William Grant Grainger and censorship

[DVV]

Thanks so much, Chris and Chris,

Kebble really seems convinced...
However, as I remember the circumstances of the attack, they do not fit at all the Ripper MO.

Amitiés,
David

[Chris]

It appears that when the Pall Mall Gazette article referred to Grant/Grainger having been removed to Banstead from Fulham Workhouse, it actually meant the Fulham Road Workhouse in St George's Union (covering Westminster and St George's, Hanover Square). Presumably the same goes for all the references to Fulham Workhouse in the article.

I noted the following from the Fulham Road Workhouse creed register a couple of years ago but never got around to posting it. In the light of the interesting discussion on jtrforums.com I'm doing so now:

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

f. 73
No. of Case. 86
NAMES. Grainger William
Class. 1
When Born 1864
Parish. [M]
Occupation. Stoker
Description. [Single]
Religious Creed. [C. England]
Name of Informant. Self
Observations. Badderly
Date of
Admission. 3 Sept 89
Discharge. 27 Sep. 89
Date of
Admission. Badderly / 28 Sep 898
Discharge. Infy 8 Oct 89
Date of
Admission. Badderly / 24 Oct. 90
Discharge. 29 Oct 90
Date of
Admission. [?]West / 22 Nov 90
Discharge. 4 Dec. 90
Date of
Admission. Elkerton / 30 Jan. 91
Discharge. 12 Feb 91
Date of
Admission. To Banstead Asylum
Discharge.
Date of
Admission. Wray / 26 Mch 91
Discharge. 26 Mch 91
Date of
Admission. Badderly / 18 Apl 91
Discharge. 22 Apl 91
[Columns for further dates left blank]
[Fulham Road Workhouse (St George's Union) Creed register 1889-1890, WeBG/SG/121/9]

[Debra A]

Thank you very much for posting these workhouse records, Chris.

[Chris]

Here are a couple more documents relating to Grant.

First, here is the indictment for his trial at the Central Criminal Court in 1895, with the list of witnesses on the back [CRIM 4/1118, no 62].

[Chris]

Next, here is the entry from the register of licences, recording his early release on 30 September 1902. If I am interpreting the remarks correctly, the licence was revoked on 4 November 1904 and he was sent to Wandsworth Prison a few days later [PCOM 6/21, entry 62243].

[lynn cates]

good work

Hello Chris. Lovely work! Thanks for posting this.

Cheers.
LC

[Colin Roberts]

I posted the following, yesterday, in JTRForums.com:

The St. George Hanover Square Union Workhouse, Fulham Road, Parish of St. Luke Chelsea: The so-called 'Fulham Road Workhouse'

I had a quick look for Grainger in the Fullham Workhouse records (well, the records of the workhouse on Fullham Rd if that is the right one?) Not come across him there yet though.

A bit confusing this one.
Fulham Workhouse was on Fulham Palace Road. The workhouse that is on Fulham Road is St George Hanover Square Workhouse. So that may be why you haven't found him yet.

There are three Poor Law Constituencies / Registration Districts that are involved, - in some way, shape, or form - in this somewhat confusing set of circumstances:

Populations, in Accordance with the Census of England & Wales, 1891

Fulham Poor Law Union / Registration District
- The Parish of St. Paul Hammersmith: 97,239
- The Parish of All Saints Fulham: 91,639

Total: 188,878

~~~

Chelsea Poor Law Parish / Registration District
- The Parish of St. Luke Chelsea: 96,253

Total: 96,253

~~~

St. George Hanover Square Poor Law Union / Registration District
- The Parish of St. George Hanover Square, Liberty of the City of Westminster: 78,364
- The Combined Parish of St. Margaret & St. John the Evangelist, Liberty of the City of Westminster: 55,539
----- {The Parish of St. Margaret, Liberty of the City of Westminster: 21,433}
--------- {The Parish of St. Margaret (Detached), Liberty of the City of Westminster: ?}
--------- {The Parish of St. Margaret, City of Westminster¹: ?}
----- {The Parish of St. John the Evangelist, City of Westminster¹: 34,106}
- The Close of the Collegiate Church of St. Peter, City of Westminster¹: 235

Total: 134,138

¹ The City of Westminster, which consisted of the 'base' portion (i.e. the non-detached portion) of the Parish of St. Margaret, the Parish of St. John the Evangelist, and the Close of the Collegiate Church of St. Peter, was situated within the boundaries of the Liberty of the City of Westminster.

