Bitton Prison - SLATER

[chilibear]

It would appear (from the 1871 census) that one of my ancestors spent some as an inmate at Bitton.  He was born in Derbyshire and also lived in Buckinghamshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire.  Could anyone find more information about David Slater, aged 16 (on the 1871 census, but age varies on other census) such as:

How long he was there?
Why he was there?

I do not know what is possible, or how to start to look!

Chilibear.

[chilibear]

It seems that it is not a prison, but Kingswood Reformatory School.

Why would someone from Derbyshire have ended up here?
Are there records archived somewhere?

Chilibear

[Valda]

'A Reformatory School was an Institution for the Industrial training of Juvenile Offenders. They were Residential, where clothing, food, lodging were supplied whilst they were given training. They were not classified the same as Industrial Schools which were for potential and not actual offenders.

Juveniles up to the age of sixteen were sent to Reformatory School when convicted of an offence punishable by imprisonment. The order for detention was made by the Court, and the maximum limit for a Reformatory or Industrial School was the age of nineteen.'

http://www.institutions.org.uk/reformatories/

I would contact initially Bristol Record Office for Kingswood records. If the records haven't survived that early you may still find information about his crime in Derbyshire records or whichever county he and his family were living in at the time.

Regards

Valda

[chilibear]

Thank you,

I shall try that,

Chilibear.