Early London Detective Fiction and Police News

 

by John Adcock

The Victorian era detective story began with the publication in the April 1841 issue of Graham's Magazine of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue “which gave the author a Parisian reputation.” Poe’s popular volume Tales of the Grotesque spread the story throughout Europe. Dickens introduced the first private eye in English literature in 1843, Mr. Nadgett, in Martin Chuzzlewit. Angus B. Reach featured a detective as a character in Clement Lorimer: or, The Book with the Iron Clasps: A Romance, published by D. Bogue in 1849 with illustrations by George Cruikshank. Dickens Bleak House, first published as a serial between March 1852 and September 1853, “marked the arrival of the first police procedural hero, as well as the first calling together of all the suspects in a murder for the unravelling of a crime.” [Bill Blackbeard in a post on the now defunct Yahoo group Bloods & Dime Novels.]

Charles Dickens was the first author to experiment with monthly instalments of his three-volume novels, and the first to begin issuing weekly instalments in All the Year Round. On April 30, 1859, A Tale of Two Cities, In Three Books, commenced serialization in All the Year Round. The Woman in White, “a continuous original work of fiction” by Wilkie Collins began serialization in All the Year Round on Nov 23, 1859. Great Expectations was announced on November 3, 1860, it was “to be continued from week to week until completed in about eight months.”  The Times review of Great Expectations labelled these weekly instalments “a great experiment”

The first of these fictions which achieved a decided success was that of Mr. Wilkie Collins — The Woman in White. It was read with avidity by hosts of weekly readers, and the momentum which it acquired when published in fragments carried it through several large editions when published as a whole.[i]

Dickens and Collins successes with sensational serials in literary magazines, usually connected with penny and halfpenny journals, led to sensation novels, books and serials calculated to entice a market on the move. Railway libraries, cheap books such as The Travellers’ Library, The Parlour Library, and The Popular Library, came into being in the 1850s to satisfy the demand for light railway reading. Men, women and children bought reading material to leaf through on long train rides, or when waiting in line for admittance to restaurants and clubs. Continuous serials attracted a traveling audience and so were designed to build a weekly readership. The Times, again…

Lingering over the delineation of character and of manners, our novelists began to lose sight of the story and to avoid action. Periodical publication compelled them to a different course. They could not afford, like Scheherazade, to let the devourers of their tales go to sleep at the end of a chapter. As modern stories are intended not to set people to sleep, but to keep them awake, instead of the narrative breaking down into a soporific dullness, it was necessary that it should rise at the close into startling incident.

Fictional detectives began surfacing in yellow backs for railway reading in the 1860s. Recollections of a Detective Police Officer by “Waters” (William Russell) was the earliest of these detective fictions, first appearing in Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal in 1849. It was then published between covers by J. & C. Brown in 1856, Kent in 1857,[iii] and finally by Charles H. Clarke on Dec 15, 1859. This was followed on October 16, 1860 by A Skeleton in Every House, More Mysteries by Waters, in Clarke’s The Parlour Library series whose copyright had been purchased in January from Darton & Co. The next was Tom Fox; or, The Revelations of a Detective, “Comprising Adventures, Disguises, Perils, Escapes, Captures, and Intrigues.” This was issued April 1860 by George Vickers with 158 engravings.

The author of Tom Fox; or, The Revelations of a Detective was John Bennett. Bennett published his first work, Night and Day; or, Better Late than Never in 1858. In 1860 Bennett wrote The Career of an Artful Dodger; his Art and Artfulness for George Vickers. One of his serials about a London street boy was issued in penny numbers by Henry Vickers as The Life and Career of a London Errand Boy. 

By 1873, three companies were named in an article on cheap literature as purveyors of the “largest proportion of criminal literature of the present time.” Those were The Newsagents’ Publishing Co., Edward Harrison and Henry Vickers. 

The author of the uncomplimentary article identifies the author of The Life and Career of a London Errand Boy, John Bennett, as the “Editor of the Police Record.”[iv] He was probably referring to The Illustrated Police News, Law Courts and Criminal-Record, begun Feb. 20, 1864, which ran to 3862 numbers, ending on Mar 3, 1938. The first publisher was John Ransom and the owners were Lee and Bulpin. It has been suggested that this was Henry Lea and Edwin Bulpin.[v] The Publisher’s Circular told the facts on April 15, 1868.

