| No. in Admissions Register: | 78 |
| Date of admission: | 10 August 1855 |
| Weekly payments: | - |
| Age: | 12 |
| Education: | None |
| Previous employment: | Brass founder |
| Crimes, how often and in what prison: | First offence |
| Training in reformatory: | 5 June 1857 |
| When left reformatory: | - |
| Parentage and family: | Both living |
| Residence: | Moseley Street, Birmingham |
| Trade of father: | Coal yard jobber |
| With whom the boy is placed: | Transferred to Peckleton, Leicester |
| Address: | - |
| Trade: | - |
[No date] Committed at the Warwick Assizes for 5 years.6 August 1855 In a detailed report of the crime by William Smith and his brother Thomas, Aris’s Birmingham Gazette Monday 6 August 1855 p.1 col.3 said: Thomas Smith, aged 13, and William Smith, aged 11, were charged with burglary. It appeared that on the night of the 26th of June last, Francis Porter, a mechanic, residing in Alcester Street, went to bed at an early hour, having previously secured the doors and windows of his dwelling. Early in the morning a man named William Bushell, who lodged in the house, went to work, having previously locked the door and put the key under it. In a short time afterwards William Kelly, a police constable, on going his round, found in an outhouse adjoining the prosecutor's house a clock and sundry small articles of domestic use belonging to him, and presently he saw three lads jumping over a wall in the yard and escape. He pursued them and caught the prisoner William Smith, who said he would never do it again, and hoped he would let him go. He then took him to the lock-up, and on returning to his round met the other prisoner, and took him into custody. He afterwards ascertained that the prosecutor’s house had been forcibly entered, and that the articles he had found belonged to him. - The Jury found both prisoners "guilty", and recommended them to mercy on account of their youth. - His Lordship said that he fully appreciated the feeling of the jury, and would attend to their recommendation as far as possible. The boy William Smith should be sent to a Reformatory School; but he must say he did not know what to do with the other prisoner, who, he was sorry to have to tell the jury, had been six times before various courts of justice, although only fifteen years of age. How to deal with him he knew not, and should therefore defer his sentence for further consideration. - Subsequently the prisoner Thomas Smith was sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment.
20 April 1857 The Minute book records: 446. Mr Ratcliff mentioned that none of the boys mentioned in Minutes 425 and 426 have been taken [they absconded], and that Welch [boy 96], Wood [boy 67], Hughes [boy 69], Smith, and Cassidy [boy 94] have since absconded, and that Wood and Cassidy are now in prison for absconding, and Smith has been allowed by the Magistrates to return to the School.
Resolved: that the Police of the several districts where the boys reside be informed of their having absconded
1 June 1857 absconded in company with Edward Rigby (boy 104), both being apprehended the same day.
3 June 1857 The Minute states: 465. Resolved: that Mr Humphreys be authorised to send Smith to Peckleton [Reformatory, Leicestershire]
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