William Upton - Saltley Reformatory Inmate
| No. in Admissions Register: | 1051 |
| Age: | 15 (born 29 August 1878) |
| Whence received: | Burton on Trent |
| Description: | |
| Complexion: | Sallow |
| Hair colour: | Brown |
| Eyes colour: | Grey |
| Height: | 5 ft 1¾ ins |
| Particular marks: | Head, anchor and 2 swords on left arm, 2 Xs on back of hand, heart and 2 swords and "forget me not"; mole on centre of back |
| State of health: | Good |
| Able-bodied? | Yes |
| Date of admission: | 26 January 1894 |
| Late residence: | 19 Napier Street, Burton on Trent |
| Parish he belongs to: | - |
| Customary work and mode of life: | Errand boy in an office |
| Whether illegitimate: | No |
| State of education: | |
| Reads: | Well |
| Writes: | Well |
| Offence: | Stealing 9 lemons |
| Circumstances which may have led to it: | - |
| Date of sentence, by whom and court: | 19 January 1894; A J Coxon and T Turner |
| Where imprisoned: | Burton Workhouse |
| Sentence: | 7 days in Workhouse, then Saltley until 19 years of age |
| Previous committals: | |
| Number: | 1 |
| Length: | Fined 10s or 7 days |
| For what: | Stealing pheasants from a pheasantry |
| Father's name: | William Upton |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Mother's name: | Ellen Upton |
| Occupation: | Housewife |
| Parents dead? | Neither |
| Survivor married again? | - |
| Parents' treatment of child: | Good |
| Character of parents | Both good |
| Parents' wages: | 28s per week |
| Amount parents agree to pay: | Not assessed |
| Parents address: | 19 Napier Street, Burton on Trent |
| Superintendent of police (to collect payments): | - |
| Person making this return: | Henry Goodyer, Justices' Clerk |
| Notes: | |
| 4 January 1894 A previous offence was reported in the Burton Chronicle Thursday 4 January 1894 p.6 col.4: RAID ON A PHEASANTRY. - At the County police court, on Tuesday morning, before M. Richardson and H. G. Nedin Esqs., James Edward Abrahams and George Abrahams, of King St., Frederick Charles Glover, William Thomas Upton and Harry Dale, of Napier St, and William McElligott, of Clarence Street, were charged with stealing hen pheasants from Mr Geo. Meakin's preserves at Branstone on the 29th of December. - The defendants are boys whose ages range. from eleven to sixteen years. - Mr. Meakin has a pheasantry in Branstone Wood, and the birds were fed as usual by his keeper, John MacLauchlan, at ten o'clock on Friday morning, but at the same hour the next morning ten of them were missed. In addition to footmarks, however, there was a trail of feathers which extended through the wood and on, across the fields, to Clarence gardens. These facts were placed before Police-constables Onions and Dunn with the result that the subjoined interesting evidence, in addition to the foregoing, was adduced. McElligott, on Friday afternoon, presented his mother with a brace of pheasants, stating that he had bought one of a lad named Upton for twopence, and had caught the other. The same day the two Abrahams visited the "Blue Stumps," Napier Street, and asked the daughter of the landlord (Mr.Taylor) to buy two live "partridges." When asked as to their possession the defendants said, "They were hopping about Jackson's field and the potato field" (which adjoin Clarence St.) The girl Taylor said she paid fourpence each for two of the birds, and for the "pretty one," which they told her was a pheasant. She mentioned the matter to her father, who was ill in bed with influenza, and he was very cross with her for the transaction. He told her to put the pheasants in a basket and, when it was dark, to turn them into the wood. These instructions were afterwards carried out by a customer. Dale subsequently brought one, and asked ninepence for it, but her mother directed him to return it to the place whence he had stolen it. Ann Smail, a widow, was another witness, and she said Glover asked her to buy "a bird" for threepence, he adding that he caught it as it was hopping about in a potato field. This she agreed to, but she did not know the real nature of the purchase, and afterwards hearing that some boys had been concerned in a robbery, she threw "the bird" (which was dead) into the road. - Harriett Dale, mother of one of the prisoners, said she was absent from home some time on Friday, and on returning she saw a saucepan on the fire She questioned her son as to "what he had there," and he replied "a pheasant. It was running about the hedge in the potato field." Later on she heard a rumour as to a bird robbery, and, taking the pot from the fire, she threw the pheasant away. - Herbert Low, a cooper's apprentice, who observed the defendant's going in and returning from the direction of the pheasantry, said he purchased one of the pheasants for a penny, but as someone pointed out to him that he had made a very risky bargain, he "sent it over the Leicester line." - Police-constable Onions spoke to arresting the defendants, who gave a detailed account of the raid, and showed that all were about equally implicated in the affair. - The Bench fined each, with the exception of George Abrahams, 10s. The latter, a boy of eleven, was before the Bench in August, when he was released on his father's recognizances, and he was now ordered to be birched. | |
| 25 January 1894 There is a report of the crime that sent him to Saltley in the Burton Chronicle Thursday 25 January 1894 p.7 col.1: THE SHOP ROBBERY BY BOYS. - Nine boys, Wm. Upton, Henry Dale, William Golby, William Sutton, Arnold Roe, Robert William Woodham, and William Dexter, of Napier Street, and Wm. McElligott, of Clarence Street, were charged with stealing nine lemons, valued at 9d. - The two first-named and McElligott were before the County Bench at a recent sitting on the charge of robbing Mr. G. Meakin's pheasantry. The prosecutor, Broome Johnson, keeps a small grocer's shop in Clarence Street, and his wife stated that on the evening of the 10th inst, she heard a slight noise on the outside of the window, and proceeding to ascertain the cause she saw three boys running away When she returned to the shop she missed nine lemons, and found that the glass had been broken at a spot where previously there was a very small aperture. - The matter was placed in the hands of the police and the boys were arrested by Police-constable Dunn, when they freely admitted their guilt. - McElligott, who is over sixteen years of age, was sentenced to a month's Imprisonment, an order was made for the detention of Upton and Dale in a reformatory - the former for four years and the latter for five, and the others were fined 5s. each. | |
| Between being convicted and going to Saltley there was a further adventure, as reported in the same newspaper p.5 col.3: The boys Upton, Dale, and Golby, who were remanded by the Borough magistrates to the workhouse pending their removal to a reformatory, they having been twice convicted of theft, shot the lock of the cell in which they were confined and escaped on Sunday. The police were immediately apprised of the occurrence by telephone, and Police-constables Dunn and Kent went in search of the recalcitrants. Dale was at home when one of the officers called at the house, and, scenting the object of the stranger's visit, hastily retreated, but was captured after a smart chase. The others were secured after a sprint or two over the potato field, in which, it will be remembered, they told the County Bench that they saw Mr. Meakin's pheasants hopping about. | |
| 5 June 1896 The Register of Boys on Licence records that Upton was licensed to go out and work for Mr Maddox, Brook Farm, Evesbach, Bromyard | |
| 29 August 1897 Sentence expired whilst out on licence, discharged from Saltley | |
| 30 May 1900 The Log Book report records receipt of a letter from Upton, Karree Siding, South Africa [the Boer War was underway at this time] | |