In 1873, seven year old Harry Parker was arrested for setting fire to a stable in Wareham. Brought to the assizes at Shire Hall, Harry was given a full criminal trial before being sentenced to five years in a reformatory school. Harry is one of the youngest cases we have at Shire Hall Museum, and give us insight in to the way that Victorian children were treated by the courts.
On Saturday 11th January 1873, a stable was burnt to the ground near Tinker’s Lane in Wareham. Jane Ballard, the owner of the stable, rushed to the police station to give evidence. Two days later, the police arrested young Harry Parker.
Harry was described as a boy “between eight or nine years old”. Brought before the Mayor of Wareham, Mr. J. A. Panton, it was decided that Harry would stand at the next assizes at Shire Hall, where the most serious crimes would be brought to trial.
Harry was taken to Dorchester Gaol, where he would spend three months waiting for the day of his trial.
Harry entered the prison on the 13th January 1873. He was given a number and his photograph was taken. The prison register states Harry was in fact seven years old, around four foot, one and a half inches tall with sandy hair and grey eyes, and his profession was recorded as ‘Schoolboy’.
In Victorian England, the ‘Age of Criminal Responsibility’, or the minimum age a person can be charged with a criminal offence, was seven years old. This meant that children would be given the same treatment as any adult who had committed a crime, including being sentenced to the same punishments.
Harry was brought from the prison to the holding cells below Shire Hall. Placed in the communal cell with up to 50 other prisoners, Harry could hear each trial take place in the court above him. When his time came, he was ushered up a set of narrow steps into the dock, right in the centre of the packed courtroom.
It was said that Harry was barely tall enough to see over the rail of the dock.
In front of the judge, Harry pleaded guilty. At the scene of the crime, footprints had been found matching that of Harry’s shoes. In the 19th century, all shoes were made by hand, by hammering iron nails in the base of the shoes. This meant that each footprint was slightly different, as it was impossible to make two shoes that were exactly the same.
Harry had also been seen buying a box of matches the morning the fire started and seen heading towards the stable. The jury decided that Harry was also guilty, and so it was left to the judge to pass sentence:
“Harry Parker, you have pleaded guilty to setting fire to this person’s building. What I am anxious to do is to prevent you from growing wild and going again into bad company. To keep you from committing other serious crimes you must be imprisoned for ten days and then go to reformatory for five years”.
Reformatory Schools had been introduced in 1854, with the intention of helping young people who have committed a crime not do so again. Locked up and referred to as ‘inmates’, the children were given simple beds and food. Contact with their families was allowed every three months, and harsh punishments would be given for misbehaviour, such as “whipping on the posterior”. Whilst preferable to a Victorian prison, life in reformatory school was tough.
These institutions, however, did have the facilities to try and help children who ended up there. They were taught basic reading, spelling and writing skills, along with simple arithmetic. Harry was sent to Milborne St. Andrews Reformatory School for boys, where he was also taught Geography, History and to play an instrument.
Five-years later, Harry was released from the reformatory school. Now a boy of 12, Harry moved back to Wareham to live with his grandmother, working as a general labourer for a time.
Later, Harry would move to Poole to become an apprentice. It was most likely because of the education he received within the reformatory school that gave him the skills he needed to achieve this. Harry remained in Poole for the rest of his life, selling fish door to door. He grew up, got married and eventually started a family there.
Harry’s story is important as it gives us insight into historic beliefs around young offenders and children within the courts. Despite being only seven years old, Harry spent months alone in prison, was taken to a crowded courtroom and put through the same procedures of any adult in his position. While there is still a debate about the way that cases of young people are handled by the courts today, Harry can show us how our beliefs have changed over the last 150 years.