Ripperologist February 2008 issue

[Sam Flynn]

And then we have Mainwaring, pronounced Mannering.

...or "Main-WORR-ing" according to Private Cheeseman (actor Talfryn Thomas, using the "echt" Welsh pronunciation and emphasis )

[Robert]

Gareth, he was one of the actors in that all-Welsh version of the Government Inspector that I told you about. He played the postmaster.

[aspallek]

Aw, I'm just going to call him Hank. Does anyone want to dicuss the significance of this find for the case? Oh, we're going to do that Sunday on the Podcast.

[needler]

Brief Interlude

I beg to report the Brits DO NOT have exclusivity on weird pronunciations. Having been born in Texas (a whole OTHER country!), I've been conversant with strange pronunciation since birth, and, while we're at it, just ask a Massachusetts resident about some of THEIR town names some day. But I digress; town spelled BOWIE is pronounced BOW-EE (as in a long or cross bow), NOT BOW-EE (as in a limb of a tree or OUCH!)...WHEW!! Town called MEXIA is pronounced ME (as in meth) HAY (as in hay) UH (as in uh-oh), NOT MEXEEUH. The town located just north of Lexington, Virginia is spelled STAUNTON, and pronounced STANTON: and I want to place this one out there for the next Ripper quiz: how would one pronounce a place called BOTETOURT? One last parting shot is the name spelled Beauchamps(s), pronounced all over Texas, and probably Louisiana, too, as BEECHUM. Not the strangest, but certainly makes one go "hmmmmmm" I won't go on, thankfully. So now go back to Farquharson and Mannering and have a lovely March.

Cheers,

Judy

[aspallek]

Missoui has a few as well, mostly due to unfamiliarity with how the French names of our heritage should be pronounced:

Bois D'Arc = Bo-dark in Missouri

Robidoux = Ruby-doo in Missouri

and, of course, St. Louis = St. Lewis (not St. Louie) in Missouri

Only in Missouri!

[needler]

Andy....it's bodark in Texas, too (but it's Osage Orange in the Northeast), and it's a really nice wood to work on a lathe, but I forgot the best of all if we're talking regional oddities. In Connecticut, the name is pronounced Grenitch (Greenwich) and in Rhode Island, right next door, it's pronounced GREENWITCH. Fun, huh? But I would bet Ally will move this thread OUT of the RIP's message board..........

Judy

[Supe]

Judy,

Yes, Connecticut and Rhode Island abut each other, though Greenwich in Connecticut is the length of the state away from that in Rhody. More interesting is that many residents of Stamford CT, which is next door to Greenwhich, pronounce it "Green-witch." Go figure.

Of course, we in Conn. pronounce our river the "Thames" not "Temz." The street in New York is "House-tun" and the city in Texas "Huest-un" and so it goes.

As it is, much of the way place names are pronounced in the States depends on where the first settlers came from. Indeed, the famed Boston accent has been traced to the "Norfolk whine" of ages past. Fascinating stuff, but you are right, this conversation really belonmgs in Pub Talk.

Don.

[Robert]

Andy, I see that Farquharson was on the list of invitees to Lord Wimborne's Ball - the ball that Monty should have attended.

[aspallek]

Andy, I see that Farquharson was on the list of invitees to Lord Wimborne's Ball - the ball that Monty should have attended.

I didn't notice that! Thanks for pointing it out. Always one stone left unturned. Clearly they travelled in the same cirlces.

Ed. - While Rev. & Mrs. Lonsdale were not on the list, as they were very newly married (in fact, it may have been on the day of their wedding), Katherine's parents (Mr. & Mrs. Glyn) seem to have been invited. I'm not ruling out a connection between Farquharson and the Druitt's via Lonsdale since Kitty was from Blandford which is only six miles from Farquharson's home. However, the MP likely knew the Druitts well himself.

[Johnr]

Pronounce "Canowindra"...

