The source of MJK's fantasies?

[Bob Hinton]

Sitting alone contemplating my navel the other day a thought battered it’s way to the front of my brain (such as it is).

The stories that Mary Kelly told Barnett about her background bear an uncanny resemblance to the stories told by Mary Baker aka Princess Caraboo.

Both tell tales of going to France, both claim a husband who was no longer with them; both talk about leaving clothes with a landlady they once lodged with. Both tell of spending time in a hospital and then in a refuge for fallen women.

Both originated outside of London and yet both ended up there, and both seemed to weave a mystical web about them.

The Princess Caraboo story made the papers again in 1865 when Mary Baker died.

Comments?

[Mike Covell]

Excellent thread Bob, I am not familier with the Princess Caraboo story but will seek it out this week.

[How Brown]

San Francisco Bulletin
March 8,1865
Page 2

[How Brown]

40 years prior to the previous article:

Eastern Argus ( Portland,Me.)
February 3, 1825
Page 2

[How Brown]

Village Register ( Dedham,Mass.)
January 18,1822
Page 3

[Sam Flynn]

Interesting to note the Bristol connection with the "Princess Caraboo" story. I noted the following many moons ago over on Casebook...

Did Kelly run away to the circus?

There is a 17 year-old "Mary Ballina", born in Cardiff, visiting an address housing what appears to be a troupe of strolling players in Bristol in the 1881 England Census. Her occupation is given as "Actress/Comedian".

Some unverified stories stated that Kelly was an artist of no mean degree - but there's no indication which of the "arts" was meant. There are also the rumours of connections with the stage, and Mary's fondness for singing Irish songs. There's also Barnett's comment about the gentleman taking Kelly to France and her "not liking the part". I've always taken this to mean "the part" of France where she ended up, but could it possibly mean that she was lured there with a promise of a "part" on the stage?

Note that "Mary Ballina" was almost certainly a stage name - she doesn't crop up in any other census, and the surname is also unique in Britain as far as I've been able to ascertain. However, there is a village called "Ballina" some 20 miles from the city of Limerick.

[How Brown]

Dear Samson:

Ballina is very close to the Spanish word for "whale"....which is spelled "ballena"....and pronounced.. By-een-ah.

Yours,

Prof. Foreign Tongue

[ferret]

Totally fuzzy here with the pig death- but somewhere in what passes for my brain here tells me I've heard this name before re MJK......cheers Bob x

[ferret]

Click on Mary Ballina- on Google images
Theres a Mary Ann Jones gravestone there- died 1908

[ferret]

6451
Jones/Davis/Davies................
Gawd hope it's not too big!..blame it on the pig flu..............

[Rona]

SamFlynn Quoted:

Did Kelly run away to the circus?

Note that "Mary Ballina" was almost certainly a stage name - she doesn't crop up in any other census, and the surname is also unique in Britain as far as I've been able to ascertain. However, there is a village called "Ballina" some 20 miles from the city of Limerick.[/QUOTE]

Hello,

Its exactly what I was thinking, that Mary may have picked a surname relating to where she was from. There is also the town of Ballina in County Mayo in the West of Ireland.

Regards,

Rona

[How Brown]

Dear Rona:

Thats an old tradition where people assume the surnames of the towns they were born in or moved to.



Very good of you to share that about the village of Ballina.

Thanks again for joining Rona.:clap2:

How

[Rona]

Hi How

I have a few days off (have the flu) so am currently using my spare time to read over all the thread here. It seems I have quite a lot to catch up on! :)
Thanks for the welcome!

Ro

Dear Rona:

Thats an old tradition where people assume the surnames of the towns they were born in or moved to.



Very good of you to share that about the village of Ballina.

Thanks again for joining Rona.:clap2:

How

[Adam Went]

Well we know that Joe Barnett used to read newspaper reports of the murders to MJK in 1888.....the trouble is, in 1865 when these stories were printed, Mary Kelly was only a toddler and was years away from meeting Joe Barnett. One can only assume because she had him reading to her that she either couldn't read or was a poor reader, which was common among people of her class, so unless she had somebody else reading these stories to her out of a newspaper as a youngster....where would she have come up with the idea?

It might be a little more likely if it was one of the other, older victims (Elizabeth Stride and her Princess Alice story springs to mind here) who could remember the news reports of 1865, but MJK?

It's an interesting theory....just not sure that it fits.

Cheers,
Adam.