Butchers' Row, Aldgate

[The Grave Maurice]

Chris,

Excellent work. Ta. Don't wear yourself out.

[Chris]

These two items are from the Times, 29th Feb and 2nd March 1892.

Here's a somewhat fuller report of the same cruelty case, from the City Press of Wednesday 2 March 1892:

[Chris]

And here are two reports of bankruptcy hearings concerning Solomon De Leeuw, which shed some interesting light on his business affairs and lifestyle.

The first is from the City Press of 21 January 1891, reporting proceedings in the Court of Bankruptcy on 14 January:


The second is from the City Press of 18 March 1891, reporting proceedings on 5 March:

[Chris]

Just to put Solomon De Leeuw's gambling losses into perspective, based on the retail price index they would be the equivalent of around £175,000 today. So he wasn't exactly a small-time gambler.

[Chris]

Here's another article about Solomon De Leeuw from the City Press of 17 December 1890, reporting proceedings in the Court of Bankruptcy on 11 December. It includes some additional information - the names of his creditors, the period (1886-1889) over which he lost £2000 by betting and gambling, and a reference to the forced sale of five freehold houses in the East End:

[Chris]

... the period (1886-1889) over which he lost £2000 by betting and gambling ...

So in today's money he was losing around £50-60,000 a year.

[Chris]

Here's another report from the City Press of 28 May 1879, on an earlier hearing in the Lord Mayor's Court, relating to De Leeuw's dispute with the Great Eastern Railway Company over a lost bullock:

[Chris]

With the help of protohistorian's scans of the 1888 Post Office Directory, it wasn't too hard to identify De Leeuw's creditors:

(1) "Mr. Brooks, Little Somerset-street, Aldgate, £19;"
William Brooks, engineer and pattern maker, 7 Little Somerset Street (in POD 1891).

(2) "The Corporation of London, £48;"

(3) "Messrs. Hill and Sons, West Smithfield, £650;"
Hill and Sons, bankers and agents to cattle salesmen, 66 (West) Smithfield (in POD 1888).

(4) "Mr. T. Mills, Aldgate House, Aldgate, £14;"
Presumably Thomas Mills and Co., tailors, 1 Aldgate High Street (in POD 1888).

(5) "Messrs. Jennings and Son, Leadenhall-street, £20;"
Jennings and Son, solicitors, 69 Leadenhall street (in POD 1888).

(6) "Messrs. Howitz and Lialtes, High-street, Aldgate, £16."
Gabriel Horwitz and Joseph Lialter, whose partnership as Wholesale Carcase Butchers, at the Aldgate Meat Market, the Foreign Cattle Market, Deptford, and the Cattle Market, Barnsbury, under the style or firm of Horwitz and Lialter, was dissolved in 1893 [London Gazette, 19 December 1893]. Lialter had earlier been a carcase butcher at 6 High Street, Whitechapel [Jewish Chronicle, 30 January 1880]. Horwitz seems to have briefly succeeded De Leeuw as tenant of 59 Aldgate High Street before the bankruptcy (between 28 November 1889 and 20 June 1890), to be succeeded himself by George Louisson by 3 December 1890. By mid 1893 Horwitz and Louisson seem to have been in partnership at numbers 59 and 60 (and later also at 45). Their partnership was dissolved in 1895.
http://wiki.casebook.org/index.php/B...te_High_Street

[Chris]

I see Howard Brown has found a very interesting press report from the Centaur of March 28,1885, in which a bankrupt butcher named Edward Vandy is questioned severely by one of his creditors, "Mr. De Leeuw." Presumably this is Solomon, as he says he sees the debtor often in the (meat) market, and also seems familiar with his betting activities:

http://www.jtrforums.com/showpost.php?p=126420&postcount=12

[Phil Carter]

Hello Chris,

Yes, I looked at this and wondered the very same thing. Have we any other candidates other than Solomon?

best wishes

Phil

[Chris]

Yes, I looked at this and wondered the very same thing. Have we any other candidates other than Solomon?

Well, there weren't very many De Leeuws living in London at the time. The FindMyPast index of the 1891 census shows only three adult males over 21 named "De Leeuw" or "Deleeuw," only one of whom (Solomon) was a butcher. (Though of course there may be a few more with similar names hiding under spelling variants or transcription errors.)

Of course, there was another butcher named Levy Leuw of 44 Aldgate High Street, but I don't think he was ever known as De Leuw.

It's also been pointed out to me privately that there was another Solomon de Leeuw, whose daughter Rose married in Whitechapel in 1915. But she was born in Holland, and I don't have any evidence that that Solomon ever came to England.

[Phil Carter]

Hello Chris,

I did not know of this 2nd Solomon...and like you say, the name is relatively uncommon. Many thanks for the info.

best wishes

Phil

[Chris]

Thanks to some information kindly supplied by one of his descendants, I have expanded the account of Levy Leuw (of 44 Aldgate High Street) on the wiki page. There's still absolutely nothing to suggest he was Sagar's suspect, though:

http://wiki.casebook.org/index.php/Butchers%27_Row_and_its_Residents_-_People#Leuw.2C_Levy_Abraham

I have also added some details about the children of the four Jewish butchers on Aldgate High Street, who I think would have been too young to be considered suspects, with one exception.