Dear Andy and All,
For once, I will not stray into an immediate tangent about Australia, where I live and the strange mispronounciation by local White Australians of Indiginous
Aboriginal Australia nomenclature.
Suffice to say, I have a theory, the British devised bizarrely pronounced place names and surnames as a surreptitious means of weeding out spies and interlopers in the Old Days.
Congratulations Andy Spallek on your discovery of the identity of the West of England Member who first spoke of JTR as the "son of a surgeon".I have read that and other interesting articles in Ripperologist 88, and concur with Ally's wonderful summation.
Could you please tell us how long you have been sitting on your discovery Andy?
And how did you locate it? Have you checked London regionals? And Cheltenham and Somerset and Dorset papers? Particularly when HRF died in 1895?
What were his recorded utterances about in the House of Commons?
Did he question the Home Secretary about a certain series of murders in the
Eastern suburbs of London?
Does he still have family in the West Country? Where are his papers?
What can Robert and "Captain Jack" and Chris divine from their oracles?
You describe your find as small; but it is potentially important, Andy. Well done. JOHN RUFFELS.

[Robert]

You'll have to write another article to answer that lot, Andy.

[Magpie]

I live in an area of mixed English, French, and Iroquois place names.

It's always amusing to hear tourists ask for directions to Cataraqui or Gananoque.

We also have the town of Delhi--pronounced "Del-High"

[aspallek]

Dear Andy and All,
Congratulations Andy Spallek on your discovery of the identity of the West of England Member who first spoke of JTR as the "son of a surgeon".I have read that and other interesting articles in Ripperologist 88, and concur with Ally's wonderful summation.
Could you please tell us how long you have been sitting on your discovery Andy?
And how did you locate it? Have you checked London regionals? And Cheltenham and Somerset and Dorset papers? Particularly when HRF died in 1895?
What were his recorded utterances about in the House of Commons?
Did he question the Home Secretary about a certain series of murders in the
Eastern suburbs of London?
Does he still have family in the West Country? Where are his papers?
What can Robert and "Captain Jack" and Chris divine from their oracles?
You describe your find as small; but it is potentially important, Andy. Well done. JOHN RUFFELS.

Whoa! Slow down there, cowboy! Seriously, those are fair questions to which I have few answers, at least at this point.

I discovered that Farquharson was the MP in question about a month ago. I then had chat via e-mail with Stewart Evans about it to get confirmation that the discovery was as significant as I believed. If anything, Stewart regards it as even more significant than I initially did (though I was excited about it, to be sure). I found the article just by going through various digital newspaper databases. I wasn't particularly looking for the MP at the time so you can imagine my excitement when I saw what I saw. I have been saying for quite some time that the next significant discoveries are going to come from these digital databases. Google Books, for example, is a treasure trove of information.

I've searched through all the newspaper databases I can access for more info about Farquharson. Unfortunately, it is hit and miss with these. I have not found any Dorset papers from that period archived yet. The closest I have found is in Hampshire. There is really very little about Farquharson. We know he was a breeder of Newfoundland dogs and that he owned tea and cocoa plantations in Ceylon. This and the fact that he was a graduate of Eton provide potential links to Macnaghten. He was not yet 30 when first elected to Parliament in 1885. He died at sea 10 years later of dysentery while returning from a visit to his plantations in Ceylon and was apparently buried at sea, hence no photos of his grave will be forthcoming. By 1881 he had two sons and there were seven servants in the household. I don't know what became of his descendants. I didn't find much about his action on the floor of Parliament, nothing significant. Not surprisingly, he was active in supporting agricultural legislation for his rural constituency. The records, however, need to be investigated further. We have to be careful here because there was another Farquharson in Parliament at the time, a doctor from Aberdeenshire.

Perhaps Chirs Scott would give us the census rundown of Henry Richard Farquharson.

[Chris George]

Hi Andy

I agree with your comment about Google Books being a wonderful source of period information. You may or may not have see the entry on Henry Richard Farquharson in The New House of Commons, with Biographical Notices of Its Members (1885), where it is stated that Farquharson was "a stanch [sic] advocate of free trade." I should think you should be able to find what the MP said during House of Commons debates in period issues of Hansard which includes a permanent record of such debates.

All the best

Chris

[aspallek]

Yes, I did see that. I'm not sure what the "free trade" issue in question was at that time, however. The "other" Farquharson seems to have been a supporter of Irish Unionists. It gets rather confusing.