In August 1882 London magistrates began to lose patience with William Onion. Earlier that year he accepted a new life in Quebec with his travel paid by a benefactor. On the train going to the boat he absconded and went on a drunken rampage in Canning Town. The media claimed he had over two-hundred convictions. He then assaulted a constable and appeared before Mr Saunders at the Thames Police Court. Saunders declared him a disgrace to humanity and sent him back to jail for two months.

It was one of 23 known occasions when Saunders presided over a case involving Onion between 1878 and 1888. These included standard accusations of drunkenness and assaults as well as the bizarre instance when Onion claimed he was hounded by a barman after receiving a letter from the murderer Charles Peace. Yet despite referring to Onion as a pest and a nuisance to the neighbourhood, Saunders was often lenient, sympathetic to some claims of police brutality, and recognised his intelligence. There is a suspicion that Saunders was behind the benefactor who offered to help Onion make a new start.

Saunders died in 1890, eight years before Onion abandoned alcohol and reformed as a street poet. Frederick Mead, the magistrate who frequently sentenced Onion to jail in the 1890s, played a key role in the reformation. He was given Peace’s letter and kept it until at least 1929, thirteen years after Onion’s death. The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Sir John Dickson, who had also sentenced Onion and then aided him, attended the funeral. A wreath from the Thames Police Court was placed on the coffin.