The Horn of Plenty.

The Horn of Plenty pub on the eastern corner of Dorset |Street (changed to Duval Street).

Whitechapel Tavern

Gustave Dore 1869 Whitechapel Tavern. An intimidating gang strut centre of the image. Is that leader pulling a knife from his coat pocket?

Perhaps Mary Kelly didn't say she came from Wales

Perhaps Mary Kelly didn't say she came from Wales, but said she was Welsh. Although, there's not much space between the births for a daughter.


Henerey Welsh
England and Wales Census, 1881
Name     Henerey Welsh
Event Type     Census
Event Date     1881
Event Place     Bedwelty, Monmouthshire, Wales
Registration District     Bedwelty
Residence Note     Iron Row
Gender     Male
Age     19
Marital Status (Original)     Single
Occupation     Labourer In Iron Works
Relationship to Head of Household     Son
Birth Year (Estimated)     1862
Birthplace     Limerick, Ireland

Household
   
Role
   
Gender
   
Age
   
Birthplace
James Welsh           Head     M      40     Limerick, Ireland
Johannah Welsh     Wife       F      37      Limerick, Ireland
Henerey Welsh       Son       M     19       Limerick, Ireland
Thomas Welsh        Son       M     17       Limerick, Ireland
Joseph Welsh          Son       M     15       Tredegar, Monmouthshire, England
John Welsh             Son       M     12       Tredegar, Monmouthshire, England
Patrick Welsh         Son       M      5        Tredegar, Monmouthshire, England
James Welsh           Son       M     1         Tredegar, Monmouthshire, England

The Mary Kelly story

This is the cover to the Mary Kelly story, painted on a canvas dated to 1886, Rathbone Place just to the south of Cleveland Street and where, apparently, Mary Kelly was sent to work! I do have a pair. I might paint the interior of Miller's Court on the 2nd canvas. Not the blood and flesh. I'm not into gore.
No idea what font to use for the cover but as I haven't decided on a title, and haven't begun editing, there's no rush.

What's in a name?

Okay, not only were most of the Irish records burnt, middle of the nineteenth century, and the spelling not-standardised, but written in Latin (sometimes). e.g The Latin “J” was written “I” regardless of grammatical changes in names, little things such as Ioannes and Johannes being John are not too easily seen.
Parish records were either written in English or Latin. Never in Irish. The surname ALWAYS retains the English spelling (or a phonetic variation – the same surname can be spelled differently in any set of records, probably depending on the way that the person writing it spelled the name, and whether that person was a local to the area or not.) The rules of Latin are not necessarily followed, the spelling of the name changes and does not become what it should become. That is to say, Latin has rules and with those rules the basic name will change indicating a parent or a child. The child’s name will be given in it’s basic form – that is the nominative form, but the end of the parents name will change somewhat (the genative form). Putting this as simply as possible, the child may be called after one of the parents, but the spelling of each name while it looks almost the same will end differently.
So, I wonder ,what is the Latin search for Mary Jane? Maria = Mary, Maureen, Molly, Marie. Jane = Joanna, Johanna, Joan, Jeanne, Jeanette, Joanne, Sinead, Siobhan, Jean and Honora.
Was Mary Jane being mysterious or had she mystery thrust upon her?

Synchronicity

Synchronicity is a concept, first explained by psychiatrist Carl Jung, which holds that events are "meaningful coincidences" if they occur with no causal relationship, yet seem to be meaningfully related.
I’m not a great one for looking for signs and symbols. I don’t think Jack the Ripper, raised a leg to denote Masonic rituals, or Kelly survived the attack and was involved with the future King. The hacking of the women’s bodies was just that, a frenzied attack from a man that had lost control because of damage sustained to his frontal lobes.
But here is a peculiar thing, as per Jung. I, nearing the end of my book on Mary Kelly and working out the design for the cover, decided I’d paint a picture.
I have had a couple of old canvases knocking about for ages. Anyway, I painted an image of Miller’s Court on one of the pair of canvases. Just to say I haven’t destroyed anything precious, a particular muddy, amateur, Victorian pair of landscapes.
Painting finished, bar the moody glow from a gas lamp. I flip over the canvas and Windsor and Newton, Rathbone Place  is stamped on the reverse. The canvas is datable because of this mark to pre 1886. This address is adjacent to Cleveland Street, which I’ve written about in my book, and a mere hundred yards from where Mary Kelly and Bridget Kelly lived.
They could, in 1886, have passed the shop where this prepared canvas was once for sale.

