Willy Clarkson - The Wigmaker of Wellington Street - a New Theory on Jack the Ripper

[pwilliamgrimm]

Hi Busy Beaver! Thanks so much for watching it. I hope you found it interesting. I am not convinced beyond doubt that Clarkson was responsible for the Whitechapel Murders, but I think that he was busy and successful are factors that play in support of this theory. His Wellington Street shop - which now houses the London Transport Museum - was buzzing night and day; indeed, the night hours were his working hours and he would take fittings and conduct business day and night. The theory I proffer is that these killings were part of his business; blackmail and arson were just more ways to supplement his income. He also provided linen, etc. for west end hotels! And all that would be gone if one of his elicit businesses was revealed. My theory is that the killings were perpetrated to protect that. I could totally be wrong, for sure - there are holes in this theory that I haven't yet filled - but just because he was busy and successful would not contradict this theory I am putting forward. Thanks again for watching and commenting! Best,

[Robert]

Hi William

I can't say that I really go for your theory (especially the Berner St wig part) but as you're not a nutter I'm happy to try to chip in if it will help.

I think Jennie Glover was born in 1860 as Jane Elizabeth Bowen. As far as I can see, she never married a man called Glover, but she did marry Walter Cole, ventriloquist, in 1891, and the couple had at least three children. I think that Bowen/Glover were one and the same woman because the GRO site shows one of the couple's children, Marie born 1896, with middle names Jennie Glover (Jane tended to use Jennie and Jane interchangeably for her own name).

I think Jane died in 1908.

Walter had been married before, to Rose Charlotte Cooper (married 1877 died 1890).

[pwilliamgrimm]

Hi Robert:

Thank you so much for your comments, and for not thinking I'm a nutter!

But mostly, thank you for this interesting and helpful research, which actually answers a question that Clarkson's 1982 biographer Roger Jenkin could not answer.

So, here is what I'm pretty sure happened.

As your research shows, in 1860, Jane Elizabeth Bowen was born in Bethnal Green to a woman named Shaw. Your GRO citation shows that Marie Cole was born in 1896 with a middle name of Jennie Glover. But where does the name Glover come from? In Jenkin's 1982 biography, he states she was "an adopted daughter of a partner in a firm of printers in Hassell Street. I have tried to trace this thoroughfare through contemporary sources but drew a blank."”

But now, I think we can fill in the blank. In Greenwall's 1936 biography of Clarkson, he refers to Jennie Glover as having been adopted by a person named Albert Glover of the firm "Glover and Burns."” I could not find that name, but after your post, I happened upon advertisements for "Glover and Barnes"on Hamsell Street, which was a firm of printers in the East End. So, I think we can safely say that Jennie Glover was the adopted daughter”of printer Albert Glover, whose residence is shown to be in Walthamstow. This would explain why the name Jennie Glover doesn't show up on birth records, and I would have no idea where one would find adoption records for that period to confirm. But it doesn't really matter too much, because I'm not sure that she was ever officially adopted. Here's why.

With these new search terms, I found two articles on the marriage of Jennie Glover to Lieutenant Cole in 1891, using the name Jennie Glover and stating: (1) that Albert Glover was Jennie Glover's adopted father; and (2) that Albert Glover was the manager of Willy Clarkson and connected” to “Clarkson's of Wellington Street!

Moreover, one article goes into detail about the very fancy nature of the ceremony and reception, as well as the presents. Clarkson bought the newly married couple - his ex-fiancee marrying the ventriloquist - a silver dressing-case. It is clear that Albert Glover was the father (adopted, or at least acting in that capacity) of Jennie Glover. Also, as an aside, I found advertisements for Lieutenant Cole and his opening act in his traveling show was Rose Cole, likely his wife, as he married Rose Charlotte Cooper before Jennie.

The puzzle is further completed with a correspondence I happened to acquire written from Jennie to Willy circa 1877, a couple of years before Jennie and Willy were engaged. In the letter, Jennie says “"Aunt and Uncle"”were in Worcester but were returning, and "Aunt"”wanted Willy to pick some flowers for her. I can't be certain at this stage, but I suspect that Albert Glover and his wife were the aunt and uncle of Jennie, and she was simply living with them because, for one reason or another, Jennie's actual parents –- Mr. Bowen and Ms. Shaw of Bethnal Green - were not available or willing to parent her at the time. I don't know if this occurred when Jennie was a baby or a toddler or a teen. But by the time she was married in 1891, Jennie was Albert Glover's adopted daughter.”

