Preece Family History & One Name Study

Having been jailed in 1867, the 1871 Census finds John in prison again - this time he is being held at Chatham (not his last visit to this particular place). He is aged 27 according to the records, a Gun Implement maker born in Birmingham. The occupation given is interesting, in that it is his father's occupation, and since he had left his family home in 1860 under something of a cloud. He is usually described as a fitter in many of the other criminal records. Having been jailed for 7 years, he is released and is soon back in court almost 7 years to the day of his previous conviction. Once again he faces two charges of housebreaking and receives two concurrent 7 year sentences of penal servitude, although there were a number of other cases which were not heard by the court on this occasion. At this point he is being (largely) convicted under his own name, but this will start to change once this sentence has been served.		Birmingham Daily Post Jun 11 1874 WHOLESALE HOUSEBREAKING IN BIRMINGHAM At the Aston Petty Sessions yesterday, before Messrs. T Ryland, J Smallwood and E Boughton, John Preece ticket-of-leave man, late of Summer Lane, was charged with breaking into the dwelling house of James Burr, at Upper Thomas Street, Aston, on the 1^st of June, and also with entering the dwelling house of Stephen Brandon, New John Street, also on the 1^st inst. and stealing a watch and chain. There were several other charges of housebreaking against him, but only two were heard. About nine o’clock on the morning of the 1^st of June, prisoner opened the door of Mr Burr’s house with a false key, and entered the front room. He, however, found it was occupied by Mrs Burr, and he decamped. Information was given to the Police, and he was apprehended by Police sergeant Norris, in Park Road, the same evening. Five keys were found in his possession, and also a watch. Police sergeant Norris having received information that a robbery had been committed in New John Street West, and that a watch had been stolen, suspected that the prisoner was the thief, and upon enquiries his suspicions were confirmed. During the absence of Mrs Brandon from the house, prisoner had that morning unlocked the door with a false key, and, on prosecutrix’s return, also found him concealed behind the door in her bedroom, and her husband’s watch and chain and other articles were missing. She dragged him out of the room downstairs, where she and the prisoner had a desperate struggle, which resulted in the latter making his escape. Prisoner was committed to take his trial at the ensuing Warwick Quarter Sessions

Birmingham Daily Gazette 28 June 1880 John Dawson (36), fitter, pleaded guilty to having, on the 9^th April, broken into the dwelling house of Francis Wall, and stolen therefrom a purse, a coat, and 35s. The Recorder remarked that since 1860 prisoner had received sentences amounting to seventeen years penal servitude, and in addition two terms of twelve months imprisonment, and was at present out upon a ticket-of-leave. He would be sent again to penal servitude for five years, with three years supervision.		It seems to be a regular occurrence that John was released early. As mentioned elsewhere in these pages, he behaved himself when in prison, and so received favourable treatment, but sadly he didn't repay the authorities! Such a case can be seen in 1880 - let out over a year ahead of the end of his 1874 sentence of 7 years, he transgressed, and, under the alias of John Dawson, is back at Birmingham Sessions in June, following more housebreaking. The article notes that it is highlighted in court that he is a persistent offender, and that he is out of prison early, and he is sentenced to 5 further years of penal servitude, and police supervision once released.

The 1881 Census shows that John was at Portsea Prison in 1881 (near Portsmouth). 37 years old, he gives his marital status as Married, although I have not yet located his wife Emma in this or other census. His parents John (now aged 62) and Emma (also 62) are still in Summer Lane, in Birmingham, and John senior is still a Gun Implement maker. Five years and more have now passed since his 1880 sentencing, but October 1885 shows him back at Birmingham Sessions, caught stealing clothes from a house again. The article in the newspaper to the right is less than glowing in it's description of Peter/John - as the Birmingham Daily Mail also remarked he had now spent half of his life in penal servitude. This time he received a lesser sentence than the previous three, only 16 months imprisonment and further police supervision (which it should be said seems to be doing little to help him!).		Birmingham Daily Mail October 16 1885 “Forced back into evil courses” is too often a truthful summary of the career of the man or woman who has once received the prison brand. Despite all our benevolent and reforming agencies, and despite the fact that the theory, “once a thief always a thief”, is by no means so universally respected as it used to be, it is still, no doubt, dreadfully difficult for a criminal anxious to do right to break completely with his past and to get an honest livelihood. The case of the returned convict, Peter Morris, who was sentenced to sixteen months imprisonment and two years police supervision at the Quarter Sessions yesterday, illustrates this great social difficulty on two sides. Judging from the lies he told as to his experience at Messrs. Kynochs, Morris is evidently not a man one would care to go far out of the way to assist. His whole conduct, in fact, seems to justify the caution which in nine cases out of ten makes a “previous conviction” a bar to employment. At the same time, there may be a good deal in his plea that he has never had a “chance to reform”. If an opportunity of getting an honest living had been placed in his way, before 20 years of gaol life inured him to crime, he might now be a respectable member of society, instead of an habitual and confirmed thief.

Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser & Leamington Gazette April 9 1887 A CASE FOR THE DISCHARGED PRISONERS AID SOCIETY Peter Morris, 46, fitter, pleaded guilty to breaking and entering the dwelling house of George Handley, at Aston, and stealing a timepiece. Prisoner told the court that having been convicted before he could not get anyone to employ him, and was driven to do what he did through want. The Chairman said he had six times before been convicted of housebreaking, and the Court were in doubt as to whether the ought not now to send him back to penal servitude. He would have another chance. The sentence would be twelve months hard labour and three years police supervision. He advised him when he came out of gaol at the expiration of his punishment to apply to the Discharged Prisoners Aid Society, to see if something could be done to give him another start in life elsewhere.		1887 is the first time a judge has offered specific advise to John - he found himself in Court after further housebreaking, and explained that he was unable to work and therefore stole to allow him to eat. The judge gave him a chance on this occasion, and instead of sending him back for a further long spell of penal servitude, he jailed him for 12 months, albeit with hard labour, and told him to apply to the Discharged Prisoners Aid Society when he came out in order to gain help in making a fresh start. It wasn't the last time that the Society are mentioned in connection with John, and the ongoing story of his life perhaps suggests the level of success in any help offered to him!

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