Saltley Reformatory Inmates

Samuel Campton

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Notes:

4 April 1856 Absconded with William Burns [boy 25] and Mark Tremble [boy 64]

20 June 1856 Caught stealing an alpaca coat and sent to prison in Coventry before being returned to Saltley. A report in the Coventry Herald 20 Jun 1856 p.4 col.5 says: Samuel Campton was charged with stealing an alpaca coat, the property of Mr William Pitman Collingbourne. The boy pleaded guilty. Mr John Ellis, Master of the Saltley Reformatory, said he [Compton] had been in the Reformatory two years: he was in a state of reformation. He had given him a week’s holiday, and had heard nothing against him. He was willing to take him back. It took four years to reform a boy. This boy ought to be in three years longer; he had made a confession, and was willing to make restitution; if a boy fell once, he might be reclaimed. He was committed for fourteen days; after that he was again to be sent to the Reformatory at Saltley. Mr Jeffcoat recommended the boy, when he went back ,to endeavour by good conduct to regain the place he had lost, and not to be led away by other boys. They had given him a very slight punishment, in order that he might be sent to the Asylum, The Master had spoken well of him, and he trusted he would from this time act very differently. After his term of imprisonment had expired, he would go back to the Asylum f or three years. The Master, Mr Ellis, said this boy had been articled to a shoemaker; they were all very well pleased with his conduct, and he was astonished at his leaving. They had a bootmaker employed, a very efficient man, a tailor, and a carpenter. Some of the boys work out of doors, on five acres of garden land. There were five divisions of labour – boot-making, tailoring, carpentering, gardening, and house work. They work seven hours, schooling two hours and a half, and the remainder of the time employed in recreation and gardening. They rise at half past five, at the sound of a horn. Each boy has a garden of his own. They retire to rest at nine o’clock at night. The Reformatory had been established three years. There were 40 boys in the establishment, and some of the specimens of the work would be exhibited in London on Thursday, at Willis’s Room. He (Mr E) said the boys generally were remarkably clever, and that they reformed seven out of ten effectually. There were three classes of privileges:- First class boys had a greater degree of liberty, also better clothes, being the effects of their own industry; the second class were those who could not leave the field; and the third class were those who first came in and misconducted themselves. The first class boys were invested with some authority, and in fact were overlookers over the other boys; this was very essential. The Institution, as an experiment, was considered most successful, and no doubt if the boy had not been half reformed he would have taken the breeches as well, and not have been satisfied with the coat only.   

4 April 1857 In the Reformatory Minute book is recorded: 423. Resolved: that an application be made to the Secretary of State for the dismissal of Elkington [boy 83], Wright [boy 77], Lundy [boy 76], Brookes [boy 61], Dempsey [boy 86], and Campton, and that Elkington and Wright be allowed to go to the masters who have applied to take them as apprentices; that Lundy and Brookes be placed under the care of Mr Pawson, who promised to find them work; and that Campton and Dempsey be assisted to emigrate.

424. Resolved: that Mr Grove, who is about to emigrate to New Zealand, be induced to take under his charge Catchpole [boy 12], Walker [boy 47], Campton, and Dempsey, and that Mr Ratcliff report at next meeting.

20 April 1857 The Minute Book notes: 445. Mr Ratcliff reported that Mr Grove had decided not to leave England.

3 June 1857 In a list of ‘disposals’, the Minute Book reports that Campton has been sent to Peckleton Reformatory [in Leicestershire, on 6 May 1857]

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