Mrs. Hammersmith?

[Jay Hartley]

Scotsman William Moffatt was around James’s age and in both 1881 and 1891 he was listed as living on Aigburgh Drive with his family in both censuses. His wife was Mary Moffatt.

I have zero evidence that Mary and Eleanor were friends. There are also plenty of other candidates wives outside of the cotton business who Eleanor could have been friends with on a social level. Lawyers, South American merchants, share traders, wine merchants - they all lived on Aigburgh Drive.

[Caroline Brown]

If Mrs Bridge was known to both James and Florie, it would make sense to use the nickname Mrs Hammersmith for her, as "Mrs Bridge" and "Mrs Briggs" sound almost the same. It would have been an easy way to distinguish one from the other in conversation. It might not have been quite the thing to refer to either as Eleanor or Matilda.

Love,

Caz
X

[Markus Aurelius Franzoi]

Is there universal agreement the drive in question has to be Aigburth Drive? Or because it is the most obvious one on a modern map?

The actual quote says, "Strolled by the Drive". I don't think that actually means he was strolling on the Drive. I think he was on a street parallel to it or off it. Like Linnet Lane.

It seems to me it had to be Aigburth Drive v something else like Queens Drive which crosses the town and doesn't seem like a stroll or a drive you'd stroll by from Battlecrease on Riversdale Road.

Stroll means walk, even then, so the closest drive is most likely and that's Aigburth Dr.

[Jay Hartley]

The actual quote says, "Strolled by the Drive". I don't think that actually means he was strolling on the Drive. I think he was on a street parallel to it or off it. Like Linnet Lane.

It seems to me it had to be Aigburth Drive v something else like Queens Drive which crosses the town and doesn't seem like a stroll or a drive you'd stroll by from Battlecrease on Riversdale Road.

Stroll means walk, even then, so the closest drive is most likely and that's Aigburth Dr.

I personally would not read too much into the semantics of "strolled by" vs "on the". They are fairly interchangeable, to be honest. I don't think the author's language was that entirely precise.

I am switching more to the view that Aigburgh Drive was the drive being referenced. Queen's drive was not formally written as such until the extension of the ring road began in the early 1900s. That part of Queen's Drive I was thinking of was built between Penny Lane and Mosley Hill Station was constructed around 1905.

[Markus Aurelius Franzoi]

I agree that his language was not precise. I have a hard time seeing him strolling on foot which is really the literal way of strolling. If he was walking, then he'd have been strolling by the drive like he was strolling by a stream.

I'm guessing he didn't walk the whole way. It would be a mile just to get to Aigburth Drive. He'd have begun strolling once he got there. But the odds of running into the close neighbors of himself and the park are great. Odds would be greater with children, as would the odds of Florie knowing them. I don't know if Mrs. Galati had kids.

[Markus Aurelius Franzoi]

James would have just moved into Battlecrease (signed lease for Feb 1) and I'd say the Manchester Murder only a couple of weeks away. I'm sure all the neighbors came out to the same place at the same time in the good weather on a winter day, and came out for errands and drop-offs.

His previous residence in Grassendale was only about a half mile away so he wasn't doing a ride and walkabout in a new neighborhood. He'd have known his long-time neighbors, especially those competing in the same business and trading the same commodity.

[Markus Aurelius Franzoi]

I am confused. For some reason, I thought R.J was saying George Bridge lived in Leighton in Chesire. My misunderstanding.

He obviously meant Leighton, Neston, Wirral...

Seems he did not need a huge daily commute into the exchange after all.

I am confused too. I had the wrong St. Peter's Square for the cotton merchant office. It's the one in Manchester. Not the one in Hammersmith.

I'm ruling out Galati for sure unless she had a forge in her house.

[Markus Aurelius Franzoi]

I'm not following your reasoning here, San Fran.

Mrs Briggs was separated, but she remained married and kept her married name.

Nicknames wouldn't necessarily have an obvious explanation to those of us who never knew the people concerned, so Mrs B remains a potential contender in my view, with or without the Major Hammersmith link.

There is the fact that Major Hammersmith's real name was Geraldine. He was actually a Colonel.

If you haven't read the book, I guess I have to remove you from my list of candidates for imaginary modern hoaxer!

How many modern hoaxers would have?

