| No. in Admissions Register: | 93 |
| Date of admission: | 24 May 1856 |
| Weekly payments: | - |
| Age: | 13 |
| Education: | Reads and writes |
| Previous employment: | Tin plate worker |
| Crimes, how often and in what prison: | Three – 2, 3, and 5 years? |
| Training in reformatory: | 31 March 1857 [absconded with 81 (Thomas Earp) and.84 (Thomas Harris)] |
| When left reformatory: | Labourer |
| Parentage and family: | Father dead, step-father and mother living |
| Residence: | 58 Church Street, formerly 34 Lower Suffolk? Street, Birmingham |
| Trade of father: | Hawker |
| With whom the boy is placed: | - |
| Address: | - |
| Trade: | - |
19 April 1856 There is a very brief report in the Birmingham Journal Saturday 19 April 1856 p.11 col.6: James Farrell, filer, for stealing a shawl, the property of Joseph Shillitoe, six weeks [in prison] and two years at Saltley Reformatory
21 March 1857 A piece in the Staffordshire Advertiser Saturday 21 March 1857 gave details of a crime committed after Farrell had absconded from the Reformatory: STEALING A COAT AT HANDSWORTH. - THOMAS EARP [boy 81], 16, closer, THOMAS HARRIS [boy 84], 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 March 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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