William Grant Grainger and censorship

[Chris]

And just to confirm, these records are from a Church of Ireland (i.e. Protestant) parish register.

[Chris]

Regarding Howard Brown's question on jtrforums.com about where this puts the newspaper claims about Grainger's family having a "prominent male member" (specifically, "an uncle in an official position in Cork"), I think it must make them less credible.

However, his maternal grandfather William Busteed was described as a farmer, and some branches of the Busteed family were evidently quite substantial landholders, so it may be that this was a reference to the family of Grainger's mother (though she herself was unable to sign her name when she married).

[lynn cates]

nice

Hello Chris. Nice work, as always.

Cheers.
LC

[Chris]

William Grainger's baptism

Thanks to the excellent resources and very helpful volunteers of the Irish Genealogical Research Society in London, today I was able to check a transcript of the Church of Ireland register of St Luke's parish, Cork. As hoped, it did turn out to include a record of what I am sure is Grant/Grainger's baptism.

The vital clue came from a settlement document discovered recently by Debra Arif. When Forbes Winslow publicised the case of William Grant in 1910, according to newspaper reports he was an inmate of Marylebone Workhouse. Debs checked the workhouse records and found only one William Grant was an inmate at this time. Like the suspect, he was a native of Cork, but he was stated to be about 12 years older than earlier statements about the suspect's age had indicated. According to the settlement document, he had been born on 3 June 1848 in St Luke's parish, Cork, whereas it had previously been stated that the suspect was born around 1860.

Before the offence in 1895, the suspect seems always to have been named in records as William Grainger, not William Grant. If the man in the workhouse records was indeed the suspect, it appeared he had exaggerated his age by about 12 years. If so, it seemed there should be no record of the baptism of a William Grant in 1848 at St Luke's, but instead a record of the baptism of a William Grainger around 1860.

That is exactly what I found. I checked the baptisms between September 1843 and February 1875, and found no Grants at all. There was a single family of Graingers, and on 24 June 1860 a William Grainger, who had been born on 3 June, was baptised. As this is the same birthday given by the man in the workhouse, I don't think there can be any doubt that this is the right man.

Here are all the records I found relating to the family.

Marriage:

1849 Nov 6
GRAINGER William, full age, bachelor, labourer, of Rathmore Cross, son of Richard, hatter
& BUSTEED X Mary, full age, spinster, of Cahirgal, dau of William, farmer
By banns
Wits: James Jennings, John Bowen

Baptisms:

1850 Spt 11 GRAINGER Richard Henry, of William & Mary, Rathmore, [occupation blank], born Aug 25

1854 Nov 16 GRAINGER Catherine, of William & Mary, Barrack Cross, Bellringer at St Lukes Church, born Nov 8

1857 Nov 19 GRANGER George, of William & Mary, 39 Ballyhooly road, [occupation blank], born Nov 6

1860 Jne 24 GRAINGER William, of William & Mary, 39 Ballyhooly Road, [occupation blank], born Jne 3

1864 Jan 14 GRAINGER Hester, of William & Mary, 39 Ballyhooly Road, [occupation blank], born 1863 Dec 25

1867 Mch 31 GRAINGER Benjamin, of William & Mary, Ballyhooly Road, [occupation blank], born 1867 Mch 5

[Chris]

Here are the details of Grant's/Grainger's second release on licence, from PCOM 6/21. Apparently (despite what I had assumed) it didn't go any better than the first. Within two months the licence had been revoked, and he was sent to Pentonville.



The column headings for the second image are:
Date of Licence. [21 November 05] / Amount of Remanet. / [1] Years. / [143] Days. / Date Remanet will expire. [26 April 07] / Remarks.



It seems that the conviction in 1904 that led to his first licence being revoked (for drunkenness according to a newspaper report) was at Thames Police Court, and that the sentence was 5 days.

[Chris]

Do we know that Lawende identified Grant or is this also speculative?

We know the Pall Mall Gazette reported that a witness from 1888 had identified him, and it's been argued that Lawende fits the bill best (which is also my feeling). There's no official record of it, though. On the other hand, the reporter had been given very full information about Grant's previous movements, so he certainly had a good informant.

Now for a technical question, I notice it lists his complexion as "sw". What does this mean? My guess is either "swarthy", "sallow" or "sorta-white" ha.......... just kidding there.......but if the guy was blue eyed I imagine his skin would be fair yet sallow is a rather precise term. I notice the guy above has a complexion of "fr" which I assume means fair. I'm comparing him in my head to Lawende's description.....he appears a bit tall and perhaps a bit thin...........?

Sorry - I should have posted a copy of the list of abbreviations. Here it is (I hope it's not too small to read). "sw" stands for sallow.

[GregBaron]

Shadowy Whitechapel complexion...

Hey everybody,

Great thread. Do we know that Lawende identified Grant or is this also speculative? Now for a technical question, I notice it lists his complexion as "sw". What does this mean? My guess is either "swarthy", "sallow" or "sorta-white" ha.......... just kidding there.......but if the guy was blue eyed I imagine his skin would be fair yet sallow is a rather precise term. I notice the guy above has a complexion of "fr" which I assume means fair. I'm comparing him in my head to Lawende's description.....he appears a bit tall and perhaps a bit thin...........?

Greg

[Chris]

Incidentally, a lot more pertinent information has been posted by Debs and Rob C over on the jtrforums threads on Grant/Grainger:

http://www.jtrforums.com/showthread.php?t=12188

http://www.jtrforums.com/showthread.php?t=12794

[Chris]

Good stuff, Chris. Where's the entries for Le Grand from these registers?

These are annual registers, so one needs to know the year of release (which I didn't know for Le Grand). However, by chance I did see an entry for him in one of the above registers. I hope I'll have a chance to post it later today.

[Tom_Wescott]

Good stuff, Chris. Where's the entries for Le Grand from these registers?

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Debra A]

Thanks Chris.
This settles the issue of the name for definite, Grant alias Grainger.

At some point I will try and post the Winslow/Grant/ Marylebone workhouse info on here too.

I need to make an amendement to my portrait of Le Grand now.

[Chris]

Here is his entry in the Habitual Criminals Register for 1907 (MEPO 6/18):


This records the final expiry of his sentence.

[Chris]

Here is his entry in the Habitual Criminals Register for 1905 (MEPO 6/16):


This records his release in 1905 on a second licence. The first licence had been revoked in 1904, and he had been returned to prison.

[Chris]

Here is his entry in the Habitual Criminals Register for 1902 (MEPO 6/13):


This records his early release on licence. 29 Brooke Street was the address of the St Giles Christian Mission, a charity which assisted ex-prisoners.

[Chris]

Here is William Grant's entry in the after-trial calendar of prisoners (HO 140/162):