Harriet Tarrant/Lamb - nee Baxter or Bray or Goldspring??? - Southwark 1870/80's

[jonwarrn]

You might still be able to get three page views/downloads for free when you register for the BNA though? You used to be able to anyway.

Looking again at those reports, another mystery, sorry about this -
The story is in a few papers, certainly two Manchester ones, one in Yorkshire, and an Edinburgh paper as well, and is much the same in each if not identical.

However, there is also a report in The Daily News, 20 Nov 1876
This one says, under "Alleged Murder in the Borough"
On Saturday morning Mr. Payne opened an enquiry at the St. George's workhouse, Mint-street, into the cause of death of Mary Pratt, aged 55. Harriet Lamb said deceased was her mother, and was the widow of a tinker and grinder, and lived with a man called Edward Rowland, at 40, Kent-street. She gave way occasionally to habits of drunkenness..........She, Rowland, and a man named Gumble, used to travel the country together.

And there is a death in Dec 1876, St Saviour of a Mary Pratt, age 55!

Have they mixed up to two different inquests? Where would they get a different name from?
I think Mary Ann Hunter is probably the right person, but best if you can get to see those different reports yourself!
John

[avm228]

Curiouser and curiouser!

I would be inclined to think the London paper (Daily News) is more likely than the others to have got its facts right, as the story may well have been written by someone who attended the inquest.  An error may have crept into the (less detailed) syndicated story reported in the provincial papers.

[avm228]

I fear these people with their itinerant lifestyles may be tricky to trace over time.

One witness mentioned is Caroline Brewington, a paramour of James Gumble.  She may be the same Caroline Brewington (b 1845, hawker) who was admitted to Newington workhouse on 20 Jan 1877, together with Phoebe Brewington (b 1875). Vagrancy records from the same time also show a 4-yr-old Thomas Brewington with them.

[avm228]

The Gumbles (James 45 b Essex, Caroline 40 b Chatham Kent, plus children including Thomas & Phoebe, all enumerated as Gumble rather than Brewington) can be found in a "Gypsey Tent" on waste land west of Dartmouth Park Hill in 1881.  District is St Pancras.  There are several Gumbles in neighbouring tents too.

If James Gumble could be found in 1871 it may help in tracing Edward 'Ned' Rowland and possibly also Mary and Harriet.  Travelling people, however, were very often missed by the census.

[meljade]

My very brief look so far for a Mary Ann Pratt, Harriett Pratt (if this indeed was her maiden name) and Edward Rowland has yielded very little - perhaps more questions now!  There was a Mary Ann Hunter that died also in Dec 1876 however she was listed as age 68.  Perhaps this is how some of the newspapers became confused.

[avm228]

She was just Mary Pratt rather than Mary Ann, according to the report and the death registration. But I agree they are thoroughly elusive

[jonwarrn]

Hi
I think avm228 was right, Mary Pratt, not Mary Ann Hunter!
Southwark inquests for that time survive and are at the LMA, I believe. I know there is a microfilm index to them, which I once looked at (didn't find anyone I was interested in)

Sensation!!
The story is online, with a photograph - they claim its Mary Pratt sitting on the steps of caravan in Battersea, shortly before she was murdered.
‘That’s old Mary Pradd, wot was murdered in the Borough’
can be found here -
https://historyhackblog.wordpress.com/tag/kent-street/

Could Edward Rowland have been in Battersea in 1871, living in a tent? Age 60, Hawker, born Kent.  He had a wife and daughter with him.

John

[avm228]

John you are on a roll - finding a photo is just fabulous!

[avm228]

Yes I think Edward Rowland (Rowling in 1861) b abt 1811-1815 Canterbury must be the one.  There is a 10 Mar 1816 Canterbury baptism for an Edward Rowland.

His daughter Rachael, 16 in 1871, appears to have gone on to marry (as Rachael Rolling) to John "Gumball", son of James, in 1874.  They appear, as Gumble, in caravans in Putney in 1881.