Saltley Reformatory Inmates


George Bolt

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No. in Admissions Register: 110
Date of admission: 10 July 1857
Whence received: Birmingham Borough Gaol
By whom brought: The deputy governor of Birmingham Gaol
On what terms: Committed
Friends interested in him: -
Description:  
Height: -
Figure: -
Complexion: Sallow
Hair colour: Brown
Eyes colour: Grey
Perfect vision? Yes
State of health: Good
Able-bodied? Yes
Sound intellect? Yes
Use of all limbs? Yes
Had cow or small pox? Smallpox
Particular marks: Scar on the top of right arm
Cutaneous disorder? No
Scrofulous or consumptive? No
Subject to fits? No
Age last birthday: 15
Illegitimate? No
Birthday: -
Birth place: -
Has resided: Moor Street, Birmingham
Parish to which he belongs: Not known
Customary work and mode of life: Has been a filer
Schools attended: -
By whom and where employed: -
State of education:  
Reads: A little
Writes: A little
Cyphers: -
General ability: -
Offence: Stealing scrap steel
Circumstances which may have led to it Not known
Date of sentence: 27 June 1857
Where convicted: Moor Street, Birmingham, before W Sands Cox and F J Welch
Sentence: 14 days in prison, 2 years at Saltley
Where imprisoned: -
Previous committals and convictions: 9 times imprisoned at Birmingham, Worcester, and Parkhurst, but there is no further information
Father's name: -
Occupation: -
Residence: -
Mother's name: -
Occupation: -
Residence: -
Father's character: -
Mother's character: -
Parents dead? Both dead
Survivor married again? -
Parents' treatment of child: -
Character of parents: -
Parents' wages: -
Weekly amount parents will pay: -
Superintendent of police (to collect payments): -
Relatives to communicate with: -
Person making this return: D Meaden, Governor, Borough Gaol, Birmingham
Estimate of character on admission: Most unpromising and dirty; said to be aged 15 but looks like 19
Character on discharge: -
When and how left the Reformatory: -

Notes:

27 June 1857 There is a short report of his crime in the Birmingham Journal Saturday 27 June 1857 p.6 col.6: CANDIDATES FOR REFORMATION. - George Bolt, Hospital Street, and Thomas Greaves, having no stated residence, both miserable-looking boys, about the age of fifteen, were charged with stealing a quantity of scrap steel, value 2s 6d, the property of Joseph Yardley, Eldon Street, coal dealer. Bolt was seen to take the steel, and was apprehended with it in his possession. He was remanded for a week, with a view to his admission into a reformatory school. Greaves, against whom there was no legal evidence, was liberated.

9 July 1858 locked up for refractory conduct. He had on several occasions before been impertinent to both school master and gardener. Constantly grumbling.

24 July 1858 locked up again for instigating the boys to run away, pretending that he would go with them. Every part of his conduct shows him to be hopelessly vicious.

25 December 1858 having behaved better for some time I allowed him to spend a few days at his uncle's.

9 May 1859 emigrated to Canada with Beard [boy 105], Tranford [102], etc. I have no fear of his doing well under an undoubted master - plenty to do, plenty to eat. He never was a proper case for a reformatory when boys of 10 or 11 years of age are received

[No date] Mr Bracebridge reported that he had been suspected of stealing money and that he had absconded.[unstated whether this was at the school or in Canada]

[No date] Received a letter from him from Montreal. He did not say what he is doing.

2 December 1860 received a letter from him, on the point of sailing to India as an able seaman from Liverpool. Says Dempsey [boy 87] drowned himself on a voyage to Havre from New York. Tranford [boy 102] a butcher at Toronto earning 25 dollars a month, board and lodging

6 December 1860 saw Bolt at Liverpool. Declared that it is entirely untrue that he stole anything. He had been twice there since he was said to have run away.

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, and Dempsey [boy 86], who drowned himself through ill-usage on board a ship from New York to Havre.

26 November 1861 had a letter from him with Washington postmark, stating that he is engaged in the Federal army.

20 August 1863 had another letter. He was just discharged from the Federal army. Says he has "been in 16 battles and never had a scratch."

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