Charles Lechmere: In good company

[Gary Barnett]

Gary, in the 3rd Edition of Inside Bucks Row, i have some very interesting and i think conclusive evidence regarding the giving of addresses for Similar RTAs at the time.

That’s interesting, Steve. Would I be able to download it to my iPhone? That’s all I use these days.

My point here, though, was about the name. Whether, if it was clear to the police at the scene that ‘Cross’ was in no way to blame for the accident, they would have felt it necessary to investigate him any further. I doubt they would have.

[Steve Blomer]

That’s interesting, Steve. Would I be able to download it to my iPhone? That’s all I use these days.

My point here, though, was about the name. Whether, if it was clear to the police at the scene that ‘Cross’ was in no way to blame for the accident, they would have felt it necessary to investigate him any further. I doubt they would have.

yes, its a pdf file, so you just need a pdf reader, adobe does work best.

The research was carried out by Dusty.

i suspect they would have checked with his employers, who are named in the case, that he did indeed work for them and was entitled to drive the cart, but i doubt it would be much more than that.

[Gary Barnett]

Thanks. I’ll see if I can get it to work.

Good old Dusty, eh? The man who never makes a mistake.

I suppose it comes down to our individual assessment of how much effort the police put into such matters. Personally, I don’t believe they would have wasted much time checking out a clearly innocent man.

One of the bees I have in my bonnet is why there is no record of the police having popped down to the Highway to check out MJK’s former associates/employers. Perhaps they did and the records have been lost? That’s possible, but I think it’s more likely that they didn’t bother. They had an idea of the profile of her killer that didn’t match the violent brothel-keepers of the Highway - those who stabbed, beat and took axes to the women who crossed them. If they couldn’t be arsed to check out Morgenstern, Boekee, Maywood etc. in such a high profile case as the murder of Mary Kelly, why should we imagine they would waste time checking out a patently innocent carman who had the misfortune to accidentally run over a small child who ran in front of his cart?

[Gary Barnett]

I’ve been trawling through the Islington Gazette for years because of the Harrison, Barber (and my family) connection.

I wouldn’t have thought there was a fixed protocol for when they included the addresses of witnesses in their columns. They certainly seem to do so more for locals than those who lived further afield. I’ll be interested to see what Dusty has turned up.

[Gary Barnett]

20 years and a day would be over 20 years. (Pedantry is infectious :-))

And why do you opt for 16/17? He was born in late 1849, so he could have been virtually 19 when he started at Pickfords. Why would an 18/19 year old who would marry the following year not have had a choice over which name to use? Am I missing something?

I think the 1876 carman was almost certainly Lechmere. And I suspect he used the name Cross because he didn’t want the name Lechmere associated with the incident. That’s pure conjecture on my part. Giving evidence under oath is about as formal an event as anyone ever experiences. Using the name your mates call you at work (assuming they did) rather than the name you know full well is your real/official name is a bit odd in my book. If you’re name is Joe Bloggs and you identify yourself as Joe Smith because that is your stepfather’s name, that’s one thing. But if your name is the unique Charles Allen Lechmere, which carries huge social resonance, that’s an altogether different ball game.

A Point of clarification here. Lechmere was over 18 when Broad Street Goods Station opened in May, 1868, so he didn’t start there as an impressionable child. Perhaps he’d begun working for Pickfords prior to that - as early as 1863, possibly, when they were still operating out of Haydon Square, just a stone’s throw from Mitre Square. Interestingly Haydon Square provided the closest exit from the City out of Mitre Square and anyone leaving by that route would find themselves immediately south of Goulston Street in no time at all.