Thomas Fogarty

[Gary Barnett]

Don't you just love it when people get ultra-parochial in their responses to the Census question about place of birth?

Margaret Sullivan with her 'Tower Hill' and the Tomkins's with their "Maiden Lane", for example, were very helpful.

And now we have a blind hawker named Thomas Foggarty revealing in 1891 that he had been born in 'East Smithfield'. He could have said 'Wapping' (I think) or even just 'London', but no, he names the very street in which he was born. And that street was just a short walk away from the Roman Catholic chapel in Virginia Street where, in June, 1854, a child named Thomas Fogarty was Christened. His parents were recorded as William and Ellen (nee Driscoll).

Then in 1861 we find a dock labourer named William Fogarty and his wife, Ellen, living with their 7-year-old son in Royal Mint Street, still within the same Irish enclave at the western End of the Ratcliffe Highway where certain familiar Sullivan, Barnett and McCarthy families at one time or another lived.

I'm hoping that one of our more technically gifted colleagues will post a map showing how close E. Smithfield, Virginia Street, Royal Mint Street, Blue Anchor Yard and NE Passage were.

[Robert Linford]

Henry Higgins claimed to be able to pinpoint the street where a man was born from his accent, but I feel that's a bit optimistic.

[Gary Barnett]

Henry Higgins claimed to be able to pinpoint the street where a man was born from his accent, but I feel that's a bit optimistic.

MFL was the Ripper's favourite musical: 'All I want is a womb somewhere...'

[Jerry Dunlop]

Gary, Ive marked all the streets you mentioned but not the exact address. If you tell me where to move the arrows, I can re-do the map more accurately.

[Edward Stow]

So Thomas Foggerty is a suspect?

Surely he should have his own suspect section?

[Gary Barnett]

Thanks, Jerry. I was hoping you might respond.

[Gary Barnett]

So Thomas Foggerty is a suspect?

Surely he should have his own suspect section?

Not yet. Give us a week or two.😉

[Jerry Dunlop]

Thanks, Jerry. I was hoping you might respond.

Rob is certainly more gifted at the maps, but I guess I beat him to it.

[Debra Arif]

Fogerty disappears from the SGE workhouse creed register after his discharge on 1 November 1902. He is pretty much in and out of the SGI workhouse through most of the year from 1900 onwards and each time it says he has no home. The creed register runs on until 1904 but he never puts in another appearance. At one point in April 02. Leyton is mentioned as a destination on discharge.

After his discharge from Raine St workhouse SGE he was sent to St George in the East Infirmary, admitted the same day, 1 11 02, where he disappears.

[Gary Barnett]

Rob is certainly more gifted at the maps, but I guess I beat him to it.

I'm not bad with maps, it's computers (and names) I'm not so good with.

The arrows are all more or less in the right place, I think.

[Gary Barnett]

Fogerty disappears from the SGE workhouse creed register after his discharge on 1 November 1902. He is pretty much in and out of the SGI workhouse through most of the year from 1900 onwards and each time it says he has no home. The creed register runs on until 1904 but he never puts in another appearance. At one point in April 02. Leyton is mentioned as a destination on discharge.

After his discharge from Raine St workhouse SGE he was sent to St George in the East Infirmary, admitted the same day, 1 11 02, where he disappears.

Thanks, Debra.

I think it's in April '02 that the dementia diagnosis is recorded? I wonder what that meant.

[Debra Arif]

Thanks, Debra.

I think it's in April '02 that the dementia diagnosis is recorded? I wonder what that meant.

I wonder if it could be related to M A Fogerty's venereal disease shortly before she died?

[Robert Linford]

My guess is that he went to an asylum or infirmary where, without his wife to supply info and without a clear mind to answer questions with, he could have been listed under a badly misspelled name.

[Debra Arif]

Thanks, Debra.

I think it's in April '02 that the dementia diagnosis is recorded? I wonder what that meant.

I wonder why he switched from SGE to the Whitechapel Infirmary for that entry? Usually he was in the Raine St Workhouse SGE or Saint George in the East Infirmary.

[Debra Arif]

My guess is that he went to an asylum or infirmary where, without his wife to supply info and without a clear mind to answer questions with, he could have been listed under a badly misspelled name.

But he made it to the St George East Infirmary from the workhouse on 1 November 1902, he just doesn't seem to have been discharged at all! Unless I missed him. The SGE Infirmary records aren't indexed so it's a case of trawling.