Frank Meachem - Saltley Reformatory Inmate
| No. in Admissions Register: | 1119 |
| Age: | 15 (born 25 December 1880) |
| Whence received: | Staffordshire Quarter Sessions |
| Description: | |
| Complexion: | Fresh |
| Hair colour: | Light |
| Eyes colour: | Grey |
| Height: | 4 ft 7¾ ins |
| Particular marks: | Cut right eye |
| State of health: | Good |
| Able-bodied? | Yes |
| Date of admission: | 9 January 1896 |
| Late residence: | 63 America Street, Tunstall |
| Parish he belongs to: | Tunstall |
| Customary work and mode of life: | - |
| Whether illegitimate: | No |
| State of education: | |
| Reads: | Imperfectly, Standard 4 |
| Writes: | Imperfectly, Standard 4 |
| Offence: | House breaking |
| Circumstances which may have led to it: | Bad company |
| Date of sentence, by whom and court: | 31 December 1895; Lord Hatherton; Staffordshire Quarter Sessions |
| Where imprisoned: | - |
| Sentence: | 3 years at Saltley |
| Previous committals: | |
| Number: | 1 |
| Length: | - |
| For what: | - |
| Father's name: | Henry Meachem |
| Occupation: | Fish hawker |
| Mother's name: | Martha Meachem |
| Occupation: | Housewife |
| Parents dead? | Neither |
| Survivor married again? | - |
| Parents' treatment of child: | Good |
| Character of parents | Good |
| Parents' wages: | - |
| Amount parents agree to pay: | - |
| Parents address: | 63 America Street, Tunstall |
| Superintendent of police (to collect payments): | - |
| Person making this return: | Matthew F Blakiston, Clerk of the Peace |
| Notes: | |
| 6 December 1895 The remand hearing for the crime that sent him to Saltley was reported in the Birmingham Daily Post Friday 6 December 1896 p.8 col.6: TUNSTALL. YOUTHFUL SHOPBREAKERS. - At the Stipendiary's Court. yesterday, Joseph Wykes (15), Frank .Meacham (14), Henry Wykes (13), and Joseph Owen (12) were charged with breaking and entering the shop of Emma Clarke, tobacconist, High Street, and stealing a quantity of tobacco and cigars, value 15s. It was stated that the shop was entered between nine and ten o'clock on the night of the 3rd inst., and the tobacco and cigars stolen, and on the prisoners being arrested the same night a portion of the stolen property was found upon them. The prisoners were committed for trial at the sessions. - Frank Meacham and Joseph Owen were further charged with breaking and entering the lock-up shop of Messrs. Bickley Brothers, drapers, High Street, and stealing two pairs of slippers, value 3s. The evidence showed that this shop was entered on the night of the 28th ult. by means of the removal of a pane from a window, and two pairs of slippers were stolen. The arrest of the accused in the other case led to their being charged with this offence, which they admitted. They were committed for trial at the quarter sessions, bail being allowed. | |
| 4 January 1896 The sentencing was heard at the Staffordshire Quarter Sessions and reported in the Birmingham Daily Post Friday 6 December 1896 p.8 col.6: JUVENILE DELINQUENTS AT TUNSTALL. Joseph Wykes, 15, Frank Meachem, 15, Henry Wykes, 13, and Joseph Owen, 12, all on bail, pleaded guilty to breaking and entering, on December 3, 1895, at Tunstall, a shop in the occupation of Emma Clarke, and stealing a quantity of tobacco, cigarettes, and matches. Frank Meacham and Joseph Owen further pleaded guilty to breaking and entering a shop in the occupation of Arthur Bickley, on November 28, 1895, at Tunstall, and stealing six slippers. Meacham also pleaded guilty to a previous conviction for felony in November, 1892. Joseph Wykes and Frank Meacham were sent to a reformatory for three years, and Henry Wykes and Joseph Owen were sentenced to one day's imprisonment and ordered to receive ten strokes each with the birch rod. The two older boys were ordered by the Court to be detained in a workhouse ten days until a reformatory school was found for them. | |
| 10 March 1897 The Medical Officer reported: Tonsillitis | |
| 27 August 1898 The Medical Officer reported: Catarrh | |
| 30 December 1898 Sentence expired, discharged from Saltley | |
