braces; 2) stealing boots
Father's name:	James Parker
Occupation:	File grinder
Mother's name:	Harriet Parker
Occupation:	-
Parents dead?	Neither
Survivor married again?	-
Parents' treatment of child:	Good
Character of parents	Respectable
Parents' wages:	The father earns about 30s weekly
Amount parents agree to pay:	Not assessed
Parents address:	5 court 2 house Harding Street, Birmingham
Superintendent of police (to collect payments):	Chief Superintendent Wilcox, Council House, Birmingham
Person making this return:	M Elliott, Clerk to the Visiting Court, H M Prison Birmingham

Notes:

30 June 1887 Licensed to work for Mr Couchman, Small Heath, Birmingham

28 December 1888 Sentence expired, discharged from Saltley whilst out on licence

William Bowdler - Saltley Reformatory Inmate

No. in Admissions Register:	1020
Age:	13
Whence received:	H M Prison Stafford
Description:
Complexion:	Fresh
Hair colour:	Brown
Eyes colour:	Grey
Height:	4 ft 3 ins
Particular marks:	Lost end of left 2nd finger
State of health:	Good
Able-bodied?	Yes
Date of admission:	11 January 1893
Late residence:	79 Dunstall Road, Wolverhampton
Parish he belongs to:	Wolverhampton
Customary work and mode of life:	Has been two years an inmate of the Wolverhampton Day Industrial School
Whether illegitimate:	No
State of education:
Reads:	Very imperfectly, Standard 1
Writes:	Very imperfectly, Standard 1
Offence:	Stealing tobacco
Circumstances which may have led to it:	Lack of proper parental control. See report of parents' character [below]
Date of sentence, by whom and court:	2 January 1893; John Lees and F P Gibbons; Wolverhampton Police Court
Where imprisoned:	H M Prison Stafford
Sentence:	10 days in prison, 5 years at Saltley
Previous committals:
Number:	2
Length:	1) Day Industrial School; 2) 1 day and 6 strokes
For what:	1) Non-attendance at school; 2) stealing a fowl
Father's name:	Joseph Bowdler
Occupation:	Horse dealer
Mother's name:	Kezia Bowdler
Occupation:	Hawker
Parents dead?	Neither
Survivor married again?	-
Parents' treatment of child:	Appears to have been neglected
Character of parents	No convictions recorded against the father. Mother has been convicted 20 times for various offences
Parents' wages:	-
Amount parents agree to pay:	-
Parents address:	79 Dunstall Road, Wolverhampton
Superintendent of police (to collect payments):	-
Person making this return:	-

Notes:

24 February 1896 The Register of Boys on Licence records that Bowdler was licensed to go out and work for Mr Crombie, tailor, Faulkner Street, Wolverhampton

30 July 1896 Returned to Saltley because conduct whilst out on licence deemed unsatisfactory

28 April 1897 The Medical Officer reported: Influenza, better by 3 May

30 June 1897 The Register records that Bowdler was re-licensed to work for Mr Whittard, Westfield Farm, Edgbaston

10 January 1898 Sentence expired whilst out on licence, discharged from Saltley

George Thomas Powell - Saltley Reformatory Inmate

No. in Admissions Register:	1275
Age:	15 (born 9 April 1886)
Whence received:	Lichfield, County Petty Sessions
Description:
Complexion:	Fresh, slightly freckled
Hair colour:	Dark brown
Eyes colour:	Grey mottled
Height:	4 ft 7½ ins
Particular marks:	Nil
State of health:	Good
Able-bodied?	Yes
Date of admission:	1 June 1901
Late residence:	85 Beacon Street, Lichfield
Parish he belongs to:	-
Customary work and mode of life:	Working in a ginger beer factory. It is said he has been the associate of bad boys
Whether illegitimate:	No
State of education:
Reads:	Imperfectly, Standard 3
Writes:	Imperfectly, Standard 3
Offence:	Larceny of money by servant
Circumstances which may have led to it:	The boy appears to have behaved well until entering upon this last situation. During the past 3 months he has systematically misappropriated monies entrusted to him to pay for goods by his master
Date of sentence, by whom and court:	22 May 1901; A A Worthington and G Haynes; Lichfield County Petty Sessions
Where imprisoned:	Not
Sentence:	3 years at Saltley
Previous committals:
Number:	None
Length:	-
For what:	-
Father's name:	Thomas Powell
Occupation:	Labourer
Mother's name:	Amy Powell
Occupation:	Housewife
Parents dead?	Neither
Survivor married again?	-
Parents' treatment of child:	Good
Character of parents	Good
Parents' wages:	-
Amount parents agree to pay:	-
Parents address:	-
Superintendent of police (to collect payments):	Superintendent Barrett, Lichfield
Person making this return:	George Haynes

