| No. in Admissions Register: | 681 |
| Age: | 13 |
| Whence received: | H M Prison Stafford |
| Description: | |
| Complexion: | Fresh |
| Hair colour: | Light brown |
| Eyes colour: | brown |
| Visage: | Oval |
| Particular marks: | Mole on chin |
| State of health: | Good |
| Able-bodied? | Yes |
| Date of admission: | 22 December 1881 |
| Late residence: | Silverdale, Staffordshire |
| Parish he belongs to: | Wolstanton, Staffordshire |
| Customary work and mode of life: | Forge boy |
| Whether illegitimate: | Legitimate |
| State of education: | |
| Reads: | Not at all |
| Writes: | Not at all |
| Offence: | Stealing a pot of preserve |
| Circumstances which may have led to it: | Poverty |
| Date of sentence, by whom and court: | 22 November 1881; T D Twemblow and H Coghill; Newcastle Court of Summary Jurisdiction |
| Where imprisoned: | H M Prison Stafford |
| Sentence: | 1 month in prison, 3 years at Saltley |
| Previous committals: | |
| Number: | None |
| Length: | - |
| For what: | - |
| Father's name: | John Lovatt |
| Occupation: | Forge man |
| Mother's name: | - |
| Occupation: | - |
| Parents dead? | Mother |
| Survivor married again? | No |
| Parents' treatment of child: | Very much neglected and encouraged by father to steal |
| Character of parents | Father very dishonest; has been convicted several times. Given to drink, health very poor |
| Parents' wages: | 22s per week |
| Amount parents agree to pay: | Ought to be called upon to pay 1s 6d a week |
| Parents address: | John Lovatt, mineer, Vale Pleasant, Silverdale, Staffordshire |
| Superintendent of police (to collect payments): | John Hall, Superintendent of Police, Tunstall, Staffordshire |
| Person making this return: | Clerk to the Justices, Newcastle, Staffordshire |
24 September 1881 A previous offence imvolving several members of the family wwas reported at length in the Staffordshire Chronicle and Commercial and General Advertiser Saturday 24 September 1881 p.6 col.4: A FAMILY CHARGED WITH SHOP-LIFTING. - Mary Lovatt, Lucy Lovatt, Annie Lovatt, and Stephen Lovatt, children, living at Vale Pleasant, Silverdale, were brought up in custody and charged with stealing two shirts, of the value of 4s., the property of Mr. H. A. Sissling, pawnbroker, Bridge-street, on the 19th inst,, and John Lovatt, forgeman, their father, was charged with feloniously receiving the shirts, knowing them to have been stolen. - A man named Snape, in the employ of the prosecutor, said the shirts were hanging up in the shop on Saturday morning, and were not missed until one of them was brought there by P.S. Bentley. - P.C. G. Dawson, of the county constabulary, proved that at about noon on Tuesday, the prisoner Mary Lovall was offering one of the shirts in pledge at Tunstall, and, being unable to give a satisfactory account of how she became possessed of it, the pawnbroker gave her in charge, and she was locked up. - Lucy Lovatt, who was with her sister, subsequently said the shirt "was stolen from the first shop in Newcastle, coming from Silverdale." The second shirt was found at Mr. Carrier's. the pawnbroker. - P S. Bentley proved searching the prisoner John Lovatt's house, and finding there a tin box, which contained a number of pledge certificates, and a tab from off a new coat. Witness found nothing in the tickets upon which he could found a charge of larceny. Witness charged the first four prisoners with the theft that morning, and Stephen Lovatt said that he and his sister stole the shirts on Monday night from the prosecutor's shop. John Lovatt, on being charged with receiving said, "Yes, I know they were stolen, and I told Mary and Lucy, at Tunstall, to make money ot them. Mary and Lucy made no reply, but the male prisoner said, "As we had no bread in the house to eat, I told them they must not do it again." - The Bench remanded the prisoners until Monday, accepting the elder prisoner's recognisances in the sum of £5 for their appearance. At the hearing the following week, becuase of the father's ill-health and pverty he was sentenced to one month in prison, and the children discharged, as reorted in the Staffordshire Chronicle and Commercial and General Advertiser Saturday 1 October p.6 col.3.
26 November 1881 The offence that sent him to Saltley was reportd in the Staffordshire Chronicle and Commercial and General Advertiser Saturday 26 November 1881 p.6 col.2: Stephen Lovatt, a small boy, and Annie Lovatt, his sister, living at Chesterton were in custody on a charge of stealing a two-pound pot of preserve, value 10½d., the property of a grocer named Wood, carrying on business at Chesterton. Frederick Taylor, apprentice in the prosecutor's employ, stated that at about half-past seven, on Friday night, the prisoners came to his shop, ostensibly for the purpose of purchasing some treacle. Whilst he was serving them, he heard them whispering to one another, and saw the girl with something under her shawl. He followed her out, and subsequently found upon her the pot of preserve. He at once detained her until the arrival of a policeman. The boy walked off. It was pointed out to the bench that the children belonged to a forgeman named Lovatt, living at Chesterton, who with them and one or two other of his children was a short time ago convicted on a similar charge to the present. The Bench adjourned the case against the girl for a fortnight, in order to see in the meantime what could be done with her. The boy they ordered to be imprisoned for a month, and to afyerwards be sent to a reformatory for three years.
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