So, this is all remarkably interesting and I am so happy to have learned all this, but it doesn't alone connect Clarkson in any way to the Whitechapel Murders. But it may provide further support for a part of my theory, to wit, Clarkson may have been engaged in a criminal operation at or around the time of the Whitechapel Murders. Here's why.

First, in 1889, a John Glover of Dublin, a solicitor, had a case made against him to have his law license suspended because certain land transaction documents had been altered, to the detriment of certain tenants in a Dublin building. John Glover was acquitted when his son, Albert Glover, signed an affidavit stating he had made the alterations, and that he thought it was harmless, thus saving his father’s law license. But assuming that Albert Glover in this fraud case was the adopted father of Jennie Glover, then Willy Clarkson's manager who was connected to Clarkson's on Wellington was, in 1889, engaged in the alteration of documents just as Hobbs and Clarkson were doing thirty years later.

Second, in 1897, the Great Fire of Cripplegate started on Hamsell Street, just a couple of buildings away from the offices of Glover and Barnes in the East End. Although the fire caused great damage to a large area, including massive damage on most of Hamsell Street, the offices of Glover and Barnes was left with no damages. This is quite a coincidence considering that Clarkson in the 1930s was found to have committed at least two acts of arson, and I found a newspaper article from 1935 stating that there were 9 more fires alleged to be attributable to Clarkson, dating back all the way to . . . 1897. Here are the details of this. https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/City_P...nt_of_The_Fire

Again, this is at most fraud and arson, not blackmail or murder, and again, Clarkson doesn't get targeted for it, but there is a growing pattern of criminal activity so near to Clarkson it is hard to see him not being involved. It takes us one step closer to a conclusion that Clarkson also was engaged in blackmail, and if he needed to protect these illicit business practices, perhaps murder was not too far behind.

Third, it ends any doubt that Clarkson was actively involved in the East End. His "manager"”and "adopted" father”to his former fiancée, with whom he stayed in contact with even after she married another man, had his offices in the East End; and his former fiancée was born in Bethnal Green, and had perhaps lived there for several years before moving to live with Albert Glover in Walthamstow. As my documentary shows, Clarkson also stalked Jennie Glover in and around Liverpool Station. ”

Here's a dropbox link to the citations I mention above. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/i6ssvy1j2...vu6b7JLGa?dl=0

Sorry if this is a lot but it does clear up a question I had (about "Glover & Burns" as opposed to "Glover and Barnes") and makes sense of your research. I don't think any of this is sufficient to include in a revision to my documentary, but it is super interesting background information.

Thank you again so much. This was really helpful.

[MrBarnett]

Hi,

Which of Clarkson’s grandfathers do you claim was a barber-surgeon?

Peter Clarkson (a tailor?), or

Charles Berry (a printer?).


One of my grandfathers was a horse slaughterer, what do you imagine that says about my skill in that field or my access to pole axes?

Gary

[MrBarnett]

Hi again,

You seem to have a very strange idea of the location of the East End. Liverpool Street isn’t in the East End, though it isn’t far away.

The Great Cripplegate Fire took place in the north of the City of London, near the Barbican. By no stretch of the imagination is that the East End.

[pwilliamgrimm]

Hi Gary:

Yes, you're right re: my post above re: location of that fire. I was doing that search late at night so I miscalculated the geography. It's about a mile to Mitre Square from Silk Street, etc. In any event, the issue is not included in the film, but rather I researched and mentioned it after Robert provided his research, and the remainder of the point is the same.

As for Clarkson's grandfather, it seems the paternal grandfather was identified as a barber surgeon in both Clarkson's biographies without providing much more detail. Where did you get your information, that seems very interesting and I would like to hear more.

Thanks

[MrBarnett]

Hi Gary:

Yes, you're right re: my post above re: location of that fire. I was doing that search late at night so I miscalculated the geography. It's about a mile to Mitre Square from Silk Street, etc. In any event, the issue is not included in the film, but rather I researched and mentioned it after Robert provided his research, and the remainder of the point is the same.