Notes:

24 May 1901 The crime that sent him to Saltley was reported in the Lichfield Mercury Friday 24 May 1901 p.7 cols.1-2: THEFT. Thomas Powell (15) [first name given thus], living with his parents at Beacon Street, Lichfield, was charged with stealing £1 6s 10d, the money of his employer, Charles Robotham, farmer, Abnalls Farm, Burntwood. - The prosecutor said that the prisoner was engaged as a farm help, his principal duties being to drive. He had on several occasions sent him for grains to the City Brewery, and gave him the money to pay for them. He afterwards ascertained that the money had not been paid. - Mr. Smith, clerk, in the employment of the City Brewery Co., produced books which shewed that the grains were supplied on the dates mentioned, but that no money was paid. The boy would not tell his father what he had done with the money, but afterwards did so. - Mr. George Pilsbury, shopkeeper, stated that on two dates goods were supplied to the defendant, who did not pay the money. - The prisoner's father put some questions to Mr. Robotham, and it transpired that it had been agreed that if the boy worked out the amount there should he no charge made against him. - Mr. Worthington said that this was compounding a felony. - The Bench said it was a very sad case. The prisoner began to defraud his master the day after he entered his employment. He would be sent to Saltley Reformatory for three years.

24 December 1903 The Register of Boys on Licence records that Powell was licensed to go out and work for Mr Robinson, Muckley Corner, Brownhills

21 May 1904 Sentence expired whilst out on licence, discharged from Saltley

No. in Admissions Register:	666
Age:	13
Whence received:	Birmingham Prisn
Description:
Complexion:	Fresh
Hair colour:	Brown
Eyes colour:	Brown
Visage:	Clear
Particular marks:	None
State of health:	Good
Able-bodied?	Yes
Date of admission:	10 May 1881
Late residence:	5 Bishopgate Street, Birmingham
Parish he belongs to:	Birmingham
Customary work and mode of life:	Selling newspapers and working in his aunt's garden
Whether illegitimate:	No
State of education:
Reads:	Imperfectly - just knows his letters
Writes:	Imperfectly - can write his name
Offence:	Attempting to steal a purse from the person
Circumstances which may have led to it:	His father fied and was then left in the guardianship of his aunt, who manages him...[can't read the rest]
Date of sentence, by whom and court:	27 April 1881; T C S Kynnersley; Birmingham Police Court
Where imprisoned:	H M Prison Birmingham
Sentence:	14 days hard labour in prison, 5 years at Saltley
Previous committals:
Number:	1
Length:	Remanded and afterwards discharged
For what:	Picking pockets
Father's name:	Henry Harhrave (step-father)
Occupation:	Caster in a bedding facory
Mother's name:	Lucy Hargrave
Occupation:	-
Parents dead?	Father has been dead 7 years
Survivor married again?	Yes, the widow married an Henry Hargrave
Parents' treatment of child:	Received kind treatment
Character of parents	Not known
Parents' wages:	The boy says his step-father earns £2 per week
Amount parents agree to pay:	-
Parents address:	5 Bishopdate Street, Birmingham. A later abnnotation give 19 court 1 house [same street? no additional information] (25 August 1881)
Superintendent of police (to collect payments):	-
Person making this return:	-

Notes:

5 April 1881 There is a report of his previous offence in the Birmingham Mail Tuesday 5 April 1881 p.3 col.6: A YOUNG PICKPOCKET. Alfred Alger, (13). hawker, who lives in Bishopgate Street, was charged with stealing a purse containing 2s 7d. from the person of Sarah Champion, of Belgrave Road. Mrs. Champion was in New Street, about two o'clock yesterday afternoon, when prisoner came up and took her purse from her dress pocket and ran up Corporation Street with it. He was followed and overtaken by a young gentleman named Kynaston, who saw the lad make several attempts previous to robbing the prosecutrix. The prisoner was remanded for a week for enquiries to be made.