A curious instance of the vicissitudes attending literary property is given in the Press News of the current month, in the case of the Illustrated Police News, which was originally projected and started by a small machine-printer in London, who, getting into financial difficulties soon after, had to arrange with his creditors, and the publication in question, which was just beginning to pay, was sold out and out for £150.

George Purkess junior had published Purkess’s Penny Library of Romances in January 1863. He was named as proprietor and publisher of the Illustrated Police News in November 1865[vi] and the Illustrated Police Gazette on Feb. 9, 1867. In 1871 he published the Halfpenny Police Gazette; or, London by Gaslight, which was incorporated into the Illustrated Police News after the sixth number. A dubious character named Edward Henri Todé was identified on September 24, 1869 as the editor and publisher of the Illustrated Police News by The English Mechanic, who had previously employed him as an editor. 

If Todé had any connection at all to the Illustrated Police News it was as a one-time editor. The periodical also claimed Todé was the editor of The New Newgate Calendar, a penny dreadful which was serialized by Edward Harrison from 1863 to 1865. In 1870 The English Mechanic wrote that Todé “was no more the creator of this publication than an empty coal barge on the Thames creates the tides on which it rides.” 

Palmer’s Index to “The Times” Newspaper for 1872 shows an inquest had taken place on the body of Edward Henri Todé “who Died of a Fit on the Streets” on May 26 of that year.

JKA

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[i] Times, October 17, 1861

[ii] On the “Sensational” in Literature and Art, G.A. Sala, Belgravia, Vol.4, 1867/68, p.445

[iii] Catalog of an Exhibition arranged to illustrate New Paths in Book-Collecting, Nov 1934, p.33

[iv] Cheap Literature – Past and Present, John Pownall Harrison, The British Almanac of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 1873, p.60

[v] Cruel Deeds and Dreadful Calamities:  The Illustrated Police News, 1864-1938, Linda Stratmann

[vi] Pennies, Profits and Poverty, Robert J. Kirkpatrick, 2016, P.69

[vii] Cheap Literature – Past and Present, The British Almanac 1873, p.78

[viii] Sensational Literature, The Reader, Nov. 12, 1864. P.597

The Purkess Family of Dean Street

    

1 [1848] ‘Dora Livingstone the Adultress; or, the Quaker City,’ by American author George Lippard.

“We cannot get out of the fact that the paper is sensational, but still, barring the sensational illustrations, there is nothing in the paper to which objection can reasonably be taken. And as to the illustrations, why the Illustrated London News and the Graphic now publish portraits of criminals and scenes of criminality, which they did not formerly do. If such a policy is not bad for them, it cannot be bad for me.” — George Purkess, Jun.

by Robert J. Kirkpatrick
      
•¡•
    

THE NAME Purkess was associated with cheap and sensational periodical literature for a large part of the 19th century – George Purkess senior published around 20 penny-part serials between 1831 and his death in 1859, and his son George Purkess junior carried on the tradition, in the process becoming particularly well-known for his Illustrated Police News. Surprisingly, however, beyond details of some of their publications, very little has been written about the family, and the name of Purkess rarely appears in any of the studies on Victorian periodicals and in the biographies and memoirs of their contemporaries. 

It is now possible to tease out details using online census and other records (a harder task than might be imagined, given frequent transcription errors and, more importantly, the frequent use of the variant spelling of “Purkiss”), and as a result a surprisingly complex picture emerges.

2 [1848] ‘Tyburn Tree; or, the Mysteries of the Past,’ by J. Dicks, Esq. (James Lindridge), illustration by W.H. Thwaites.

