William Pritchard - Saltley Reformatory Inmate
| No. in Admissions Register: | 865 |
| Age: | 14 |
| Whence received: | H M Prison Stafford |
| Description: | |
| Complexion: | Fresh |
| Hair colour: | Brown |
| Eyes colour: | Light brown |
| Height: | 4 ft 9 ins |
| Particular marks: | Cut on left eyebrow |
| State of health: | Good |
| Able-bodied? | Slender |
| Date of admission: | 1 December 1887 |
| Late residence: | 41 Meredith Street, Crewe |
| Parish he belongs to: | Crewe |
| Customary work and mode of life: | Errand boy |
| Whether illegitimate: | No |
| State of education: | |
| Reads: | Imperfectly |
| Writes: | Imperfectly |
| Offence: | Stealing a watch |
| Circumstances which may have led to it: | Bad company |
| Date of sentence, by whom and court: | 11 November 1887; E Lockett and John Thomas Cook; Crewe Court of Summary Jurisdiction |
| Where imprisoned: | H M Prison Stafford |
| Sentence: | 21 days in prison, 5 years at Saltley |
| Previous committals: | |
| Number: | None |
| Length: | - |
| For what: | - |
| Father's name: | William Walter Pritchard |
| Occupation: | Fitter |
| Mother's name: | Elizabeth Pritchard |
| Occupation: | - |
| Parents dead? | - |
| Survivor married again? | - |
| Parents' treatment of child: | Well treated |
| Character of parents | Good |
| Parents' wages: | About 25s per week |
| Amount parents agree to pay: | Parents have not engaged to pay any weekly amount. On the usual proceedings being taken, the amount will have the magistrates consideration |
| Parents address: | 41 Meredith Street, Crewe |
| Superintendent of police (to collect payments): | Jesse Leah, Superintendent of Police, Nantwich |
| Person making this return: | C E Speakman, Clerk to the Justices, Crewe |
| Notes: | |
| 12 November 1887 There is a report of the crime in the Liverpool Daily Post Saturday 12 November 1887 p.6 col.3: DARING WATCH ROBBERIES BY BOYS. - At Crewe, yesterday, William Pritchard, aged thirteen years, was charged with the theft of a silver lever watch, value six guineas. The prisoner was further charged, together with a boy named John Malone, aged thirteen years, with stealing a silver Geneva watch. Pritchard was seen to go into a watch cleaner's shop between eight and nine on the evening of the 9th inst., take a watch off the counter, and run out with it. He was pursued and caught near the church with the watch in his possession. In regard to the other case, the same prisoner went into a jeweller's shop on Coppenhall-terrace, and coolly taking a watch off the counter went off with it. The prisoner Malone afterwards offered it in pledge, and the watch was detained by the pawnbroker. Pritchard said that Malone told him "to go into the shop and get a watch," and he did so. The prisoners, although only thirteen years of age, had both been previously convicted, and the magistrates now committed them for twenty one days, without hard labour, and ordered them to be afterwards sent to a Reformatory for four years. | |
| 12 May 1891 Discharged early from Saltley, on account of emigrating to Texas | |