27 April 1881 The crime that sent him to Saltley was reported in the Birmingham Mail Wednesday 27 April 1881 p.3 col.4: YOUTHFUL PICKPOCKETS. Thomas McKay (15), 3 court, 11 house, Howard s Place, and Alfred Alger (13), 5, Bishopsgate Street, were charged with attempting to pick pockets yesterday. - Police-constable Quarterrnan, 33R, said he saw Alger with his hand in a lady's pocket, in Union Passage, and McKay was apprehended for having acted as a "cover'' to the other prisoner. McKay was sentenced to three months' imprisonment with hard labour, and Alger to 21 days' imprisonment, with five years in a reformatory.

12 May 1881 Wrote to the boy's step-father and enclosed a notice re Visiting Day. I am anxious that the boy should get a letter from his parents

George Hannah - Saltley Reformatory Inmate

No. in Admissions Register:	20
Date of admission:	12 April 1853
Weekly payments:	-
Age:	12
Education:	Indifferent
Previous employment:	None
Crimes, how often and in what prison:	Various prisons, 9
Training in reformatory:	Shoemaking
When left reformatory:	June 1853
Parentage and family:	Both dead
Residence:	-
Trade of father:	-
With whom the boy is placed:	J. Sturge
Address:	Stoke Reformatory
Trade:	-

Notes:

13. October 1852 An astonishingly lengthy report in the Worcestershire Chronicle Wednesday 13 October 1852 p.4 col.1 gives a very detailed account of Hannah’s life and criminal career: CONFESSIONS OF A THIEF AT WORCESTER. – A remarkable instance of juvenile depravity, and of the necessity that exists for reformatory institutions, has just come to our knowledge. A lad named George Hannah, and a man who gave the name of David Shettle, were in august last sent by the Worcester city magistrates to gaol for two months, under the Vagrant Act, they having been caught picking pockets in the Worcester Market house. The lad has been very communicative since his confinement, and has revealed a history of himself and his career of Jack Sheppardism [Jack Sheppard was a notorious thief in early 18th century London] which, for one so young (he is little more than ten years old), is truly shocking, and must excite the painful interest of all who read the tale. He believes that he was born at Glossop, in Derbyshire, has no recollection of his father, and says that his mother died about four years ago. His father was a Paisley weaver. After the death of the father, his son (then but an infant of four or five years old) went with his mother about the country, hawking hardware, etc. On her death he went with another woman, engaged in the same trade, through Derbyshire, Nottingham, and the populous manufacturing districts. Hannah had some words with one of this woman’s two children, and left her in consequence in Manchester, when he soon fell in with a gang of young thieves, he being then but seven years old. Hannah was quickly initiated into the art and mystery of pocket-picking and shop-lifting, and being small and active he was appointed to do the bulk of the business, while the rest of the juvenile gang acted as scouts and kept up a sharp look-out. Robbing tills was a lucrative branch; but when that failed, shop-lifting was almost as productive. Little Hannah would creep into a shop on all fours, abstract goods or pick a lady’s pockets, and disappear, with the rapidity of thought; or tasking advantage of a crowd of customers passing in, he would also enter and glide behind them, upstairs into the ware-rooms, where he would lay the boxes and drawers under contribution and watch his opportunity to escape. He committed 60 or 70 robberies in Manchester, and was never detected.

