Whitechapel residents (1888 Electoral records)

[Craig H]

I extracted the attached spreadsheet (in the zip file) of the 1,400 registered voters in the Spitalfields ward, Tower Hamlets borough from the 1888 electoral records.

It provides another view of who was living in the immediate area. However, I recognise registered voters were only a sub-set of the total population.

If the Ripper was a local (sol lived in the Spitalfields ward), and if was not poor / itinerant, then it's possible he may be one of these 1,400 people. I know these are major assumptions.

Is there anyway to find our more information on these people ? I started searching on some of these names in the 1891 Census but there were too many people who had the same name.

Craig

[SuspectZero]

Not a single named suspect appears in this list. Like looking for a needle in a haystack. Nice try though.

[DJA]

Try 9 Finsbury Square.Islington.

Died 9 June,1891.

Not found in the usual suspects list.

Was holidaying at Sevenoaks during the 1881 Census.

[Sam Flynn]

Not a single named suspect appears in this list. Like looking for a needle in a haystack. Nice try though.

It's perhaps the unnamed suspects we should be looking at.

[Kattrup]

Thank you, very interesting.

Lots of Jewish names.


The only ones you can easily find more info on are of course the ones with unusual names.

The first really odd name that stuck out to me was Septimus Swyer (nr. 80).

Lo and behold, he has actually been researched as a Ripper-person of interest!

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?p=214514


Then there's Henry Pige Leschallas:
"Henry Pige-Leschallas was a successful businessman of Huguenot origin who lived during the 1880’s and 90’s with his wife and six children at Highams, a large country house at Sunningdale in Surrey. In 1874 he inherited the estate of his cousin John Leschallas. At the age of 63, in 1893, he bought Glenfinart, as a second home for use in the summer and as a shooting estate"
What's he doing in Brick Lane?

Lots of Musaphias - here's a whole page about that family, including lots of census info from Spitalfields http://www.tzorafolk.com/genealogy/history/musaphia.htm


Nr.665, Paul Cadosch - 27 Hanbury Street, would be Albert Cadosch's father.


nr. 669 - James Waker, "The first floor back room [of 29 Hanbury Street] was shared by a Mr. Waker, a maker of tennis boots, and his retarded adult son."
65 years old in 1888, according to Jon Guy


Nr. 1179, Charles Frost is Eddowes' brother-in-law.

Anyway, interesting to flip through

[MrBarnett]

I extracted the attached spreadsheet (in the zip file) of the 1,400 registered voters in the Spitalfields ward, Tower Hamlets borough from the 1888 electoral records.

It provides another view of who was living in the immediate area. However, I recognise registered voters were only a sub-set of the total population.

If the Ripper was a local (sol lived in the Spitalfields ward), and if was not poor / itinerant, then it's possible he may be one of these 1,400 people. I know these are major assumptions.

Is there anyway to find our more information on these people ? I started searching on some of these names in the 1891 Census but there were too many people who had the same name.

Craig

Craig,

When do you think the 1888 electorals would have been compiled?

Gary

[DJA]

It's perhaps the unnamed suspects we should be looking at.

Yep

Like the Pathologist,lecturer and kidney expert who lived next door to William Gull from the mid 1860s onward.

Gull was at 8 Finsbury Square,Sutton at 9.

Gull was an MD,Sutton an MB.

Anyone have WEG's letter to The Times concerning Jack the Ripper?

[MysterySinger]

Often wondered about the Joseph Barnett at 4099 Fashion Court.

[Debra A]

Often wondered about the Joseph Barnett at 4099 Fashion Court.

Hi MS, I think he is really listed at 16 Frying Pan Alley in that 1888 entry- 4099 Fashion Court being a mistake, perhaps because OCR was used to make the index?

[MysterySinger]

Very interesting Debra - bearing in mind time lag I wonder at what stage of 1888 he lived at 16 Frying Pan Alley.

[Craig H]

Anyone interested in researching 1881 registered voters ?

There is a view that Jack :
• Lived close to where the murders occurred. Geographic profiling places Flower & Dean Street at the epicentre.
• Was white, aged 25 -35 y.o, pale skin, moustache, around 5’7”, stocky (based upon the more credible witnesses PC Smith, Lawende, Marshall.)
• Had some surgical knowledge
• Was not working class (Elizabeth Long described him shabby genteel)
• Was employed
• Likely to live on his own
• Was known to victims who felt comfortable with him (as seen by Lawende’s description)
• Is not a known suspect but an average person

I would take this further and say it’s likely he may have been a registered voter.

Therefore, I’m trying (when I have some spare time) to try to find more detail on the 1,400 registered voters who lived in the Tower Hamlet area in 1888.

I’m using Ancestry.com to try and match the name in the voter list with someone from 1881 or 1891 Census or marriage banns who lived in that street.

It’s difficult as many people had the same name back then, and people changed address often.

I’ve completed 100 names – so a long way to go. I started on Fashion, Middlesex, Brusfield, Lamb, Crispin Streets as close to the epicentre.

My hope is we may find some new “people of interest” who fit the above profile.

Is anyone interested in joining me on this research ? It’s time consuming but also interesting in who you uncover (who would have thought there were so many “potato salesmen” at that time).

I know many will disagree with some or all of the above hypothesis. However, I think they are valid assumptions.

This could also be a useful exercise to find out more about who actually lived in this area.

Attached is an updated spreadsheet in a zip file

Craig

[Craig H]

Craig,

When do you think the 1888 electorals would have been compiled?

Gary

Hi Gary
Just realised I never replied to this ....
I'm not sure exactly when the electoral records were compiled. Below is blurb from Ancestry.com.
I gather they were updated every year. This explains why people may be at different addresses

Historical Background
Electoral registers are lists of individuals who are eligible to vote during the time the register is in force (usually one year). Registration for voters in England has been required since 1832, and registers were typically published annually, though some years had two. Registers were not published during the latter years of World War 1 (1916–1917) or World War 2 (1940–1944).
Restrictive property requirements denied the vote to much of the population for years, though these were eased somewhat in 1867 and 1884 through the Second and Third Reform Acts. They were finally removed, for men, in 1918, when most males age 21 and older were allowed to vote. The franchise was extended to some women over the age of 30 in 1918, but it was not until 1928 that the voting age was made 21 for both men and women.
Thus, the number of names listed in the registers increases with the expansion of suffrage in England, and the 2 million images in this database list more than 100 million names.