Saltley Reformatory Inmates

Benjamin Tranford

No. in Admissions Register:	102
Date of admission:	11 May 1857
Whence received:	Stafford Gaol
By whom brought:	Mr Montford (Deputy Governor)
On what terms	Committed
Friends interested in him:	-
Description:
Height:	-
Figure:
Complexion:	-
Hair colour:	-
Eyes colour	-
Perfect vision?	-
State of health:	-
Able-bodied?	-
Sound intellect?	Yes
Use of all limbs?	Yes
Had cow or small pox?	-
Particular marks	-
Cutaneous disorder	No
Scrofulous or consumptive?	No
Subject to fits?	No
Age last birthday	14
Illegitimate?	Yes
Birthday:	-
Birth place:	Walsall
Has resided:	-
Parish to which he belongs:	-
Customary work and mode of life	Brass casting and vagrant:
Schools attended:
By whom and where employed	at Walsall
State of education:
Reads	Imperfectly
Writes:	Imperfectly
Cyphers:	-
General ability:	-
Offence:	Stealing iron fencing from the premises of Mr Chavasse
Circumstances which may have led to it:	Had nobody to look after him
Date of sentence:	27 April 1857
Where convicted:	Walsall Petty Sessions
Sentence:	14 days in prison, 2 years at Saltley
Where imprisoned:	Stafford Gaol
Previous committals and convictions:	none
Father's name:	-
Occupation	-
Residence:	-
Mother's name:	-
Occupation:	-
Residence:	-
Father's character:	-
Mother's character:	-
Parents dead?	Mother dead
Survivor married again?	-
Parents' treatment of child	-
Character of parents	Not known
Parents' wages:	-
Weekly amount parents will pay:	-
Superintendent of police	-
Relatives to communicate with:	-
Person making this return:	Chas. F. Darwell, Justices' Clerk, Walsall
Estimate of character on admission:	-
Character on discharge:	-
When and how left the Reformatory:	-:

Notes:

2 May 1857 There is a brief report of his crime in the Walsall Free Press and General Advertiser Saturday 2 May 1857 p.4 col.2: THE JUVENILE DELINQUENT. - Benjamin Crawford [surname given thus], the boy remanded from the previous Monday on a charge of stealing a quantity of iron fencing, the property of Mr Chavasse, Birmingham Road, was again brought up and pleaded guilty to the charge. He was sentenced to fourteen days imprisonment, after which he will be sent to a Reformatory for two years.

1 October 1857 name on Good Conduct List

11 January 1859 discharged from the hospital, spent a week with his parents and returned to school 18 January.

9 May 1859 was taken to Liverpool with Allen [boy 103], Beard [boy 105], etc and emigrated to Toronto. To Quebec by ship Culloden, sailed 12 May. Character good. Had a good knowledge of shoemaking.

18 December 1860 The Reformatory Minute Book states: 735. Letters were read from George Bolt [boy 110], now a sailor in a vessel trading between New York and Havre, containing information respecting his own career and that of Benjamin Tranford [boy 102], now a successful butcher in Toronto [earning 25 dollars a month and board and lodging - said to be steady and well to do], and Cotterill [boy 108], now a cook on board a large steamer in America, and Walker [boy 47] and Carlton [boy 91], who are doing well and employed by a farmer at New Orleans, and Beard [boy 105], who is now in prison in Kingston for stealing, and Dempsey [boy 86], who drowned himself through ill-usage on board a ship from New York to Havre.

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