George Purkess senior was born on 29 September 1801 in Westminster, London, the son of John and Mary Purkess. He had at least two brothers and one sister – John, born in 1800; Stephen, born in December 1804, died January 1809;  and Elizabeth, born in September 1807. He married Ann Elizabeth Atkinson in the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields on 15 June 1824. They went on to have at least seven children:  Mary Ann Purkess (born 29 December 1824, died January 1858), Eliza Atkinson Purkess (19 December 1826), Elizabeth Atkinson Purkess (1 February 1830), George James Purkess (10 February 1832), William Robert Purkess (6 August 1833), John Haven Purkess (born in 1836, died 1838), and Henry Purkess (5 July 1838).

The baptism records for these children show that between 1824 and 1830 George Purkess senior was a stationer living in Westmoreland Street, Marylebone; from 1830 onwards he was shown as a bookseller in Dean Street, Soho.

At around this time he also had premises at 61 Wardour Street, Soho. In September 1829, in partnership with William Strange and George Cowie, he launched the Monthly Theatrical Review, although this only lasted for four numbers, and in March 1831, in partnership with George Berger (who was operating out of Holywell Street) he launched The Satchel:  A Repository of Wit, Whimsies and What-not, which ran for just nine issues.

In October 1832, again in partnership with William Strange and George Cowie, plus five other publishers, he launched the Girls’ and Boys’ Penny Magazine, which ran until July 1833.

Another partnership, this time with a group of publishers including George Berger, William Strange and George Vickers, saw the Meteor, launched in May 1845 and which ran for just 3 numbers.

3 [1849] ‘Purkess’s Illustrated Works, Always in Print. In Penny Numbers.’

Between 1832 and 1860 he operated out of Old Compton Street, Soho, and then moved to 286 Strand. In the 1840s he began issuing penny bloods, including The Life and Adventures of Jack Rann (1845), Tyburn Tree, or The Mysteries of the Past (1848), The Life and Adventures of Jack Sheppard (1849), The Monk, A Tale of the Inquisition (1851), and Jack Cade, the Insurrectionist (1851). He also issued a Library of Romance and a series of 39 Penny Pictorial Plays in the late 1850s.

Ann Elizabeth Purkess died in 1839, aged 38, and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. At the time of the 1841 census, George Purkess senior was recorded as a bookseller living in Dean Street, along with Mary Purkess, aged 16, and Anne Purkess, aged 18. This was, presumably, George’s niece, the daughter of John Purkess (see later).

Ten years after this, on 25 March 1851, in the parish if St. James, Westminster, George Purkess senior married Eleanor Hemmens, the daughter of Joseph and Esther Towers, born in Eton, Buckinghamshire in 1821 (baptised on 7 January 1821). She had previously married John Hemmens (born in 1816), on 24 December 1835, at Upton-cum-Chalvey in Buckinghamshire. They had two daughters:  Ellen Hemmens, baptised on 24 October 1836 at Eton, and Elizabeth Adelaide Hemmens, born in Eton in 1839.

In the 1841 census, John is living in Thames Street, Windsor, Buckinghamshire, shown as a picture dealer, along with an Ann Birch (aged 20), and his daughters Ellen and Adelaide. Eleanor was recorded (as Ellen) living in Eton High Street with her mother and her brother Alfred. Also recorded is a one-week old son, who had not yet received a first name. Born on 29 May 1841, he was later baptised Alfred Joseph Towers Hemmens at St. Anne’s Church, Soho, on 19 June 1842.

4 [1848] ‘Dora Livingstone the Adultress; or, the Quaker City,’ by American author George Lippard.

John Hemmens died and was buried in Upton-cum-Chalvey on 19 March 1851. His death enabled Eleanor to marry the man with whom she had been having an affair for the previous seven or eight years. On 3 January 1844 Eleanor and George, although unmarried, had had their first child, Henry Hemmens Purkess, who was baptised at St. Anne’s, Soho, on 6 February 1844. Eleanor was recorded as Ellen; George was shown as a bookseller in Dean Street. They had a second child, Emma Josephine Purkess, on 20 September 1845 — she was baptised at St. Martins-in-the-Fields, Soho.