As for Clarkson's grandfather, it seems the paternal grandfather was identified as a barber surgeon in both Clarkson's biographies without providing much more detail. Where did you get your information, that seems very interesting and I would like to hear more.

Thanks

Hi,

I looked at Clarkson’s father’s marriage cert where his father Peter Clarkson was described as a tailor.

Gary

[MrBarnett]

William Henry Clarkson, a hairdresser, married Elizabeth Gravell at St Bride’s Fleet Street on 25/5/1843.

The same church in which Polly Nichols and John McCarthy’s parents would later marry - and the same female witness, Sarah Good, the sextoness of St Bride’s.

Small world.

[Robert]

Hi William

There were no legal adoptions until 1927 or 1928, though of course there were fosterings.

What seems to have happened is that Jane ("Jennie") was listed with the Glovers as Jane Bowen, in 1871, 81 and 91. Albert's wife was Jane's aunt - Albert Glover and Elizabeth Shaw married at West Ham 1862. Albert Glover was born in Worcestershire, hence the Worcestershire connection.

Meanwhile William John Bowen and Jane Esther Bowen nee Shaw continued to raise a family - an exceedingly large one. Interestingly, in 1891 one of their sons (Albert) was a printer.

[pwilliamgrimm]

Thanks Gary. I'm not able to find a copy of that certificate online and would have to, I think, order. Do you happen to have a copy you could post? I'm not able to find any reference to Peter Clarkson as a tailor - I'd very much like to learn more about this aspect because, as you say, it is an important point. The biographies I have read seem to take the point as given, particularly the 1936 book by Greenwall. Picture attached. A primary source would be valuable so I could trace that further.

And Robert, I did consider that legal adoptions probably weren't part of the Victorian era, so I am very grateful for your comments. And your summary is really fascinating. Are the documents you are looking at reflecting that William John Bowen and Jane Esther Bowen nee Shaw were the parents of Jennie (I think that's fair to refer to her as Jenny, as I am sure that is how she self-identified, at least during the period she was with Clarkson)? If so, this suggests Jane had left home by 1871, and she was probably around 10 years old at that time, give or take. I wonder if you have an earlier one, and whether you would be willing to share this with me? It would be interesting if she spent some years at the Bowen household, which I think was in Bethnal Green, and which would therefore further support an East End connection, which I have, but as Gary ably demonstrated, is not complete (Though again in my defense, I did not use that Cripplegate story in my doc, and I think it's good to put theories out there for discussion even when not completely studied.

Anyways, I hate to piggy-back on your substantial research skills but am very grateful for this, as it's kind of like peer review by those with expertise and experience. Even if it turns out that this theory I proffer is not credible - and I do think it is very credible - I would still like to continue research on Clarkson.

And btw, my name is Michael - I use P. William Grimm for creative and academic endeavors because when I was a young lawyer I didn't want my boss to find some weird film I did and fire me; those concerns are behind me now but I find I just can't get comfortable using anything other than Grimm for my non-law work. Please do feel free to call me Michael, or Mike if you prefer.

Thank you again both Gary and Robert. I really appreciate your time and resources and skepticism, all of which are necessary to flesh out the best and most accurate picture that is possible for this effort.

Best,

[pwilliamgrimm]

Just looking at ancestry.com it looks like William and Jane Bowen had Jane Bowen on their census in 1861 as 4 months old, and the only child at the time, at least the only one listed. I wonder why she seems to have moved away before the age of 10 yet the family continued to grow?

[MrBarnett]

Mike,

You can access the marriage cert on Ancestry.

I hope this is legible:

Gary

[MrBarnett]

Mike,

You can access the marriage cert on Ancestry.

I hope this is legible:

Gary

I’ve checked and both the witnesses to this wedding were the same as those of the parents of John McCarthy’s parents in 1846. I identified Sarah Good as the sextoness of the church and assumed Henry Smith was also a church official of some kind.

[Robert]

Hi Mike

I seem to have trouble posting legible images on Casebook, but if you PM me your email I'll send you Jane's baptism and her census entries (minus 1861 which I see you already have).

[pwilliamgrimm]

Mike,

You can access the marriage cert on Ancestry.

I hope this is legible:

Gary

Thanks Gary. I can read it now. I am going to have to search Peter Clarkson now and try and get a better understanding of this, as it does seem to contradict the sources I have found elsewhere. Thanks again.