[Caroline Brown]

Hi San Fran,

I read RLS's three short stories over the Bank Holiday weekend - an amusing read in the garden with a cold beer.

Colonel Geraldine - aka Major Hammersmith when incognito - was Prince Florizel's confidant and Master of the Horse. So Mike Barrett missed a trick. How could 'Sir Jim' not have enjoyed a play on words with Master of the Whores?

I'd love to think I could have written the diary of someone like Maybrick, but sadly I didn't attend the same evening classes in literary hoaxes as the Barretts of Goldie Street evidently did.

Love,

Caz
X

[Markus Aurelius Franzoi]

I'd love to think I could have written the diary of someone like Maybrick, but sadly I didn't attend the same evening classes in literary hoaxes as the Barretts of Goldie Street evidently did.

I also love to think I could write and forge a Diary of Sir Jim but I didn't attend the daytime cooking and chemistry classes they did in making modern writing look old. And I didn't have the gall.

[Markus Aurelius Franzoi]

I just found out that the name Briggs means Bridge.

Briggs is an English or Scottish name, derived from the Old Norse "bryggia", meaning bridge, and could either describe a bridge-keeper or someone living near a bridge. ... While the name Bridges was used in southern England and Belgium, Briggs was used in northern England and Scotland.

Briggs Family History | Find Genealogy Records & Family Crest

[Markus Aurelius Franzoi]

Mrs. Briggs lived with her brother Richard Janion in Sefton Park.

The Maybricks lodged and rented from them over the years so it would make sense he would pay them a visit on a stroll by the Drive, even if he didn't run into them by accident.



Richard William Janion
in the Liverpool, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1970

Richard William Janion

1886-1887

3 Waverley Road, Sefton Park

Lancashire, England

Liverpool

[Jay Hartley]

Was Beechville not owned by Martha Briggs? If he rented the property from her, and was at one time engaged to be married to her - would he have much reason to suddenly start referring to her as a bitch? Just being devil's advocate.

[Markus Aurelius Franzoi]

Matilda Briggs, was separated from her husband and now lived with her own two daughters at her brother Richard’s house on the edge of Sefton Park. Nearer James’ age than Florence’s, Matilda could be overbearing, advising him on what coats to wear, suggesting what might be most appropriate for dinner, failing to appreciate that her intrusive confidence made Florence feel inconsequential and sidelined. It could not have helped that Matilda was also said to have once been in love with James, nor that she and her younger sister Constance – Mrs Hughes – were thick as thieves and more or less intimidating. Only the youngest Janion girl, Gertrude, was unmarried and fun; the same age as Florence, she did at first become a friend.

Almost exactly forty weeks after their wedding the Maybricks’ son was born. The pair were lodging with Richard Janion and Matilda Briggs and it was not always easy, perhaps, for Florence to feel herself being judged by Matilda, for whom marriage and motherhood were neither new nor joyful. It may therefore have been with some relief that when the baby was about three months old Florence began to organise the packing of steamer trunks in anticipation of returning to America....

Two years later, in the late spring of 1884, believing his business to be on more solid ground and hankering again for Liverpool, James moved them back, leasing from Matilda Briggs a pretty stucco villa called Beechville in the prosperous suburb of Grassendale....

Florence particularly loathed the fact that James had borrowed money from Matilda Briggs, yet her disinclination to rein in her own spending only made things worse.... Then in early 1888, despite Florence’s growing concerns about their rising debts, he moved them all into Battlecrease House.
Even in the good times it had become obvious that almost nothing about the management of her home came naturally to [Florie], despite the advice of ladies’ domestic magazines or the frequent, uninvited counsel of Matilda Briggs.

Amazon.com: Did She Kill Him?: A Victorian tale of deception, adultery and arsenic eBook: Colquhoun, Kate: Kindle Store
Did She Kill Him?: A Victorian Tale of Deception, Adultery and Arsenic by Colquhoun, Kate (2014)

[Markus Aurelius Franzoi]

I personally can see how James would start to see Mrs. Briggs as a B. This Diary entry was also written within days or weeks of his moving out of Beechfield and into Battlecrease and she was still constantly meddling in his household affairs. She probably felt she was owed the privilege as he owned her money.

Being owed money might also illicit a feeling of being insulted when asking a debtor about his health?