The 1851 census shows an Elizabeth Hemmens, aged 38 and born in Yorkshire, occupying an address in Wellington Road, Upton-cum-Chalvey, along with daughters Ellen, aged 15, and Adelaide, aged 13, and a son, Arthur, 5 months. Who Elizabeth was is anyone’s guess, unless she was John Hemmens’s sister. Eleanor had, by then, married George Purkess, and the 1851 census shows the couple living at 60 Dean Street, with Eleanor recorded as Ellen. Also living there were George’s daughter Elizabeth, his sons George, William and Joseph (actually Alfred Joseph), his nephew Henry Purkess, and his niece Jane Purkess. Emma Josephine Purkess and her brother Henry were away at a small boarding school in Pamber, Hampshire, run by Mary Ann Smallbridge. Ten years later, Emma was a pupil at girls’ school in Sherborne, Dorset.

5 [1849] ‘The Life and Adventures of Jack Sheppard.’

At some point, George Purkess senior entered into partnership with his son George, operating out of Old Compton Street, Soho, and 85 Salisbury Street, Marylebone, as George Purkess and Son, Booksellers and Publishers. This partnership was dissolved by mutual consent in June 1856.

George Purkess senior died three years later, at 60 Dean Street, on 28 May 1859 (not 1862 as most other sources state), leaving an estate worth just under £1,000 (around £85,000 in today’s terms). Eleanor was the sole executor and the sole beneficiary. When she died, at 60 Dean Street on 6 December 1869, her sole executor was the publisher Edward Lloyd. The business passed to her sons, Alfred and Henry.

George Purkess junior was, as shown above, born on 10 February 1832 in Soho, and baptised George James Purkess. At the time of the 1841 census he was away at a small boarding school, run by Joseph Stansbury, in St. Matthew’s Road, Bethnal Green, along with his brother William. (One of the other five pupils was an Edward Lloyd, aged 6, who may well have been the eldest son of the publisher Edward Lloyd.)

6 [Aug 1889] ‘G. Purkess’s Publications.’

In 1851, he was living with his father in Dean Street. After the dissolution of their partnership, George Purkess junior took a new partner, Arthur Harding Walters, opening a wholesale stationers and newsagents at 16 St. Albans Place, Edgware Road. This partnership was dissolved, by mutual consent, in June 1864, with Harding acquiring all the assets, stock and debts. A few months later, on 29 November 1864, Walters married the 19 year-old Emma Josephine Purkess, George’s step-sister.

“One of the leading features in these second-rate newsvendor’s windows – perhaps the leading feature, and certainly the object to which it is the special desire of the present writer to draw attention – is always a great broadsheet of huge coarsely executed wood-cuts, representing, in a style of art the badness of which has never been surpassed in any period of our civilisation, every kind of violent and murderous act, every foul and diabolical crime, every incident marked by special characteristics of noisomeness, horror, or cruelty, which the annals of the week preceding the publication day of this grievous sheet have furnished for the benefit of the morbidly disposed part of the British public.” – ‘Nothing Like Example’, All the Year Round, May 30, 1868

7 [Mar 8, 1879] ‘Peace’s Dream the Night before his Execution.’

In the meantime, George Purkess junior had launched Purkess’s Penny Library of Romances in January 1863, and in 1865 he took over the Illustrated Police News, which had been launched on 20 February 1864, published by John Ransom at 83 Fleet Street and apparently owned by Messrs. Lee and Bulpin. In her book Cruel Deeds and Dreadful Calamities:  The Illustrated Police News 1864-1938 (British Library, 2011), Linda Stratmann speculates that Lee was actually Henry Lea, a publisher of periodicals and penny-part serials then operating out of 112 Fleet Street. Bulpin was probably Edwin Bulpin, a leather manufacturer of 130 Fleet Street and 36 King William Street.

Lee and Bulpin appear to have severed their connection with the paper in 1865, followed by John Ransom, although George Purkess was not named as the new proprietor-publisher until November 1865. Surprisingly, this was only six months after Purkess had been through the bankruptcy court – operating out of 43 Albert Street, Camden Town, and described as a newspaper proprietor, he had signed, on 12 May 1865, a deed of composition to pay five shillings in the pound to his creditors.

