The Real Mary Kelly - Wynne Weston-Davies

[Robert Linford]

Here's #10 :

http://pubshistory.com/LondonPubs/StGeorgeHanoverSquare/TurksHead.shtml

[Gary Barnett]

The barmaid's name was Mercy Ducks - priceless!

[Robert Linford]

There was a McBain there in 1863 :

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43648/43648-h/43648-h.htm

[Edward Stow]

It doesn't look like there will be an opportunity at the Conference to ask WWD any probing questions... but maybe there will...

[Debra Arif]

Debra,

Can you find him in '81 or '91?

Gary

It looks like he went away to sea, Gary. His wife and mother are living together at a different address in 81 and his mother died in 83.

[Edward Stow]

I was able to ask about the claim that Craig lived at 306 Mile End Road for three years even though he was on the electoral register for an address in Hammersmith.
WWD answered that he thought he had left his name on the electoral register for Hammersmith even though he wasn't living there, and WWD claimed that he detected Craig's literary style in East London Advertiser articles during the period up to 1888 and he thought Craig must have lived near the offices if not above them.

[SGerrard]

Does Craig have to have lived at 306 Mile End Road to have used the address? If he was working for the ELA, might he perhaps have used the address as a correspondence address?

[Gary Barnett]

I was able to ask about the claim that Craig lived at 306 Mile End Road for three years even though he was on the electoral register for an address in Hammersmith.
WWD answered that he thought he had left his name on the electoral register for Hammersmith even though he wasn't living there, and WWD claimed that he detected Craig's literary style in East London Advertiser articles during the period up to 1888 and he thought Craig must have lived near the offices if not above them.

Which was probably illegal and therefore supports the claims of FSC's criminal tendencies. The theory is damn near watertight.

[Gary Barnett]

Does Craig have to have lived at 306 Mile End Road to have used the address? If he was working for the ELA, might he perhaps have used the address as a correspondence address?

Hi SG,

That would make sense if he wanted to keep the details of a messy divorce at arm's length from his respectable family in Hammersmith.

Gary

[SGerrard]

Hi SG,

That would make sense if he wanted to keep the details of a messy divorce at arm's length from his respectable family in Hammersmith.

Gary

Yes exactly, Gary. The discovery that his wife was a prostitute might not have been one for sharing with family and friends - and it wouldn't have been unusual to have used a business address for correspondence.

Maybe Craig lived where he worked - convenient, if nothing else - but there seems to be a plausible alternative. Of course, if Craig wasn't living on Mile End Road from '86 - 8; he'd have had less opportunity to stalk the streets in obsessive search of his estranged wife. Then again, if he was living there, he'd have had to explain his decision to live at his workplace in preference to his respectable home in Hammersmith to his family and friends, who ought to have found it remarkable.

Actually, I'd wonder how he could afford to take up lodgings. He was at the time no more than a reporter; yet found the money to engage a lawyer and pay for the commencement of divorce proceedings; and also perhaps a private enquiry agent.

Rent and vittles as well??

- Sally

[SGerrard]

How much would a journalist earn in 1885?





These contemporary adverts from the Daily News suggest about £2-3 for an experienced editor. If Craig was working as a penny a liner during this time, considerably less than that, I'd have thought?

[Robert Linford]

The electorals are confusing. In 1887 Francis was on the lodgers' register at 3 Andover Rd, paying his dad six bob a week for rent of the back bedroom, first floor, furnished. Meanwhile Edward Thomas Craig was at #3 too.

In 1888 and 89 I don't know where Francis was, but ETC had budged up to #7 in 1888 and #10 in 1889. If Francis was still at #3, it seems he had a BO problem.

[SGerrard]

Sally,

I've been on the hunt for a photo of 306 MER to see whether it was large enough to accommodate a business, a family and a lodger. I found one of 357, which was where the ELA was located at a later date. That was quite spacious. The nearest I can get is 322 (below) which looks quite poky.

On the 1889 electoral roll there are two Hasted's listed at 306 MER, James and William. The 1891 census lists an 18-year-old James as William's son. Unless there was a mistake with his age, he cannot have been the same person as the man eligible to vote in 1889. So it appears 306 MER accommodated William, his wife, daughter, two sons and another relative.

Gary

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Thanks Gary. The picture of 322 does look quite poky, doesn't it?

If 306 was like that, it seems hard to imagine the office of the ELA in there as well as a family and a lodger.

[Gary Barnett]

I deleted my previous post because it may have been confusing - sorry.

Here's the ER entry:

[Gary Barnett]

And here's 322 MER: