William Henry Hurlbert

[sleekviper]

Well, they can knock Hurls on a great many things, not so sure that no imagination taking fire for the other sex is one of them though.

[lynn cates]

womaniser

Hello Joe. I'll say. I am now reading Professor Crofts book and he has Hurlbert a serious womaniser from his early days. He was used as a pattern character in 3 different novels--an unsavoury one at that. He was even described once as dangerous.

Interesting.

Cheers.
LC

[sleekviper]

Now that is interesting. The plot thickens....

[lynn cates]

amoral

Hello Joe. Quite right.

Say, you may wish to read that book. WHH comes off as an amoral character at best.

Cheers.
LC

[sleekviper]

I will soon, just finishing "You shall never know security", so won't be long, I hope. Holiday season is always a bit confusing. Does sound like a must read!

[lynn cates]

must read

Hello Joe. Yes, I would consider it a must read.

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

coincidence

Hello All. Like lighthearted coincidence? Try this, entry 3055:

http://books.google.com/books?id=bmJVAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA400&lpg=PA400&dq=william+henry+hurlbut&source=bl&ots=Ttje507edB&sig=6f2YDLmaSuEWlJw_s5oLKubGrhg&hl=en&ei=iXzRTo7mNYaQsQLkxrH-Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDYQ6AEwBDgU#v=onepage&q=william%20henry%20hurlbut&f=false

Cheers.
LC

[sleekviper]

Yes, and had to do a quick scroll back after passing 3073, read it too quick.

[lynn cates]

heh-heh

Hello Joe. Quite funny, eh?

Cheers.
LC

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Lynn,

You must have fallen out of your chair when you came across that!

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[lynn cates]

yup

Hello Tom. Yes indeed. What are the odds?

Cheers.
LC

[TradeName]

Hurlbert on Murray and the Jubilee Plot

England under Coercion (Genoa: 1893), Pages 174-177

CLXXIV.

Early in the year 1887, as is well known, the Pan-Hibernian Revolutionary loaders in the Greater Ireland beyond the seas, made up their minds that the Jubilee Year of Queen Victoria might he turned to useful account by the dynamite section of the movement for the liberation of Ireland. A formidable explosion at such a time in the heart of London, demolishing the House of Commons or the Tower, or the Bank of England, no doubt would have led the most thoughtless of British Senators to regard the Irish question as a question very distinctly come within the range of " practical politics." Some of the boldest and most desperate of the " Physical Force Patriots " among the American Irish, visited England at that time to improve the opportunities which the Jubilee might afford.

There are possibly some members of your Parliament who may remember, even though the incident happened so long as six years ago, that the whole Legislative body of Great Britain escaped destruction during this Jubilee year, at the hands of a man as determined and as fanatical as Guy Fawkes himself, and escaped annihilation at his hands not through any sagacity or skill of your police or your authorities , but only through circumstances much more accidental than those which defeated the Gunpowder Plot.

Wilfred Murray, as I distinctly remember, came to England and sought me out in London at some time during this spring of 1887. He came to me when I was living with my wife in Queen's Gate, again and again with remarkable stories of the subterranean machinations which were going on, according to him, to force Home Rule upon the attention and the acceptance of the British people. Some of these stories turned out to have some foundation in fact and others to be baseless inventions. One of them which belonged to the latter category, was vividly recalled to me during the hearing of the case of Evelyn v. Hurlbert in April 1891, by a very curious entry read out in the court from the alleged Diary of the plaintiff. As this entry when considered in connection with the real circumstances to which it grotesquely and inaccurately, but obviously, refers, throws a striking light not only upon the absolutely fraudulent character of this alleged Diary, but upon the active share which must have been taken in concocting it by Wilfred Murray himself, it is worth while for me here to give it a special place and prominence in this letter. To this end, I here reprint the account given by me of the incident, in the statement of the case of Evelyn v. Hurlbert, which, with the assistance of my wife I prepared during the summer of 1891 in America , and there submitted to my American friends and legal advisers, Senator Evarts and Mr. Sidney Webster of New York.

CLXXV.

It thus runs; "the plaintiff in her alleged Diary stated that Wilfred Murray (meaning myself!) would have witnessed the Royal Procession on Jubilee Day 1887 in her company, and at a place which she named, had he not been under an engagement to witness it from the Duke of Wellington's residence Apsley House. The intent of this statement appeared , when I was asked during the hearing of the case to say whence I witnessed the Queen's Procession on Jubilee Day. . As a matter of fact I witnessed it , as Lord Rothschild appeared in Court and testified, from Lord Rothschild's house in Piccadilly. Now observe! Some two or three days before the Jubilee, Murray, coming to my house in Queen's Gate late in the evening, and under the name of Rolland, by which, at his own request he was known to the servants at my house assured me that preparations were making for a great dynamite explosion at Westminster Abbey, or in its neighborhood , during the ceremonial services of Jubilee Day. I did not believe one word of this and told him so. Early in the morning of the Jubilee Day, before I had left my house with my wife and Mr. and Mrs. William Story of Rome, who were then making us a visit, Murray called at my house and gave me an envelope, in which I found a paragraph cut from a London paper of that morning, I think it was the Morning Post of June 21.st 1887. In this it was darkly intimated that a catastrophe might be apprehended during the day, because a number of the Catholic Aristocracy had returned to the Lord Chamberlain their cards of admittance to Westminster Abbey. This paragraph had been marked by Murray, and two or three words were appended to it reminding me of what he had told me. Of course the intimation was that the Catholic Peers had been warned to keep away, as Lord Monteagle was in the days of Guy Fawkes.

"We left Queen's Gate for Piccadilly early, Mrs. Story and my wife going to 138 Piccadilly, and Mr. Story and myself going to Lord Rothschild's 148 Piccadilly. Before the procession began to move, I went once or twice between these two houses, and as I was crossing Hamilton Place on one of these occasions, Murray accosted me, asking if I had read his paragraph and reiterating his story. I laughed at it, and told him what I happened to know, that if the Catholic Aristocracy were absent from the Abbey it would be because the Pope, as a proof of special good will and respect for Queen Victoria, had ordered a Grand Mass to be that day celebrated in the Pro-Cathedral at Kensington. Murray left me when I turned out of the street into the court yard of Lord Rothschild's house, which, as it happens, directly adjoins Apsley House! Is it not obvious, that the allusion made in the alleged Diary to the presence of Wilfred Murray at Apsley House on that day may be nol wholly unconnected with this little encounter?"

CLXXVI.

The account of this incident which I have here quoted, I wrote out as I have said, in the summer of 1891.

I have since submitted it to my friend Mr. William Story of Rome, who was a guest at my house in London when this incident occurred. Mr. Story not only recalls, I find, the visit paid to my house by Murray, whom he himself saw there early on the morning of Jubilee Day, when he came with the newspaper paragraph concerning the expected explosion at Westminster, but reminds me of what I had myself quite forgotten, that he, Mr. Story, was with me going over by Hamilton Place from Piccadilly to Lord Rothschild's house 148 Piccadilly, when Murray, pressing through the crowd in the street accosted me, made a fresh attempt to convince me that the paragraph was well founded, walked a little way with us, and only left us when we turned out of the street into the open court yard, which leads to the doorway of Lord Rothschild's residence, directly adjoining Apsley House. Mr. Story perfectly recalls both the visit paid at my house early in the morning of Jubilee Day by Murray, and this meeting with him in Piccadilly, as well as the subject of the probable dynamite explosion urged upon my attention by Murray, though he cannot be sure whether I did or did not mention to him the name of the man.

[lynn cates]

same chap

Hello Trade. Thanks yet again. I appreciate your finding his address.

Regarding the story--same old WHH.

Cheers.
LC

[TradeName]

Sinclair (O'Brien), Hurlbert, Rossa, McDermott, Jarvis

The Fall of Feudalism in Ireland: or, The Story of the Land League Revolution (London: Harper, 1904), Pages 617-618

V. —"SINCLAIR"

The most mysterious and romantic of the many strange people who figured directly or otherwise in The Times commission was the secret agent Sinclair. This is not his real name; it is only one of several assumed names. He was a handsome man, in the prime of life, with light hair, blue eyes, strong, resolute face, lightish mustache, military bearing, and no beard. He bore some resemblance to William Henry Hurlbert, already alluded to; a fact which adds another romantic chapter to Sinclair's history, if Hurlbert's testimony in the case made against him in London by a lady in 1892 be true—namely, that one "Wilfred Murray," and not Hurlbert, was the gallant gay deceiver in the case in question. The description given of Wilfred Murray corresponds with that of Sinclair, who had been at one time in Hurlbert's service.

Sinclair's history almost beats the creations of romance in its revelations. He was the son of a well - known citizen in . He graduated in one of the three great universities, and practised subsequently as a lawyer in a provincial town. In the later sixties, he emigrated to one of the British colonies, and carried with him, to the premier of that country, a highly complimentary letter of introduction from a present lord chancellor, two present peers, and three distinguished judges, now dead. He returned to England after a long absence, and proceeded on some mission to New York. He was then an agent of the English secret service. He convoyed the alleged dynamiters, Gallagher and company, in 1883, to London, where they were arrested and sent to penal servitude for life. For this work Sinclair received a large sum of money through Mr. Jenkinson.and departed for South Africa. He was back once more in London in 1885. He was employed by Mr. Labouchere for service in aid of Mr. Parnell in The Times commission, and was sent to America to see Mr. Patrick Egan. He returned with a book which he alleged he had received from Frank Byrne.

Before starting on this journey he had had an interview with Mr. Parnell, Mr. Labouchere, and Mr. George Lewis, in the latter's office, Ely Place, London, full particulars of which he supplied to Mr. Soames, The Times solicitor, subsequently.

On coming back from the United States he called on Pigott at Kingstown, and induced him, as already related, to obtain an interview with Mr. Parnell in Mr. Labouchere's home, which has been described. On the day following the suicide of Pigott in Madrid he visited his Kingstown residence before any one from our side had called, and possessed himself of some papers.

All this time he was an agent of the secret service of the Home Office, and in the pay of Major Gosselin.

Page 429

["Red Jim"] McDermott was born in Dublin, and was believed to be the illegitimate son of a lawyer named O'Brien.

--end

Christy Campbell's Fenian Fire identifies Sinclair as Matthew O'Brien.

This article identifies an O'Brien as a "foster brother" of Jim McDermott. (It also mistakenly says McDemott shot Carey.) A New York Postal Inspector told a NYT reporter that he had been introduced to O'Brien by Fred Jarvis.

New York Times, August 31, 1883, link

O'DONOVAN ROSSA'S STORIES


Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 26, 1883, Page 7

The Story Told

Rossa on Mc Dermott



Other articles:

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 13, 1883, Page 4

Official!

The Story of the Perfidy of James Mc Dermott


Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 14, 1883, Page 4

All Told

The Official Record of James McDermott


Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 19, 1883, Page 1

Rossa Frees His Mind

Serious Charges Made Against the Postal Authorities


Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 21, 1883, Page 4

Blood Money

Offered to O'Geary by McDermott's Brother


Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 14, 1891, Page 6

"Red Jim"

Detective O'Brien Talks About McDermott

To see articles, go to http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org. Use "Date Search". When viewing the page image, use the "Features" menu to "Download Newpaper" to get a PDF of the entire issue.

[lynn cates]

wow

Hello Trade. Thanks for this.

Good grief, this ties together the two threads even tighter.

I can see I have MUCH research to do when classes end in about a week.

Cheers.
LC