People   (Re-unions, trace old friends and relatives.)

Whoa. Thank you all. Mrs. M., Dave., Winnie and MyGriffiths, thank you.

Just put out of interest. My Uncle by marriage, Jack Owen, told me and the rest of our family that his great uncle was a butcher by trade and was the last man publicly hanged at Walton Prison. The wonderful information you have provided seems to disprove that.

On the plus side, the LMPH (last man publicly hanged) was indeed a man, and he murdered his wife.

On the other hand, neither he nor his wife had the last names of Owen. And he is listed as a collier, not a butcher.

Jack was not given to flights of fancy, but some of his facts may have been wrong. Perhaps his relative was the next-to-last. Maybe, somehow, Farrington was related to us but by some convoluted strand. Maybe – and this seems far-fetched, he was a butcher on the side. Maybe the venue is wrong, and the relative was hanged at another jail.

They mystery gnaws at me, and I shall continue to pursue it. The game is afoot, Watson.

Again, thank you all for your help. It was more than I could have hoped for.

A side note: I should add that my wife was a foster child in Bournemouth when I met her. She had no idea who her mother was, save that her name appeared on a birth certificate, and no name at all for her father. Through the kindly help of MyGriffith and EP1960, we found my wife’s family, their history, and even, amazingly, the name of the father – provided by a 90 year old woman who at the age of 12 was present at my wife’s birth. She befriended my wife’s mother, who was 16 at the time, and from her learned who the father was. Amazing. I wrote a book about it/ My thanks again, MyGriffith, and a heartfelt thanks to my late and dear friend LEP1960.

Best wishes to you all.

Whacker