Sarah and Maurice Lewis

[Sam Flynn]

Living at 17 Brunswick street, St George in the East in 1891 same family one extra young son Jacob.....Still a tailor...

Can't quite see a middle aged, gainfully employed head of a Jewish family playing a somewhat childish gambling game for pennies in a predominantly gentile slum.

[Paddy]

Another Morris Lewis ...Criminal records

From Ancestry Criminal records ......

Morris Lewis acquitted of Larceny from a dwelling house and receiving
2nd Jan 1889 at Clerkenwell

Pat

[Paddy]

Spelman street Morris Lewis 1891 census

21 Spelman street
Morris Lewis Tailor aged 50 with
Rachel 47
Daughter Sarah 11 years old.
Pat..........

[Sam Flynn]

From Ancestry Criminal records ......

Morris Lewis acquitted of Larceny from a dwelling house and receiving
2nd Jan 1889 at Clerkenwell

That's closer to the mark. Dorset Street and its environs were, after all, described as "vicious and semi-criminal" by Charles Booth. Perhaps Maurice/Morris Lewis was a saint among sinners, but we've got to start somewhere!

[Debra A]

From Ancestry Criminal records ......

Morris Lewis acquitted of Larceny from a dwelling house and receiving
2nd Jan 1889 at Clerkenwell

Pat

I liked this one too. He was aged 22 and a tailor.
The charge was the theft of property from the dwelling of Abraham Abrahams.

[Sam Flynn]

I liked this one too. He was aged 22 and a tailor.
The charge was the theft of property from the dwelling of Abraham Abrahams.

A 22 year old petty thief sounds like just the sort of person we might expect to find playing pitch and toss in Dorset Street. Gawd pity their plight, mind you - times were hard.

[Paddy]

Morris Lewis

Morning Advertiser (London)
31 December 1888

https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/morning_advertiser/18881231.html?printer=true

Pat

[Paddy]

The above post regarding Morris Lewis is not in connection with Millers court...
It is a court case and sounds like it could be the Morris Lewis.

Pat....

[Robert]

Lewis was found not guilty.

[rjpalmer]

I'm with you, Robert. I wouldn't want to call the lad a thief considering that he was acquitted. However, his age is a lot more palatable for a pitcher and tosser (if I can use that phrase!) than a middle-aged family man.

Of course, all of this is contingent on willfully changing the name 'Maurice' to 'Morris.' As some probably know, there is one actual Maurice Lewis, aged 19, living in Lambeth in 1881, the son of a out-of-work grocer. I never found him in 1891, but then I never put much effort into it.

So, to recap, we have a murderer that has not been identified; a victim that has not been identified (other than she went by the name 'Mary Kelly'); a key person of interest (Astrakhan) who has not been identified; and at least two witnesses that have not been identified (Hutchinson and Lewis). Meanwhile, thirteen decades have passed, so the trail is getting a wee bit cold. Sounds like a bit of a puzzle. Yet, all and all, the future is bright.

[Joshua Rogan]

Of course, all of this is contingent on willfully changing the name 'Maurice' to 'Morris.' As some probably know, there is one actual Maurice Lewis, aged 19, living in Lambeth in 1881, the son of a out-of-work grocer. I never found him in 1891, but then I never put much effort into it.

I'm not sure about that, RJ. The early reports that carry his sighting do refer to him as Morris Lewis, or just Lewis. But the IPN interview on the 17th calls him Maurice Lewis.

[Paddy]

maurice Lewis 1881

I think found Maurice Lewis's father Robert Henry Lewis in Hackney Workhouse in 1887. It states his wife Jane (as in 1881 census) was living in Homerton at that time.
Pat......

[Sam Flynn]

Of course, all of this is contingent on willfully changing the name 'Maurice' to 'Morris.'

Unless Lewis showed them some form of ID, I daresay the press reporters were at liberty to spell his forename in whichever way they wished.

[rjpalmer]

Really. I would have thought you would have pronounced it more in the French style over yonder. I guess I was mistaken.

[GUT]

Really. I would have thought you would have pronounced it more in the French style over yonder. I guess I was mistaken.

Some will pronounce it more French Moreeece others Morris.