The so-called 'Fulham Road Workhouse' belonged to neither the Fulham Poor Law Union, nor the Chelsea Poor Law Parish - i.e. the parish, in which it was situated; but, instead, belonged to the St. George Hanover Square Poor Law Union.

~~~

I will expound on this somewhat confusing set of circumstances, as it is actually more of an 'anomaly' than the seemingly typical instances of ... let's say ... the Whitechapel Union Workhouse being situated within the boundaries of the Hamlet of Mile End Old Town.

I will do this, when I am able to set aside the necessary amount of time.

~~~

But, for now; the 'bottom line':

The Pall Mall Gazette references, ...

These are the dates Grainger was in the workhouses according to the PMG ...

[ATTACH]12206[/ATTACH]

... to "Fulham Workhouse" are very misleading.

They would suggest, more or less, that prior to his admissions thereto, and upon his discharges therefrom, Grainger was spending his time in the vicinity of 'Fulham'.

However, I am inclined to believe that he was probably spending that time in the City of Westminster, in the vicinity of 'Millbank'.

--- More to Follow ---

[Chris]

The recent discussion about William Grant on jtrforums.com relates to Jabez Spencer Balfour's account of a Ripper suspect, which was quoted by Tom Wescott in his article "Le Grand: The New Prime Suspect," in Casebook number 2 last year.

Balfour said the suspect was a fellow prisoner who had been pointed out to him "at Portland, and afterwards at Parkhurst." Tom identified this prisoner as Charles Le Grand, who served time at both Portland and Parkhurst. If I understand correctly, the fact that Le Grand served time at Portland was a deduction from a newspaper report from 1892 which described a prisoner at Portland, unnamed but identifiable from the description of his crime as Le Grand. Balfour and Le Grand are known to have been at Parkhurst Prison at the same time, as they are both listed there in the 1901 census.

Recently Debra Arif suggested the alternative possibility that the man pointed out to Balfour might have been William Grant, who was also at Parkhurst at the date of the 1901 census:

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

However, Grant was not known to have served time at Portland; nor, for that matter, was Le Grand known to have been at Portland at the same time as Balfour.

Jabez Spencer Balfour's book, "My Prison Life" (1907) is available at the Internet Archive:

http://www.archive.org/details/myprisonlife00balfgoog

According to this account, he was admitted to Portland on 10 June 1896 (pp. 52, 64), and remained there until 8 November 1897 (p. 104).

Today I checked the Home Office correspondence register for 1896 (HO 46/117) for details of Criminal Petitions received in that year. Le Grand seems to have been a prolific writer of petitions. There were no fewer than four from him, under the name Charles Grande - on 23/27 February, 22 May, 20 July and 28 September. This is definitely the right Grande, because the file number - 66343 - is the same one that is written beside his name in the Calendar of Prisoners for 1891 (HO 140/130). All four were written from Portland, so Le Grand was indeed at that prison at the same time as Balfour.

There is also a petition, on 28 May, from one W. Grant. Again, we can check that this is the man we are interested in because the file number - A57340 - is the same one that appears beside his name in the Calendar of Prisoners for 1895 (HO 140/162). And this petition was also written from Portland. The date is less than a fortnight before that of Balfour's arrival, so we can be fairly certain that William Grant, too, was at Portland with Balfour.

Below is an extract from the register, showing the records of Le Grand/Grande's and Grant's petitions in May:

[Chris]

First, here is the indictment for his trial at the Central Criminal Court in 1895, with the list of witnesses on the back [CRIM 4/1118, no 62].

This answers one question that was asked over the way on jtrforums.com - who was the prison warder, who identified the knife as one that had belonged to Grant/Grainger when he was in custody for a similar offence at Holloway?

A search in the 1901 census for the last-but-one name on the list of witnesses, Alfred Wallington, brings up a man of that name described as a
Prison Warder, aged 37, born at St James, London, living with his wife Harriet at 438 Caledonian Road, Lower Holloway, Islington.

In 1891 he was recorded as Alfred H. Wallington, Prison Warder, living with Harriet at 5 Pentonville Cottages, Lower Holloway. Apparently he was the Alfred Henry Wallington who married Harriet Jane Crawford at Wandsworth in the first quarter of 1890.

[Debra A]

Thanks for all this information, Chris.
Excellent work, as always.

[Chris]

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

[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 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 1907 (MEPO 6/18):


This records the final expiry of his sentence.

[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.