Carole Anne Berry. Sleep Softly Mary Kelly

The Fisherman's Widow and Mary Kelly.

Several images are suggested as the framed print The Fisherman's Widow that Mary Kelly hung above her fireplace (Miller’s Court).

I think it is:

The Fisherman's Widow by J.H. Burgers, shown in the Winter Exhibition at the French Gallery, 120, Pall Mall.

Original engravings and etchings were an expensive item in the Victorian era . It is unlikely Mary would have kept an object that would, if pawned, supply her with needed cash. Wood engravings were a cheap and cheerful mode of decoration for the labouring classes. 
The Fisherman's Widow, an image printed for The Illustrated London News, was published on the 5th December 1868, twenty years before her murder, probably in shabby condition, and worthless. The complete publication sold for 1d.

The title was shown beneath the print. Any journalist could, without any knowledge of fine art, embellish his story with that detail.

There is something in the image that is evocative of the Irish migration caused by the potato famine, which would resonate with Mary Kelly ...

Jack the Ripper and the police.

'Every one of the murders showed a knowledge of police customs and rules...'

Dorset Street

Never touch Jack the Ripper.

Finally got the storyline. Hopefully, I can pull off the two twists. Mary Kelly has found her voice, and a chatty person she is too. God knows what I've rambled about for the last 70,000 words or whether any of it will make sense within the plot's context.
Reminder to self. Never touch Jack the Ripper, again ...
I thought I might write a book with my research!
Not ever ...
Jack the Ripper has left samples of his handwriting on a census form ...

Common-law wife

With a new snippet of information (I may use it for the title of my book) I am 100% convinced Bridget Kelly of Brymbo knew THE Mary Jane Kelly. I am also certain John Davies of Brymbo (died 1880) was the man Mary Kelly claimed she married. What I am not sure of is that Mary Ann Kelly of Brymbo, and Bridget's sister, is THE Mary Jane Kelly.
The 1881 census states she is still with her family. Not that that discounts her; people lie, or are mistaken.

My gut reaction is that The Mary Kelly was a common-law wife. If I discount Mary Ann Kelly, I'm left with three possibilities, which means I'll have to rewrite chunks of my story, but hey ho. After this I will place Jack The Ripper, Mary Kelly, and all his victims firmly in the out tray and write on a cheerier subject, a dystopian adventure.
I've written approximately 70,000 words. At this rate I'll have written 200,000 words and she'll have just left Ireland.

‘Johnto’ wasn’t her brother.

The inquest of  Mary Jane Kelly

•    Joseph Barnett: She said she had one sister, who was respectable, who travelled from market place to market place. This sister was very fond of her.
•    That’s a curious sentence. Does it mean she had just one sister? Or, alternatively, she had several sisters, of which, only one was respectable?
•    Joseph Barnett: There were six brothers living in London, and one was in the army. One of them was named Henry. I never saw the brothers to my knowledge.
•    Joseph Barnett doesn’t state that Henry was the brother in the army. One of her brothers was in the army. All six lived in London. Joseph never met her brothers. Ergo the man ‘Johnto’, who visited Mary at Millers Court, wasn’t her brother.
•    . . . The one obvious drawback with this hypothesis concerns the fact that 'Johnto' knew her as both Mary Kelly and the occupant of 13 Miller’s Court, rendering the concept of familial confusion somewhat less than cogent. Yet this objection remains valid only if the two really were brother and sister, a claim for which there is not the slightest evidence beyond the word of Kelly herself. - Garry Wroe
•    But Barnett states: ‘Johnto’ wasn’t her brother. He doubted whether he’d met any of her brothers.
•    She was sometimes visited by Joseph Fleming, the plasterer’s mate with whom she had formerly lived in Bethnal Green. And Maria Harvey spoke of another admirer, a coster named Joe, for whom Mary Jane retained a certain tendresse. So the truth of the matter may be that Johnto, far from being her brother, was yet another of these paramours. Perhaps he and Kelly met while he was on leave in London, enjoyed a night or two together, then began exchanging letters once he rejoined his regiment. They possibly planned to meet up again come Johnto’s next period of leave. This would have entailed Kelly setting up a smokescreen as a means of forestalling any objections raised by Barnett – hence the specious contention that Johnto was her brother. - Garry Wroe

Mary Kelly is Southern Irish? She has a brother called Henry!

