Saltley Reformatory Inmates

Joseph Siddalls

No. in Admissions Register:	532
Age:	13
Whence received:	Stafford
Description:
Complexion:	Pale
Hair colour:	Brown
Eyes colour:	Grey
Visage:	-
Particular marks:	Cut on left cheek
State of health:	Good
Able-bodied?	Yes
Date of admission and term:	8 March 1875 5 years
Late residence:	Burton on Trent
Parish he belongs to:	-
Customary work and mode of life:	Brickmaking
Whether illegitimate:	-
State of education:
Reads:	Imperfectly
Writes:	Not at all
Offence:	Stealing a muffler
Circumstances which may have led to it:	Neglect of parents
Date of sentence, by who and court:	9 February 1875, Burton Petty Sessions, R Tomlinson and C J Clay
Where imprisoned:	Stafford
Sentence:	1 month prison (hard labour), 5 years at Saltley
Previous committals:
Number:	None
Length:	-
For what:	-
Father's name:	Joseph Siddalls
Occupation:	Labourer
Mother's name:	Emma Siddalls
Occupation:	-
Parents dead?	-
Survivor married again?	-
Parents' treatment of child:	Good
Character of parents	Suspected, intemperate. Health good
Parents' wages:	19s per week
Amount parents agree to pay:	1s per week
Parents address:	Fleet Street, Burton on Trent
Superintendent of police (to collect payments):
Person making this return:	-

Notes:

11 February 1875 There is a report in the Burton Chronicle Thursday 11 February 1875 p.5 cols 5-6; A GANG OF YOUNG THIEVES.- Charles Hardy and Joseph Slater, two boys, were charged with stealing a muffler, value 2s. 6d., on the 4th inst., the property of Thomas Sharpe; and William Jackson, Joseph Slater, and Joseph Siddals, three boys, were charged with stealing a muffler. value 2s. 6d., on the 6th inst., the property of Thomas Sharpe. All the prisoners pleaded guilty. Mr. Wilson appeared for Jackson. On Saturday night the three last named prisoners were seen by a young man named Horne standing near the prosecutor's shop. After a time Siddals handed something to Jackson, and they walked away. The prosecutor had been attracted to his shop door by hearing a noise, and, seeing that a muffler had gone from the door, went into the street. The prisoners then ran away, and Jackson threw the muffler into the Congregational Chapel yard. The prosecutor pursued Jackson. and ultimately found him concealed in a waggon in Messrs. Allsopp and Sons' yard. The other prisoners were apprehended on Sunday morning by Sergeant Gilbride. Slater was apprehended at his home, and the officer noticed on his first entrance into the house that he was wearing a muffler. Before his actual apprehension he went upstairs and when he came down again he was minus the muffler. The officer, supposing that it had been stolen, made the boy go upstairs again and point out to him where he had put it, and it was then found concealed in a box. On examining it, the officer found that it had been torn into two parts, and on questioning Slater he admitted that a boy named Hardy had taken it from Mr. Sharpe's shop. Hardy was then arrested, and he produced the other half of the muffler. Slater, Jackson, and Siddals were charged with the robbery of the second scarf, and Jackson in answer said, "I came into the market after leaving work, and I met the other two prisoners. Slater said to us, 'let us go down High Street : I know a shop where we can get something from : darkie and I got a muffler from there last Wednesday.' We all three went down High Street and went to Mr. Sharpe's shop door, and Slater gave me the muffler. I saw a man coming, and I ran away and threw it into the chapel yard." -- The Bench, after questioning the parents of the boys, considered that the best and kindest thing they could do was to send each boy to gaol for a month, and order them, at the expiration of that time, to be kept in a reformatory for five years. The prisoners left the court howling and crying piteously.

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