Biddy the Chiver’s Khazi

[Gary Barnett]

Langho

The NA holds a MEPO file called Habitual Drunkards: Langho, Near Blackburn; Reformatory - escort of prisoners

It’s dated to 1910, but probably worth a look. It might provide some background, if nothing else.

[Gary Barnett]

Context: Abergavenny and Bedwellty Union

There’s a lot of interesting stuff here:

http://mongenes.org.uk/Workhouses/abergavennybedwe.html?LMCL=smq6KR

[Gary Barnett]

Langho 1912 - 1915(?)

It appears that beyond a record of her registration no information on Biddy’s stay at the Langho Reformatory has survived. If she did serve a significant portion of her 3-year sentence there, there would presumably have been quite a bit of info recorded about her condition, its causes and her progress at the institution. What a pity it is lost to us.

[Gary Barnett]

Biddy the Chiver at 26

This is the photo attached to Bridget Enright’s 1901 Stone Asylum case notes:



The original image is held at the London Metropolitan Archives, City of London, Ref: CLA/001/B/01/013, in the City of London Mental Hospital (later Stone House Hospital) collection.

[Gary Barnett]

Call me suspicious, but there’s something a bit odd about the Enrights’ 1886 Abergavenny workhouse record. The incorrect names and ages were probably just an error on the part of a flustered workhouse official having to deal with a large and boisterous Irish family, but aside from that their alleged tramp from Brecon to Hereford via Abergavenny just doesn’t ring true. Why would they have spent the previous night at Brecon? The 1881 census shows them living at Llangattock, which fell within the Abergavenny Union, and their youngest child, Catherine, had been born there in early 1886. Their stay at Abergavenny lasted just 24hrs and possibly because of that and that they left at 9.00 a.m. claiming to be enroute to Hereford, 20+ miles away, they were excused from the stone-breaking work other casuals were forced to undertake. Brecon (Brecknock), Abergavenny and Hereford were three distinct Poor Law Unions. Could it be that the claim that they were only imposing themselves on Abergavenny for a single day, having arrived from another Union and intending to travel to yet another the next day, was made in order to get out of having to work for their bed and breakfast?

[Gary Barnett]

The Mary O’Rourke born in Poplar (Union Workhouse) in 1902 was the daughter of an Ellen O’Rourke. She was very likely the child in the Nazareth House orphanage in 1911.

[Anna Morris]

I think the home was in the parish of Prittlewell. It was a catholic institution run by the Sisters of Nazareth, whose order apparently keeps its records close to its chest.

The general description seems like it could translate into 'Seaside Home' but if they took care of children and elderly at the time, I do not know how it would fit into the JtR saga except it is said this home has extensive grounds.

If the JtR suspect was 'sent with difficulty', might he have been sent on some ruse that the care or service he needed was available at....wherever....Seaside Home? Thinking about the parishes, might the suspect have been the responsibility of a parish outside of, or on the outskirts of London, maybe near the sea?

[Anna Morris]

If the Nazareth House Mary was Biddy’s child, it’s rather sad that Biddy, Bridget, Julia and Julia’s children were all living together in Shoreditch at the time of the 1911 census while poor little Mary was living among strangers in a home for destitute children.

Maybe Mary was ill or crippled? Maybe she had asthma or something and could not tolerate London smog? (Some art historians claim Monet developed his impressionist style by painting scenes around London when the smog was the worst and the available light the most shaded and subdued.)

[Gary Barnett]

Help required

Can anyone point me in the direction of an online or hard copy version of this:


Ó Conchubhair, P.,

Thá Sinn Ocrach: Ballylongford and the Great Famine (self-published, Ballylongford, 1997)

[Gary Barnett]

Nazareth House is still there though it now caters for the elderly rather than children.
https://www.sistersofnazareth.com/se...uthend-on-sea/

Yes, thanks, Phillip. I understand their records aren’t publicly available but you can request information in writing.

[Phillip Walton]

In 1911, there was an 8–year-old Mary O’Rourke living at the:

Nazareth House Home for Destitute Children and Aged Poor,
London Road,
Southend-on-Sea.

Her place of birth was recorded as Poplar. Apart from the 1 year age discrepancy, she looks promising.

"London Road, Southend-On-Sea" is a fascinating name for an address. I still have a sneaking suspicion the "Seaside Home" important to Ripperology, may not be what we have sought so long. I have an idea it was something we have not imagined, even a private home near the sea. Someday we may find an address that fills in particulars about a suspect 'sent with difficulty' for identification.

I shouldn't have an opinion on this because I still marvel at UK geography and place names. (J.K. Rowling certainly had fertile background from which to draw in writing a mystical tale. However, recently I see she claims there is an American wizarding school with curriculum based on Native American lore. I think she called this 'Ilvermorny' which sounds awfully Scottish to me. Walla Walla [Washington state] is a good, Native name even if it is also what cat's meat men in London shouted to attract customers!)

Nazareth House is still there though it now caters for the elderly rather than children.

https://www.sistersofnazareth.com/service/nazareth-house-southend-on-sea/

[Gary Barnett]

There was a birth for a Mary O’Rourke, MMN blank, registered in Poplar in Jun Q 1902.

[Gary Barnett]

If the Nazareth House Mary was Biddy’s child, it’s rather sad that Biddy, Bridget, Julia and Julia’s children were all living together in Shoreditch at the time of the 1911 census while poor little Mary was living among strangers in a home for destitute children.

[Gary Barnett]

"London Road, Southend-On-Sea" is a fascinating name for an address. I still have a sneaking suspicion the "Seaside Home" important to Ripperology, may not be what we have sought so long. I have an idea it was something we have not imagined, even a private home near the sea. Someday we may find an address that fills in particulars about a suspect 'sent with difficulty' for identification.

I shouldn't have an opinion on this because I still marvel at UK geography and place names. (J.K. Rowling certainly had fertile background from which to draw in writing a mystical tale. However, recently I see she claims there is an American wizarding school with curriculum based on Native American lore. I think she called this 'Ilvermorny' which sounds awfully Scottish to me. Walla Walla [Washington state] is a good, Native name even if it is also what cat's meat men in London shouted to attract customers!)

I think the home was in the parish of Prittlewell. It was a catholic institution run by the Sisters of Nazareth, whose order apparently keeps its records close to its chest.

[Anna Morris]

In 1911, there was an 8–year-old Mary O’Rourke living at the:

Nazareth House Home for Destitute Children and Aged Poor,
London Road,
Southend-on-Sea.

Her place of birth was recorded as Poplar. Apart from the 1 year age discrepancy, she looks promising.

"London Road, Southend-On-Sea" is a fascinating name for an address. I still have a sneaking suspicion the "Seaside Home" important to Ripperology, may not be what we have sought so long. I have an idea it was something we have not imagined, even a private home near the sea. Someday we may find an address that fills in particulars about a suspect 'sent with difficulty' for identification.

I shouldn't have an opinion on this because I still marvel at UK geography and place names. (J.K. Rowling certainly had fertile background from which to draw in writing a mystical tale. However, recently I see she claims there is an American wizarding school with curriculum based on Native American lore. I think she called this 'Ilvermorny' which sounds awfully Scottish to me. Walla Walla [Washington state] is a good, Native name even if it is also what cat's meat men in London shouted to attract customers!)