Mary Kelly is Southern Irish? She has a brother called Henry!

Gaelic expressions of Henry.

Annraoi — (AHN-ree)(Teut) "ruler of an estate". Henry, Harry.
Anrai — Irish Gaelic form of Henry. Einrí.

Hannraoi — (HAN-ree)(Teut) "ruler of an estate". Henry, Einri (EHN-ree).

She has a father called John!

Gaelic expressions of John.

Seán — (SHAWN) "god's gracious gift"; Irish form of John, der. from Norman French name Jehan. Shaun, Shane, Sion, Shawn, Seaghan (SEE-a-gun).

Eóin — (OH-en or OH-een) "god's gracious gift". Irish form of Latin Johannes. Irish names Eoin and Sean both derive from Johannes. Sean, from the French Jehan, was introduced to Ireland by Norman French centureis after Johannes became an Irish name. John.

Evan — "young warrior"; Irish form of John. Ewan, Ev, Evin.

McCarthy states she received several letters from Ireland, presumably addressed to Mary Kelly. So, someone is either colluding with Mary, or that is her real name ... 

Maille — form of Molly, from Mary; "the perfect one".
Máire — (MAW-zhe, MAW-re or MEH-ree) "bitter"; Irish form of Mary. The name was considered too sacred to name a child and was not used before the 17th C. Children were given Mael Muire "devotee of Mary". Moira,

Mary Kelly was buried in Leytonstone on 19th November

Questions and answers.

• ·  Mary Kelly was buried in St Patrick's Catholic Cemetery, Leytonstone on 19th November, though not before searching inquiries in England, Ireland and Wales failed to turn up any member of her family. This is curious, especially as the international publicity that attended her demise brought to light no-one from her pre-London existence.
• ·  Yet someone knew Kelly, and of her whereabouts, since according to John McCarthy she occasionally received mail from Ireland. These letters, McCarthy believed, came from her mother.
• ·  He believed they did. Belief isn’t knowing. Bridget Davies lives in Dublin.
• ·  But another source, a Mrs Elizabeth Phoenix, sister-in-law of former landlady Mrs Carthy, insisted that Mary Jane’s parents had “discarded her”, a claim that suggests McCarthy was mistaken over the Irish correspondent’s identity.
• ·  McCarthy needn’t have been mistaken. Mary received letters with an Irish post mark. That he assumed the letters were from her mother, is his error. Mrs Elizabeth Phoenix is therefore correct.
• ·  Joe Barnett said that Kelly kept in touch with only one family member, a brother named Henry and to whom she referred as ‘Johnto’. Barnett also asserted that Johnto had visited Kelly at Miller’s Court on at least one occasion. If so, he must have acquired her address from somewhere. And if he had her address, it appears likely that he was the Irish correspondent.
• ·  The original document doesn’t make this statement. Whoever ‘Johnto’ is, he could have obtained her address from the Irish correspondent, Bridget.
• ·  Nevertheless, even armed with the information that he was currently serving in Ireland with the Scots Guards, police uncovered no evidence to support ‘Johnto’s’ existence, much less his whereabouts.
• ·  Aliases were used in the army, usually because a recruit had committed a crime or misdemeanour in civilian life.
• ·  Similar lines of investigation concentrating on Kelly’s alleged birthplace as well as several other antecedent reference points also drew a blank. Even inquiries at the Cardiff infirmary where she purportedly spent eight or nine months circa 1882 proved futile.
• ·  This suggests a pregnancy to me, although at her autopsy, the coroner found the right lung was minimally adherent by old firm adhesions, which could be a sign of T.B.
• ·  The Star reported: She had a boy, 11 years old, who was begging in the streets while his mother was murdered. The woman has been living with a man who sells oranges on the streets and on whom, as he could not be found, suspicion at once reverted. But he turned up all right tonight and fainted when he was shown the murdered woman’s body.
• ·  Joe Barnett says she had a child of six or seven living with her.
• ·  John Davies died, June 1880. He left a widow and child. So this child would be eight to ten years old at the time of his mother’s death. Course, she could have had a second child . . .
• ·   When living at Breezer’s Hill (1884-1885) she stated to Mrs Phoenix that she had a child aged two years, but Mrs. Phoenix never saw it.’