Read Online Complete History of Jack the Ripper by Philip Sudgen - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Philip Sudgen
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marriage’s failure was Nichols’ affair with Polly’s nurse when Polly was last confined, that the couple separated (the eldest boy subsequently living with Walker and the four remaining children staying with their father) and that Nicholslater sired another family by the nurse. This tale smeared Nichols in 1888 and, since it continues to be regularly trotted out in the books, still does today. Yet it was a considerable distortion of the truth and when Nichols himself appeared before the inquest he moved swiftly to refute it. ‘No, sir, that is false,’ he told the foreman of the jury, ‘I have a certificate of my boy’s birth two years after that.’ Curiously, neither here nor anywhere else does Nichols seem to have denied that an affair had actually taken place, merely that it had been the direct cause of the failure of his marriage. And certainly, if – as Nichols implies – his affair occurred when Polly was pregnant with Eliza Sarah in 1876 then the marriage survived it by a good three years. Interviewed by the press, Nichols elaborated: ‘I did not leave my wife during her confinement and go away with a nurse-girl. The dead woman deserted me four or five times, if not six. The last time she left me without any home, and with five children, the youngest one year and four months. I kept myself with the children where I was living for two and a half years before I took on with anybody, and not till after it was proved at Lambeth Police Court that she had misconducted herself.’
Walker’s statement that Edward John, Polly’s eldest child, was living with him in 1888 inspired a news report that Nichols had had so little to do with his son that when they met at Polly’s funeral he did not recognize him. It has also led modern writers to infer that the boy decisively took his mother’s part when the marriage of his parents disintegrated. This, too, may be inaccurate. In his press statement Nichols insisted that Edward John remained with him until as late as 1886: ‘He left home of his own accord two years and a half ago, and I have always been on speaking terms with him. Only two or three months ago I saw him, and last week received two letters from him asking me if I knew of any work for him.’
From 6 September 1880 to 31 May 1881 Polly lived in the Lambeth Workhouse. There is then a gap of nearly a year in her record. During this time perhaps she took up with another man. In any event we know that Nichols paid Polly an allowance of 5s. a week which he stopped in 1881 or 1882 upon learning that she was living with another man. Apparently the Guardians of the Parish of Lambeth, to whom Polly then became chargeable, summonsed him to show cause why he should not be ordered to contribute to her supportbut his plea that she had been living with someone else prevailed and the summons was dismissed. Thereafter Polly lost touch with her husband. In a statement made at the Mitcham Workhouse on 13 February 1888 she declared that she didn’t know where he had been living for the last six or seven years, and on 3 September Nichols informed the inquest that he had not seen Polly at all for three years.
Many of Polly’s remaining years were spent in workhouses and doss-houses. Between 24 April 1882 and 24 March 1883 she sheltered continuously in the Lambeth Workhouse or its infirmary and she returned there for another twelve days on the following 21 May. Her name then disappears from workhouse records for another four years. The gap, again, reflects an attempt by Polly to better herself. For a short time she lived with her father. She was not ‘fast’ with men, he recalled, and was not in the habit of staying out late, but she drank heavily and they did not get on. Eventually they quarrelled and Polly left home. After that Walker heard that his daughter was living with a blacksmith named Thomas Stuart Drew in York Mews, 15 York Street, Walworth. He saw her for the last time in June 1886. His son had been burned to
Walker’s statement that Edward John, Polly’s eldest child, was living with him in 1888 inspired a news report that Nichols had had so little to do with his son that when they met at Polly’s funeral he did not recognize him. It has also led modern writers to infer that the boy decisively took his mother’s part when the marriage of his parents disintegrated. This, too, may be inaccurate. In his press statement Nichols insisted that Edward John remained with him until as late as 1886: ‘He left home of his own accord two years and a half ago, and I have always been on speaking terms with him. Only two or three months ago I saw him, and last week received two letters from him asking me if I knew of any work for him.’
From 6 September 1880 to 31 May 1881 Polly lived in the Lambeth Workhouse. There is then a gap of nearly a year in her record. During this time perhaps she took up with another man. In any event we know that Nichols paid Polly an allowance of 5s. a week which he stopped in 1881 or 1882 upon learning that she was living with another man. Apparently the Guardians of the Parish of Lambeth, to whom Polly then became chargeable, summonsed him to show cause why he should not be ordered to contribute to her supportbut his plea that she had been living with someone else prevailed and the summons was dismissed. Thereafter Polly lost touch with her husband. In a statement made at the Mitcham Workhouse on 13 February 1888 she declared that she didn’t know where he had been living for the last six or seven years, and on 3 September Nichols informed the inquest that he had not seen Polly at all for three years.
Many of Polly’s remaining years were spent in workhouses and doss-houses. Between 24 April 1882 and 24 March 1883 she sheltered continuously in the Lambeth Workhouse or its infirmary and she returned there for another twelve days on the following 21 May. Her name then disappears from workhouse records for another four years. The gap, again, reflects an attempt by Polly to better herself. For a short time she lived with her father. She was not ‘fast’ with men, he recalled, and was not in the habit of staying out late, but she drank heavily and they did not get on. Eventually they quarrelled and Polly left home. After that Walker heard that his daughter was living with a blacksmith named Thomas Stuart Drew in York Mews, 15 York Street, Walworth. He saw her for the last time in June 1886. His son had been burned to
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