Saltley Reformatory Inmates

William Rhodes

No. in Admissions Register:	224
Date of admission:	20 August 1861
Whence received:	Stafford Gaol
By whom brought:	-
On what terms:	-
Friends interested in him:	-
Description:
Height:	-
Figure:	-
Complexion:	Fresh
Hair colour:	Sandy
Eyes colour:	Hazel
Perfect vision?	Yes
State of health:	-
Able-bodied?	-
Sound intellect?	Yes
Use of all limbs?	Yes
Had cow or small pox?	-
Particular marks:	Scars on forehead
Cutaneous disorder?	No
Scrofulous or consumptive?	No
Subject to fits?	No
Age last birthday:	9
Illegitimate?	-
Birthday:	-
Birth place:	-
Has resided:	Wednesbury
Parish he belongs to:	Tipton
Customary work and mode of life:	-
Schools attended:	None
By whom and where employed:	-
State of education:
Reads:	Not at all
Writes:	Not at all
Cyphers:	-
General ability:	-
Offence:	Vagrancy
Circumstances which may have led to it:	Poverty
Date of sentence:	6 August 1861
Where convicted:	Rushall Petty Sessions, J E Bealey and J Harrison
Who prosecuted:	-
Where imprisoned:	Stafford
Sentence:	14 days prison, 5 years at Saltley
Previous committals and convictions:	Twice locked up for vagrancy
Father's name:	James Gretton
Occupation:	Shoemaker
Residence:	Trowes Lane, Wednesbury [Trouse Lane]
Mother's name:	Ann Gretton
Occupation:	-
Residence:	Trowes Lane, Wednesbury [Trouse Lane]
Father's character:	Nothing known
Mother's character:	The boy is her illegitimate son
Parents dead?	-
Survivor married again?	-
Parents' treatment of child:	Good
Character of parents	Nothing known against them. Husband has bad health
Parents' wages:	Earns 14s per week
Amount parents agree to pay:	-
Superintendent of police (to collect payments):	-
Relatives to communicate with:	-
Person making this return:	W Price, Superintendent of Police, Rushall
Estimate of character on admission:	-
Character on discharge:	-
When and how left the Reformatory:	-

Notes:

10 August 1861 There is a report of the offence in the Walsall Free Press and General Advertiser Saturday 10 august 1861 p.4 cols.4-5: A DIMINUTIVE VAGRANT PROVIDED FOR. -William Roads [surname spelled thus], a diminutive child, eight or nine years of age; with an intelligent and expressive countenance, was charged with vagrancy. This case had been remanded at the last sitting of this court. A police-ofiicer deposed that he had been sent for, between nine and ten o'clock on the night of the 12th of July, to remove the prisoner from Messrs. Jcberns and Arrowsmith's brick-yard, in the parish of Aldridge, where he had been sleeping (the witness was told) for two or three nights. He found him sleeping in one of the brick-yard cabins He told witnesi that his father and mother had left him, and he had no place to go to. Mr. Price informed the bench that the boy's mother had been found. Aid that she had promised to attend that morning. She was not, however, in court. The Bench considered this to be case in which a sentence to a term of confinement, in a criminal reformatory, would be of the greatest benefit to the prisoner, and he was therefore sentenced to be imprisoned for fourteen days, and afterwards to be sent to a reformatory for three years.

7 September 1861 There is a report of a summons of his parents for non-payment of maintenance for the boy in the Walsall Free Press and General Advertiser Saturday 7 September 1861 p.4 col.7: PAYMENT TO A REFORMATORY.- The parents of a little boy, of Aldridge, named William Road, sometime ago sentenced from this court to be kept at Saltley Reformatory for a period of five years, were summoned before the magistrates today, in order that arrangements might be made as to the sum which they should pay to the reformatory weekly for the maintenance of the child. Considerable reluctance to pay anything whatever was manifested by the parents, but the court finally ordered them to pay 1s. weekly, the payments to be made to the inspector of police at Wednesbury, where the parties are at present residing.

1 June 1866 Licensed

January 1868 Working in Birmingham. Doing well.

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