| No. in Admissions Register: | 105 |
| Date of admission: | 23 May 1857 |
| Whence received: | Stafford Gaol |
| By whom brought: | Mr Montford |
| On what terms: | Committed |
| Friends interested in him: | - |
| Description: | |
| Height: | - |
| Figure: | - |
| Complexion: | Light |
| Hair colour: | Auburn |
| Eyes colour: | Hazel |
| Perfect vision? | - |
| State of health: | Good |
| Able-bodied? | Yes |
| 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: | 13 |
| Illegitimate? | No |
| Birthday: | - |
| Birth place: | - |
| Has resided: | at Walsall |
| Parish to which he belongs: | Walsall |
| Customary work and mode of life: | Has worked at gas fittings; generally a vagrant |
| Schools attended: | - |
| By whom and where employed: | at Walsall |
| State of education: | |
| Reads: | Scarcely knows the alphabet |
| Writes: | - |
| Cyphers: | - |
| General ability: | - |
| Offence: | Stealing a pair of trousers |
| Circumstances which may have led to it: | Bad company; an elder brother committed with him |
| Date of sentence: | 13 May 1857 |
| Where convicted: | Guildhall, Walsall, before W Thomas, Esq, Mayor, and W. Ward |
| Sentence: | 14 days in prison, 2 years at Saltley |
| Where imprisoned: | - |
| Previous committals and convictions: | Vagrancy, one month at Stafford Gaol; stealing a cheese, one month in Stafford Gaol; vagrancy, seven days at Stafford Gaol |
| Father's name: | David Beard |
| Occupation: | Engine fitter |
| Residence: | Brewer's Yard, Walsall, Staffordshire |
| Mother's name: | - |
| Occupation: | - |
| Residence: | - |
| Father's character: | Drunken and dissolute |
| Mother's character: | - |
| Parents dead? | No |
| Survivor married again? | - |
| Parents' treatment of child: | Neglected |
| Character of parents: | - |
| Parents' wages: | Can earn 30 shillings per week |
| Weekly amount parents will pay: | - |
| Superintendent of police (to collect payments): | - |
| Relatives to communicate with: | - |
| Person making this return: | Chas. F Darwell, Justices' Clerk, Walsall |
| Estimate of character on admission: | Unfavourable |
| Character on discharge: | - |
| When and how left the Reformatory: | - |
16 May 1857 There is a report of his crime in the Staffordshire Advertiser Saturday 16 May 1857 p.2 col.7: MORE JUVENILE THIEVES. - Edward Rigby and William Beard, each 14 years old, and John Gribbon and Joseph Beard, each about 19, were charged with stealing a pair of cord trousers, the property of Mr Charles Dunckley, tailor and draper, Stafford Street, on Monday night. The robbery was proceeded with in the most systematic manner. John Degwell, who knew the character of the boys, saw them standing at the prosecutor's door and watched them. First one, then afterwards two others went in, While one was looking at some stockings, under pretence of purchasing them, another took the trousers and handed them to the third, who was taking them to the one at the door, when, perceiving they were detected, they all ran away. Three were caught at once, and William Beard was afterwards taken at a notorious lodging house. Rigby and William Beard were each sentenced to 14 days imprisonment, afterwards to be sent to the Saltley Reformatory for 2 years. The others were sentenced to be imprisoned three months each.
21 November 1857 Went on well and had his name on the Good Conduct List. Did satisfactorily well at shoemaking but was enticed away out of the market by an old accomplice and absconded. He and his companion were apprehended at Burton upon Trent and committed to Stafford Gaol for 6 months on the 16 December 1857 for stealing an overcoat.
28 January 1858 Fetched him home from Stafford
8 March 1858 Very disobedient and insolent to the schoolmaster. Was obliged to be locked up all day.
5 April 1859 The Reformatory Minute Book states: 570. The secretary reported that the Reformatory and Refuge Union had accepted three boys as candidates for free passage to Canada, viz. William Beard, Alfred Allen [boy 106], and Michael Logan [boy 135]. The Committee are requested to have the boys examined by a Magistrate on behalf of the Union.
Resolved: that Mr Ratcliff be requested to make the necessary arrangements.
9 May 1859 Emigrated to Canada, assisted by the Reformatory and Refuge Union, Has still a rather dogged look, and has three brothers in other reformatories, but he is fairly clever and by no means destitute of good feelings. I believe he wishes to do well. His father keeps his house unknown, on account of the weekly sum which he has been ordered to pay.
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, 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 [a note in the Admissions Register says for seven years], and Dempsey [boy 86], who drowned himself through ill-usage on board a ship from New York to Havre.
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