| No. in Admissions Register: | 82 |
| Date of admission: | 14 January 1856 |
| Weekly payments: | 1s? Tuesday? |
| Age: | 12 |
| Education: | Very good, educated at Worcester |
| Previous employment: | Attorney’s office |
| Crimes, how often and in what prison: | First offence |
| Training in reformatory: | 24 January 1856 |
| When left reformatory: | - |
| Parentage and family: | Father dead, … [cannot read two words] |
| Residence: | Worcester |
| Trade of father: | td>Lawyer? |
| With whom the boy is placed: | Mr McCorkindale, on same terms as Hines [boy 58, which reads: Mr McCorkindale, to whom he is apprenticed for 3½ years and is gone with his master to Port Natal in the brig |
| Address: | - |
| Trade: | - |
5 January 1856 A short report in the Worcester Journal Saturday 5 Jan 1856 p.3 col.3 states: Alfred John Taylor, aged 12, described in the calendar as a clerk, to stealing £17 10s, the property of his master, Mr T P Watkins, solicitor. The prisoner had been employed by Mr Watkins, and taking advantage of his absence, he on various occasions gained access to the cash box, and abstracted the above named sums. He was sentenced to a fortnight's imprisonment, and at the expiration of that term to be sent to the Juvenile Reformatory, at Saltley, for three years.
14 December 1855 In the Reformatory Minute book it is recorder that: Mr McCorkindale [a would-be colonist] attended the committee and explained his views with reference to the proposed emigration to Natal, and it was agreed that the following boys be allowed to go to Natal on the necessary consents being obtained, viz. Williams (aged 14) [boy 68], Manning (aged 14) [boy 28], Devaney (aged 15 next May) [boy 57], Peechey (aged 16 next July) [boy 69], Hopcraft (aged 13 next May) [boy 65], Hook (aged 14) [boy 74)
The President undertook to write to the Home Secretary for his consent to the arrangement as far as concerned the boys detained under the Youthful Offenders Act, or by conditional pardon, and Mr Morgan engaged to deliver the letter personally at the Home Office.
Mr Ellis produced the consents of the boys' parents.
Mr McCorkindale explained to the boys in the presence of the Committee the terms of their engagement and all signified their assent.
Resolved: that proper Indentures be prepared and that £8 be paid Mr McCorkindale for outfit and passage money for each boy
22 December 1855 In the Minute Book it is recorded that: the President laid before the Committee the consent of the Home Secretary for the emigration to Natal of the four boys detained under sentence.
14 February 1856 The Minute Book records that: all the boys … except Devaney had sailed with Mr McCorkindale in the brig Portia for Natal on November 4th instant, the necessary consents from the Government and Parents having been first obtained. They were accompanied by Alfred John Taylor [boy 82], a well-educated boy, who had been committed at the Worcester Sessions a [few?] days previously, and by James Hines [boy 58], who was selected instead of Devaney. Mr Ratcliff inspected the vessel before the boys joined, and afterwards visited them on board, where they all expressed gratitude for the kind treatment in the Institution, and for the opportunity afforded them to emigrate. They all evinced much courage and determination to do well in their future career.
11 August 1857 The Minute Book notes a letter from Mr McCorkindale: Dunbar 10 April 1857. Sir, I have the satisfaction of informing you that all the boys from the Saltley School are well, tho' not with the circumstances which I will fully explain next post, or you may get explained by a copy of my letter from the Rev'd Sidney Turner Redhill will put you in possession of why they left my employ. I have now been round the country twice to look after them and their interests and find everything as I could wish, all that I hear from their employers tends to assure me of their rapid and, I trust, steady improvement in morals. I do not doubt but all will write to Saltley or to their friends. I send however, an account of what each is doing, as far as I know.
Taylor is with a Sugar Planter, he was forced by the other boys to go away, and was sorry he left, but I hear a very good account of him
This web page © 2020 Fred Miller
| ← Prev | Next → |
|---|