Next he went to Liverpool, and joined a cousin, who was also a thief. There he chiefly operated on the landing stairs at the river’s side, where crowds were going to and from the steamers. The principle was to never take handkerchiefs, as those articles never fetched a good price and often led to detection. Purses also were thrown away as soon as the money was abstracted. On one occasion, at the Rock Ferry, this little lad fetched £13 from pocket-picking. In the short space of eighteen months he was confined in Liverpool gaol five times, and once was sent to the sessions, and got ten days’ imprisonment. He calculates that he robbed 100 people at Liverpool. At length, a party, of which Hannah was one, broke open a shop, and went off with the goods to Chester, every facility being afforded at the various lodging houses for disposing of stolen property. A little boy who had belonged to the gang at Liverpool gave information to the police which led to their capture. [This little boy had frequently been in gaol, and having learned the trade of a tailor there, he was at last engaged to remain in prison, working at his trade, and to be allowed to go out certain times in the week. This was done as he had no honest place to go to, and no-one would take him in. While out in the town he would rob the shops of materials, and bring them home to make up into clothes, till the governor, suspecting it was not all right, threatened him with further prosecution and its consequences, transportation, if he did not confess. Upon this, he told of the robbery in which young Hannah was concerned, and the result was the capture of the juvenile thieves at Chester.] By one of those casualties which sometimes occur even in the most decided cases, and for which our sapient jury-man have much to answer, the young urchins escaped. Hannah and his cousin then went back to Manchester, where the latter being detected in the practice of his old offences, was transported.

Our hero then fell in with a man named Daniel Shettle, who kept up a thieving establishment at 33 Old Thomas Street, Birmingham. This Shettle hired boys to steal, and kept a variety of dresses in which they could at any time disguise themselves. The fruit of their operations went for their “board and lodging” – that is to say, if the boys were honest enough to hand over all their ill-gotten booty, which is not very likely. Shettle was a smasher, and went “the circuit” in the exercise of his profession. He met with Hannah in Manchester, and took him to Derby and other places; but at Derby, Hannah got in for three months imprisonment and a sound flogging for pocket picking. Shettle also received two months, before the expiration of which Hannah came out of prison and was received by Shettle’s wife, with whom he went round the country picking pockets and passing bad coin. At Nottingham he took £2 from one woman’s pocket, and at Birmingham he eased a lady of a purse and a large sum of money. The purse and its contents however being large, Hannah was somewhat clumsy in pocketing it, and the lady caught him in the act, but sent him about his business, without prosecuting him. At Burton on Trent he picked a lady’s pocket of £4 19s, at a railway station, but information being immediately given, and policemen put upon the scent, the woman Shettle immediately threw the purse and money out of the window of the railway carriage to avoid detection. The purse was soon picked up, and the thieves taken into custody, and afterwards suffered a month’s imprisonment. Mrs Shettle, it seems, not satisfied with her husband’s long confinement in gaol, had in the meantime procured another male consort, and when Shettle emerged from prison, he and his successor in the lady’s affections had a dreadful battle which was fortunately put a stop to by the police, or the consequences might have been fatal. On Saturday the 14th of August last, Shettle and our hero came to Worcester for the double purpose of meeting a butty who was coming out of gaol and of doing a little business in the Market house. Both, however, were apprehended in the pursuit of their miserable profession, and in due course were sent to gaol, where they still remain.

Young Hannah, who is a very shrewd, intelligent boy, seems exceedingly anxious to abandon his wicked habits, and to avoid the woman Shettle, who, he says, will be sure to present herself at the gaol on the day of his liberation, tomorrow (Thursday), and claim him as her son, with the intention of forcing him to continue that course of life which may one day bring him to the condemned settlements or the gallows. He has had no education but what has been given him in gaol, and by that means he has learned reading and writing, and a little of the tailoring trade, but professes himself willing to go to the workhouse or do anything to get an honest living. Unfortunately there is no institution for the reception of such melancholy cases. We are not sure that the workhouse authorities would do right in receiving him; and few, if any, tradesmen would like to risk an engagement with him. This statement of facts, therefore, is made in the hope that some of our benevolent readers will be induced to make an effort towards snatching this brand from the burning, and to give him at least a chance of proving whether his avowed wish for a reformed life is sincere or otherwise. We will only add that, if such attempt be made, it must be made at once and without a day’s delay.