Saltley Reformatory Inmates

Thomas Earp

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Notes:

1 September 1855 A lengthy report of the crime was in the Birmingham Journal Saturday 1 September 1855 p.5 col.6: BURGLARY AND EXTENSIVE ROBBERY OF WEARING APPAREL. - On Thursday, at the Public Office, before S. Thornton and D Malins Esqrs, two lads, well-known to the police, Thomas Earp residing in Brearley Street, and Bartholomew Finton, of exceedingly diminutive appearance, and described as having no home, were placed in the dock charged with having burglariously entered a dwelling house, occupied by Enoch Yardley, gun maker, in Hatchett Street, and stolen thence a large quantity of wearing apparel. Amongst the articles stolen were three waistcoats, a pair of trousers, a dress, two shawls, a black cloth mantle, two children's coats, a child's frock, several neck ties, and other minor articles, and two pairs of boots. The prisoner Earp is fifteen, and is companion is thirteen years of age. It appeared that about ten minutes after three o'clock that morning, Police Constable Day saw the two prisoners and another lad in Lichfield Street. The prisoners were each carrying a large bundle. Day followed the lads into a court in Old Cross Street, where he found them in a privy, apparently in the act of dividing the spoil, which consisted of the articles above enumerated, some of which were strewn upon the floor. They said they picked up the goods at the fire in Cecil Street. Day then took them into custody. At the police station the lads repeated their former statement to Police Constable Johnson. That officer told them he did not believe they were telling the truth, and Finton then admitted to him that they had stolen the goods from a house in Hatchett Street, to which place he offered to accompany him. Accordingly, Johnson took the lad into Hatchett Street, and the latter went to the door of the prosecutor's house, and opened it, telling the officer that that was the house they had robbed. The constable then aroused the inmates, and on Mr Yardley coming downstairs it was discovered that a chest of drawers in the kitchen had been completely ransacked, and all the articles in question taken away. Access to the house had been obtained by the cellar window, which had been left unfastened on the previous evening. Finton's shoes were found underneath the chest of drawers in the kitchen, and the lad said he had placed them there whilst the robbery was going on. He also said that his companion had entered the house first by means of the cellar grating. These youthful burglars are well known to the police. About a week ago Finton was brought up before the Magistrates, having been found concealed in a cellar in Oxford Street. Earp has also been convicted of felony. There was another charge of burglary against the prisoners of a similar nature, but it was not gone into, and they were committed for trial at the Assizes on the present charges.

19 December 1855 A brief report of the committal is given in the Coventry Times Wednesday 19 December 1855 p.10 col.1: THOMAS EARP, aged 15, and BARTHOLOMEW FENTON, aged 13, were charged with feloniously breaking open the house of Enoch Yardley, at Birmingham, and stealing therefrom 3 waistcoats, 3 coats, one pair of trousers, and other articles. They both pleaded Guilty and were both sentenced to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for one month, and then to be removed to Saltley Reformatory Institution, and kept there for two years. [In a similar report in Aris's Birmingham Gazette the boy was erroneously named as John Earp. Bartholomew Finton/Fenton did not go to Saltley]

21 March 1857 A piece in the Staffordshire Advertiser Saturday 21 March1857 gave details of a crime committed after Earp had absconded from the Reformatory: STEALING A COAT AT HANDSWORTH. - THOMAS EARP, 16. closer. THOMAS HARRIS, 15, tailor, and JAMES FARRELL, 15, tailor, were indicted for stealing on the 3rd of March, 1857, at the parish of Handsworth, one coat, the property of John Jones. Mr. Holroyd conducted the prosecution; the prisoners were undefended. Earp was found guilty ; the other prisoners were acquitted. One of the witnesses, Mr. Ellis, master of the Saltley Reformatory School, said that the prisoners had been inmates of the school, and that on Sunday, the 1st of March, they absconded. Mr. Ellis also said that since he had been master of the school he had issued 250 tickets of leave of seven days each, and that not three per cent, of that number had been abused. Two previous convictions were proved against Earp, and sentence deferred. At the close of the case hit Lordship asked Mr. Ellis whether he could take back Harris and Farrell to the reformatory school. Mr. Ellis replied that he should be happy to do so, but the regulations of the establishment would not admit of it, and that Mr. Adderley had expressed his conviction that boys who had absconded ought not to be taken back. His Lordship said it would be a great pity to send the boys out upon the world again, upon which Mr. Hill expressed the pleasure it would give him to communicate with Mr. Adderley upon the subject, and his Lordship accepted the offer of Mr. Hill, after learning from the lads that they were willing to back to the reformatory school and remain in the gaol until Saturday.

25 March 1857 An item in the Wolverhampton Chronicle and Staffordshire Advertiser Wednesday 25 Mar 1857 p.7 col.3 gave a slightly different account of the verdict on the coat stealing: THOMAS EARP, a youth who had been twice previously convicted, and had absconded from the Saltley Reformatory School, inducing two smaller boys to accompany him, and had now been convicted of felony for the third time, was sentenced to three months with hard labour. As to the two boys whom he had induced to accompany him, the learned Judge said he should make intercession to get them re-admitted into the establishment, and if that could not be done they must be given up to their parents.

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