Saltley Reformatory Inmates

James Plant

No. in Admissions Register:	294
Date of admission:	20 January 1865
Whence received:	Stafford
By whom brought:	-
On what terms:	-
Friends interested in him:	-
Description:
Height:	-
Figure:	-
Complexion:	Fresh
Hair colour:	Brown
Eyes colour:	Hazel
Perfect vision?	Yes
State of health:	-
Able-bodied?	-
Sound intellect?	Yes
Use of all limbs?	Yes
Had cow or small pox?	Neither satisfactorily
Particular marks:	Long scar right of face
Cutaneous disorder?	Not
Scrofulous or consumptive?	Not apparent
Subject to fits?	No
Age last birthday:	14
Illegitimate?	-
Birthday:	-
Birth place:	-
Has resided:	Wolverhampton
Parish he belongs to:	Wolverhampton
Customary work and mode of life:	Gunlocksmith
Schools attended:	-
By whom and where employed:	-
State of education:
Reads:	Imperfectly
Writes:	Imperfectly
Cyphers:	-
General ability:	-
Offence:	Breaking into a schoolhouse and larceny
Circumstances which may have led to it:	Bad company
Date of sentence:	20 October 1864
Where convicted:	Wolverhampton
Who prosecuted:	-
Where imprisoned:	-
Sentence:	3 months, 3 years at Saltley
Previous committals and convictions:	Two
Father's name:	William Plant
Occupation:	Packer
Residence:	Ablow Street, Wolverhampton
Mother's name:	-
Occupation:	-
Residence:	-
Father's character:	-
Mother's character:	-
Parents dead?	-
Survivor married again?	-
Parents' treatment of child:	Brought up by grandparents
Character of parents	-
Parents' wages:	12s per week
Amount parents agree to pay:	-
Superintendent of police (to collect payments):	-
Relatives to communicate with:	-
Person making this return:	W Fulford, Stafford
Estimate of character on admission:	-
Character on discharge:	-
When and how left the Reformatory:	-

Notes:

10 August 1864 There is a report of a previous, crime in the Wolverhampton Chronicle and Staffordshire Advertiser Wednesday 10 August 1864 p.4 col.4: BREAKING INTO ST PAUL'S SCHOOL.-Two lads about twelve years of age. named James Plant and John Welch, were brought before J, Hawksford (the Mayor), T. S. Simkiss, and C. B. Mander, Esqs., at the Police Court, yesterday, charged with having broken into St. Paul's Schools, in Merridale Street, and stealing therefrom the sum of £2. Mr. Sowray, the schoolmaster, stated that he left the two missionary boxes produced and twelve others, in the school on Sunday afternoon, and on the following Monday morning he discovered that the school had been entered by someone, in the interval, and the fourteen boxes, which were kept in a cupboard, and their contents taken away. Mrs. Groves, the person employed to clean the school stated that she was the first person to into the schools on Monday morning, and found the cupboard doors in the boys' room, and the entrance door to the girls' room to the class room burst open. She afterwards gave information to the schoolmaster.-A youth, named Robert Lee, said that between nine and ten o'clock on Sunday night, he saw the two prisoners coming over the privy wall leading from the girls' playground in connection with the above schools, and after dropping into an adjoining field, they both ran off.-lt was in consequence of the information thus received that the prisoners, who are both old offenders were arrested on suspicion.-On the application of the Chief Constable, the Bench remanded them until Saturday next, to give Inspector Butler an opportunity of obtaining additional evidence.

26 October 1864 The crime that sent him to Saltley is very similar, with a very brief report in the Wolverhampton Chronicle and Staffordshire Advertiser Wednesday 10 August 1864 p.4 col.4: THE ROBBERY FROM ST PAUL'S SCHOOL - JAMES PLANT, JOHN WEBB, and THOMAS ROACH, three boys, for breaking into Si. Paul's school-room and stealing the contents of the missionary boxes, each three months' imprisonment, to be followed by three years at a Reformatory.

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