Jack the Chipper

[seanr]

There's this record of Isaac Feldman being naturalised as a British citizen on 23rd of May 1892 under the 1870 Naturalisation Act https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/.../3818/data.pdf

The terms of this law seems to have been that in order to eligible for naturalisation one had to be resident in the UK for five years or served the Crown. Would running a Post Office count as serving the Crown? Perhaps Isaac arrived by early 1887?

Wouldn't prove he already had the premises at 2 Osborn Street by August 1888 though.

[seanr]

Harfield's Commercial Directory of the Jews from 1894 contains the following entry.

Feldman, J. and Co., 2, Osborn Street ; Exchange, banking, passage, and commission agents. Established 1886.

A pdf of this book can be found here and the entry is on page 115: https://www.tradeshouselibrary.org/u...ews_~_1894.pdf

Could this date be considered reliable, I wonder?

[seanr]

Perhaps the post office had yet to be founded? Later maps do show a PO on the corner site, certainly by 1895. Given the vibrant nature and rapid rate of change in the area, it's certainly possible that the grocer in 1888 later became a boot maker and then post office in the next few years.

I don't think Isaac Feldman was ever a boot maker. I think the building on the corner was number 1 and 2 Osborn Street. That's the building marked with 1 on the 1890 Goad Map.

The building marked 2 on the 1890 map is the boot maker and wholesaler's premises where Franklin Solomon lived and worked. That was numbered 1 Whitechapel Road at the time. Franklin Solomon was using the address of 1 Whitechapel Road as early as 1884 and he was there in 1888 to sign the petition and he's still there in the 1891 census.

The building marked 3 is the public house the Angel and Crown with the landlord Thomas Bullock. This was number 2 Whitechapel Road.

So, it remains intriguing to me that whoever was in 2 Osborn Street in 1888 did not sign the petition to the Home Secretary, given that each of their neighbours had done so. If Harfield's Commercial Directory of the Jews date of the establishment of Feldman's business being established in 1886, then this was Isaac Feldman.

[seanr]

Osborn Street was the street where Emma Smith was attacked. The Angel and Crown was the pub Martha Tabram had reputedly been drinking in and George Yard is close to this spot and the last sighting of Polly Nichols alive was two doors down from the Angel and Crown.

It's really clear why the police in 1888 would link these three crimes. Strange that some find a connection so easy to dismiss.

[Al Bundy's Eyes]

Cracking stuff Seanr, you've really got your teeth into this one.

[MrTwibbs]

Excellent research Seanr! thank you for all the helpful info!