Mary Kelly's portrait?

Mary Kelly's portrait?

Eddowes used the alias 'Mary Ann Kelly.'

Census 1871
John Tagert              Head          M       34     Ireland
Mary Tagert            Wife            F        33     Ireland
James Tagert           Son             M       14     Ireland
Catherine Tagert     Daughter     F        12     Ireland
Paterick Tagert       Son             M        10     Ireland
John Tagert             Son             M         9     Ireland
Mary A Tagert        Daughter     F         7      Ireland
Henry Tagert          Son              M        4      Ireland
Daniel Tagert         Son              M        0      Gateshead, Durham
Bridget Nichol      Visitor

Includes all the information except the Kelly surname: John as a father, Mary (A) at the 'correct' age, a brother, Henry, and Irish connection. Five brothers, one sister, and by the age of the parents, they could easily have several more boys before 1881.

Eddowes used the alias 'Mary Ann Kelly.' Another coincidence is that early press reports of the Miller's Court victim identified her as 'Lizzie Fisher', which was the name of Eddowes's sister. June 1889 Elizabeth Jackson, (murder victim -either she, nor her killer, were identified) had the name 'L.E. Fisher' written on the waistband of her drawers. They belonged to a domestic servant at Kirkley; near Lowestoft, and had been sold as rags by her mother while staying near her daughter in November last (1888). She was traced to Byker, near Newcastle, her father, who'd marked the clothing, and recognized his handwriting, to Bill Quay, on the Tyne.

Bill Quay is just 3.7 miles from Gateshead, home of the Tagerts. I'm not saying it means anything, but interesting nonetheless.

N.B The Tagerts became the Taggarts and moved to Liverpool. The family didn't increase and Mary is described as a laundress. 

Jack jump up and kiss me

Damask Rose and a Purple-and-Blue Wild Violet (Heartsease) and used to adorn the coffin of Mary Kelly.
The synonyms of the flower are, I think, quite ironic in the circumstances:
Synonyms---Wild Pansy. Love-Lies-Bleeding. Love-in-Idleness. Live-in-Idleness. Loving Idol. Love Idol. Cull Me. Cuddle Me. Call-me-to-you. Jack-jump-up-and-kiss-me. Meet-me-in-the-Entry. Kiss-her-in-the-Buttery. Three-Faces-under-a-Hood. Kit-run-in-the-Fields. Pink-o'-the-Eye. Kit-run-about. Godfathers and Godmothers. Stepmother. Constancy. Pink-eyed-John. Bouncing Bet. Flower o'luce. Bird's Eye. Bullweed. Viola ref.

Meet me in the entry (entry an alley, especially of a covered passageway). Jack jump up and kiss me. Cull me and love lies bleeding. Those four phrases sum up Mary Kelly's death.

Mary Kelly sang, 'Only a violet I plucked from my mother's grave' just hours before she was slain.

Considering Mary Kelly's affiliation with violets, wouldn't it be a fitting gesture if someone sprinkled heartsease seeds about her grave ...

Widow and child

The Herts. Advertiser & St. Albans Times on 10.11 describes Kelly's son as around 10-11 years of age and adds: "The story of the crime current among the neighbours is that this morning - what time cannot at present be ascertained, but at any rate after daylight - she took a man home to her own room, presumably for an immoral purpose."

This stated age of the child would tie in with Mary's, John Davies's death, (1880) and reported to leave a widow and child -'who will be well tended by the Friendly Society'.