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For obvious reasons, the search for the omnipresent but elusive collier “Davies” has thus far been predicated on the basis of the surname (which Kelly presumably was clear enough about in order for Barnett to reproduce in the days after the murder), although Barnett tends to switch from Davis to Davies to “unknown”, which doesn’t help.
Based on the sequence of events as deduced from Barnetts accounts, the Welsh mining disaster must have occurred somewhere in the vicinity of 1881 or 1882, but in fact 1881 was notable in respect to the lack of fatalities for that year. A superficial search in the online newspaper archives for Wales produces an explosion at a Dowlais Company-owned colliery, killing one John Davies, aged 24, as this South Wales Daily News- article from 1 Sept. 1881, reports:
Now, I do believe this particular Davies- as well as his unfortunate widow- were researched before, although the only thread I could find on this particular colliery explosion identified no less than two possible candidate-widows, both of whom could only be fitted into the Mary Kelly-profile with great imagination. In any case, the search did not appear to come to any definitive conclusions (https://forum.casebook.org/forum/rip...kellys-husband).
The other Dowlais explosion I could find in South Wales-newspaper reports from the time was this one from The Cardiff Times, occurring just a little over a month prior to the Davies-one, and was presided over by the very same deputy-coroner:
Curiously, the colliery explosion at the Penydarren Pit is not mentioned in the frequently used peoples collection mining accident-index, perhaps because the only fatality in this particular accident was a hauler and not a collier, and the reason why it went uninvestigated by researchers because the deceased name was Evans (or Williams) and not Davies. Although Barnett in several instances, including at the inquest, mentioned a Davies or Davis, we must also keep in mind that the Penny Illustrated Paper (17 November 1888) has Barnett stating:
‘(...) when she was but little over sixteen years of age she married a collier, but I do not remember his name. He was killed in an explosion in the mine, and then Marie went to Cardiff with her cousin, living an immoral life’, leaving us to wonder exactly how confident Barnett was in the telling.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to find this William Evans (or Williams), matching the address description (no. 10 Back of New Inn, Penydarren) in the 1881 census, but then I'm terrible at censuses.
Anyway, because this particular explosion occurred the very year in which the census records would be updated, I would imagine this William Evans (or William Williams) and his widow should not be impossible to trace.
It has been argued, and rightly so, that even if Mary only assumed the Kelly-name after her departure from Wales, the particulars from the rest of the story (such as the husbands name) would have rung a bell for any family members of the deceased Welsh collier, as the name was widely publicized far and wide throughout the kingdom in the days and weeks following the murder. But if her husband was actually a member of the Evans-clan, for example, the connection would not necessarily be obvious, especially since the papers circulating in the South Wales area would carry the name of Carmarthen and Carmarthenshire from the Barnett inquest testimony as possible places of origin of the deceased. It would not only explain why no family members would have come forward to claim kinship, it would also explain why queries by reporters and the police to locate the family members failed to produce results. The Dowlais collieries at Aberbargoed and Penydarren were close neighbours, so close in fact that it lends some support to the notion that a widow of a haulier killed at a pit explosion (in an attempt to erase all traces to her past, but without feigning the story itself) could have picked the Davies-accident as an analogue to the accident which killed her husband William Evans. I'm not saying,of course, that this particular miner is the husband we've been looking for, but I am saying that we should consider looking obliquely at the tale Mary told to Barnett (and others), and broadening the parameters of our search.
Based on the sequence of events as deduced from Barnetts accounts, the Welsh mining disaster must have occurred somewhere in the vicinity of 1881 or 1882, but in fact 1881 was notable in respect to the lack of fatalities for that year. A superficial search in the online newspaper archives for Wales produces an explosion at a Dowlais Company-owned colliery, killing one John Davies, aged 24, as this South Wales Daily News- article from 1 Sept. 1881, reports:
Now, I do believe this particular Davies- as well as his unfortunate widow- were researched before, although the only thread I could find on this particular colliery explosion identified no less than two possible candidate-widows, both of whom could only be fitted into the Mary Kelly-profile with great imagination. In any case, the search did not appear to come to any definitive conclusions (https://forum.casebook.org/forum/rip...kellys-husband).
The other Dowlais explosion I could find in South Wales-newspaper reports from the time was this one from The Cardiff Times, occurring just a little over a month prior to the Davies-one, and was presided over by the very same deputy-coroner:
Curiously, the colliery explosion at the Penydarren Pit is not mentioned in the frequently used peoples collection mining accident-index, perhaps because the only fatality in this particular accident was a hauler and not a collier, and the reason why it went uninvestigated by researchers because the deceased name was Evans (or Williams) and not Davies. Although Barnett in several instances, including at the inquest, mentioned a Davies or Davis, we must also keep in mind that the Penny Illustrated Paper (17 November 1888) has Barnett stating:
‘(...) when she was but little over sixteen years of age she married a collier, but I do not remember his name. He was killed in an explosion in the mine, and then Marie went to Cardiff with her cousin, living an immoral life’, leaving us to wonder exactly how confident Barnett was in the telling.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to find this William Evans (or Williams), matching the address description (no. 10 Back of New Inn, Penydarren) in the 1881 census, but then I'm terrible at censuses.
Anyway, because this particular explosion occurred the very year in which the census records would be updated, I would imagine this William Evans (or William Williams) and his widow should not be impossible to trace.
It has been argued, and rightly so, that even if Mary only assumed the Kelly-name after her departure from Wales, the particulars from the rest of the story (such as the husbands name) would have rung a bell for any family members of the deceased Welsh collier, as the name was widely publicized far and wide throughout the kingdom in the days and weeks following the murder. But if her husband was actually a member of the Evans-clan, for example, the connection would not necessarily be obvious, especially since the papers circulating in the South Wales area would carry the name of Carmarthen and Carmarthenshire from the Barnett inquest testimony as possible places of origin of the deceased. It would not only explain why no family members would have come forward to claim kinship, it would also explain why queries by reporters and the police to locate the family members failed to produce results. The Dowlais collieries at Aberbargoed and Penydarren were close neighbours, so close in fact that it lends some support to the notion that a widow of a haulier killed at a pit explosion (in an attempt to erase all traces to her past, but without feigning the story itself) could have picked the Davies-accident as an analogue to the accident which killed her husband William Evans. I'm not saying,of course, that this particular miner is the husband we've been looking for, but I am saying that we should consider looking obliquely at the tale Mary told to Barnett (and others), and broadening the parameters of our search.
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