Fagin's children: Mugshots of Victorian thieves as young as 11 who were sentenced to hard labour for stealing clothes and metal

By CHRIS PARSONS

Sent down: John Divine, 17, was imprisoned at Newcastle City Jail for six months for stealing money, while Robert Charlton, 16 (right) was imprisoned for four months for stealing two pairs of boots

Staring into the camera, some with defiance and others in child-like wonder, these scruffy boys and girls look like any other group of Victorian urchins.
But while some of the children may appear to be a picture of innocence, the gallery is in fact a collection of young criminals from the 1870s.
The rogues' gallery of offenders, some as young as 11, includes thieves and pickpockets who stole anything from cash to clothes and even odd pieces of metal.
The fascinating Victorian images, which all feature children from the Newcastle area, have been released today by the Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums.

Starting young: An 11-year-old girl named as Ellen Woodman was given a week of hard labour for stealing iron, while accomplice Rosanne Watson, 13 (right) was given the same punishment. However a newspaper article from the time suggests it is not clear whether the girls were actually stealing or just playing in the ship yard

The petty criminality detailed in the charges may be the same as in Britain today, but the mixture of scruffy clothing and more formal Victorian street attire worn by the children is a world away from the hoodies, trainers and sportswear of many of today's lawless youths.

Life of crime: John Reed, 15, was given two weeks hard labour and five years reformation for stealing money in 1873. Jane Farrell, 12, stole two boots and was sentenced to 10 hard days labour

The punishments dished out to children are also indicative of a more robust justice system, with petty thieves as young as 13 ordered to complete two weeks hard labour for stealing clothes.
These pictures make up just some of Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums' collection, which they are currently putting online.
Catherine Kelly, a 17-year-old pictured in the 1870s gallery was jailed for three months for stealing linen. She put her occupation down as 'prostitute'. Another 15-year-old girl received a punishment of two months jail and hard labour for stealing a single coat.


Jailed: Catherine Kelly, 17, was given three months for stealing bed linen, while 14-year-old Henry Miller (right) received two weeks hard labour for stealing clothing

Teenage boys appear to have it just as hard, as one 17-year-old is jailed for six months for stealing money from another person, and a 15-year-old receives two weeks hard labour for stealing a section of pipe from a shop. Another, who had been in and out of prison, was sentenced to two months for stealing some shirts.
Most of the children's crimes were committed as a result of their impoverished backgrounds, according to Liz Rees, Head of Archives and Collections at Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums.
She told MailOnline: 'If you look at the children's clothing, a lot of it is fairly ragged, so most of these crimes were born out of poverty.'

Petty thefts: James Scullion, 13, was told to complete 14 days hard labour for stealing clothes. Fresh-faced Michael Clement Fisher, 13 (right) was given two months jail for breaking into houses

However, there are one or two in the rogue's gallery from a more privileged background.
Ms Rees said: 'The slightly more middle class of the group were 13-year-old Michael Clement Fisher and Henry Leonard Stephenson, who was 12. They were choir boys from St Mary's Church and said to be of respectable parents.
'But they still broke into three houses, stole a violin case, a ring, coins and other articles. All stolen property was returned.'
In a newspaper article at the time of the crime in 1873 it was suggested the boys had thought they were doing 'heroic, manly acts' after reading the 'wrong books', on people like Jack Sheppard, a notorious 18th century highway man.

Hard justice: Margaret Cosh, 15, who had no previous convictions, was given two months hard labour for stealing a coat. Isabella Hindmarch, 16 (right) served one month of hard labour for stealing money

They were sentenced to two months in prison for the crime. Ms Rees said: 'Fisher's mother promised to send him away to sea on release, while Stephenson's father vowed to send his boy to India.'
She added: 'They would have served their full services. There was no remission for good behaviour. A lot of them got hard labour even though they were children; The justice system was very much geared towards punishment rather than rehabilitation.'

Spared: Richard Rimmington, 15, was expected to do hard labour for stealing a pipe, but instead his parents paid a fine. George Lamb, 17 (right) was sentenced to four months for stealing money

Hard labour might have included walking around a tumbril or breaking up stones in the prison yard and girls were also expected to carry out this labour-intensive task.
James Scullion was sentenced to 14 days hard labour at Newcastle City Jail for stealing clothes - his second offence. He had been flogged for stealing a rabbit the first time. The 13-year-old, a labourer, was only 4'2" tall suggesting that he was malnourished and impoverished.
After his 14 day, Scullion was packed off to Market Weighton Reformatory School for three years.
Reform schools came in as an Act of Parliament in 1854 so many child criminals were packed off to those after their sentences. There they were trained in a trade like agriculture or prepped for the Army.
There were children who claimed they were unfairly treated. Ellen Woodman was only 11 when she was given a week of hard labour for stealing iron. Her accomplice Rosanne Watson, 13, was given the same sentence.
But according to Ms Rees, it is actually not clear whether the girls had been stealing the metal or whether they had just been playing in the ship yard. They both had no previous convictions.

Career criminal: James Donneley, 16, was jailed for two months for stealing shirts. Innocent-looking Mary Hinnigan, 13, was given a week of hard labour for stealing iron

There were a lot of metal thefts in the area due to the booming shipbuilding business of the time. Ms Rees said: 'It was mostly opportunism with metal hanging around, but obviously it had a resale value. There's still a lot of metal theft going on around here today.'
Shipbuilding and heavy engineering were Newcastle's main industries in the 19th century and the city was a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution. But while the latter had made Britain rich, it also led to grinding poverty in cramped inner-city slums plagued by hunger and disease.
Ms Rees said: 'Newcastle expanded enormously from the 1850s onwards and as the population increased, living conditions for most were poor. It was a boom town, with people coming in from the countryside Ireland and Scotland looking for work, but there weren't always enough jobs to go around.'


Custodial sentence: Isabella Dodds, 17, was dealt a four month prison term for stealing a gold watch, while Henry Leonard Stephenson, 12, broke into houses and was jailed for two months in 1873

Boys and girls like the ones in these mugshots, were soon educated in the skills of street survival by their parents and condemned as often as not to a life of crime.
Historian and author of Tough Times, Nigel Green, turned up police records which show that in the years from 1838 to 1851 the number of minors arrested for petty crimes more than doubled.
Some of the children picked up by the police were as young as eight, and they were often held in stinking prison cells alongside adults.
Charles Dickens painted a grim picture of the Victorian criminal underbelly with characters Fagin, Bill Sikes and their merry band of child thieves, in Oliver Twist. The film version of the novel starring Ron Moody and Oliver Reed, even romanticises the era with jolly tunes and dancing.
The reality was anything but and Victorian children living in poverty who had turned to a life of crime could expect harsh reprimand from whipping to imprisonment.

source: dailymail