| No. in Admissions Register: | 84 |
| Date of admission: | 6 February 1856 |
| Weekly payments: | - |
| Age: | 13 |
| Education: | Can read and write |
| Previous employment: | Gun finisher |
| Crimes, how often and in what prison: | 6 |
| Training in reformatory: | 1 March 1857 |
| When left reformatory: | - |
| Parentage and family: | Father dead and mother since married |
| Residence: | 13 New Town Row, Birmingham |
| Trade of father: | - |
| With whom the boy is placed: | - |
| Address: | - |
| Trade: | - |
12 January 1856 Very brief details of his crime were published in the Birmingham Journal Saturday 12 January 1856 p.11 col.5: Thomas Henry Harris, for stealing a cape, the property of Edward Hogg, one month [in prison] and three years at Saltley Reformatory.
21 March 1857 A piece in the Staffordshire Advertiser Saturday 21 March 1857 gave details of a crime committed after Harris 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 bad 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 [Thomas Harris and James Farrell] 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.
26 August 1858 The Reformatory Minute Book states: 524. It was reported that Thomas Harris, one of the former inmates who absconded, and has been since in prison, has been assisted by the Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society to obtain employment, and has been put out as indoor apprentice to a respectable tradesman, as a marble and stone mason. The Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society paid a sizeable premium with the apprenticed.
| ← Prev | Next → |
|---|
This web page © 2020 Fred Miller