Purkess went on to launch the Illustrated Police Gazette in 1867, and in 1870 he began issuing the series Books for the Million, some of which had previously been published by his father in the 1850s. In 1871 he launched the Halfpenny Police Gazette which was incorporated into the Illustrated Police News after only six numbers, and also in the 1870s he issued a handful of penny-part serials, including The Life and Recollections of Calcraft the Hangman (1871), Charles Peace, or the Adventures of a Notorious Burglar (1879-81), and Florence Maybrick:  A Thrilling Romance (1889).

8 [Jul 27, 1889] The Illustrated Police News, masthead.

In March 1885 he launched the short-lived Family Doctor and People’s Medical Adviser (26 numbers). His office addresses during this period were 83 Fleet Street up until 1865, 274 Strand between 1865 and 1868, 286 Strand from 1868 to 1890, and 34 Catherine Street from 1890 until 1892.

There appears to be no trace of George Purkess junior in the 1861 census, but on 2 July 1864 he married Elizabeth Ward Coham, a widow born in 1834, at All Souls Church, Marylebone. She had previously been married (in 1860 – her maiden name was Elizabeth Ward Walke) to John Harding Coham, a surgeon, who had died in December 1862.

In 1871, George and Elizabeth were living at 12 Gloucester Crescent, Marylebone, with two servants. Ten years later, they had moved to 25 Avenue Road, Marylebone, now employing three servants. Elizabeth Purkess died the following year, on 1 September 1882, leaving a personal estate worth just under £2,000 (around £170,000 in today’s terms).

9 [May 7, 1877] ‘Buffalo Bill.’

George remarried on 19 January 1886, his second wife, Emily Elliot, having been born in Lambeth in 1855. They had already had a daughter, Emily Maude, born on 1 December 1879, when George’s first wife was still alive, although she wasn’t baptised until 12 January 1887, at Christ Church, North Brixton, Lambeth, with the family’s address shown as 107 Gower Street.

Later that year, Purkess bought 77 Gower Street, while keeping the property in Avenue Road. The 1891 census shows him (described as a newspaper proprietor) living at 77 Gower Street with his wife, daughter and three servants (one of whom was a nurse, presumably caring for George who by then was in poor health).

George died from tuberculosis the following year, on 10 December 1892, at 25 Avenue Road, and was buried in Highgate Cemetery. He left an estate valued at just over £10,000, worth around £900,000 in today’s terms. As well as leaving all his personal property (including carriages and horses) to his wife, his will stipulated that his executors (his wife and William Moult, a banker’s clerk) were to dispose of his business, investing the money raised to provide an income to be shared between his wife (two-thirds) and his daughter (one-third). He also left all his freehold and leasehold property to his wife, although no addresses were given.

His wife died on 5 November 1896 at 3 Chalcott Terrace, Regent’s Park Road, Marylebone, having apparently squandered most of her inheritance, and leaving an estate of just £379.

10 [1871] “To the Editor of ‘The Times.’”

George Purkess senior’s brother John Purkess married Elizabeth Sarah Jenkins, born in 1796, at St. Martin-in-the-Fields on 10 September 1820. They went on to have eight children:  Elizabeth Sarah Jenkins Purkess (born 14 July 1821), Ann Purkess (21 September 1822), John Edward (24 August 1824), Amelia Ruth (17 May 1826), Henry William (4 February 1828), Louisa (6 July 1830), Mary Ann (16 November 1831 - died on 5 April 1835, ten days after her baptism), and Jane Mary (17 November 1834).

They were all baptised in Marylebone – John’s occupation was given as “Trade” between 1821 and 1824, Stationer in 1828, Clerk in 1830, and Music Seller in 1826, 1834 and 1835. In the baptism records after 1826, his address was given as 10 Grove Street, Marylebone.

By the time of the 1841 census, the family had moved to Devonshire Street, Lisson Grove, Marylebone – John Purkess senior was not shown as having an occupation, while his son John Edward was shown as a hatter.

John Purkess senior died two years later, and was buried in St. Mary’s, Paddington Green, on 9 April 1843. His wife died twelve years later, having moved to Salisbury Street, and was buried in the same churchyard.

11 [Mar 1, 1879] ‘Charles Peace; or, the Adventures of a Notorious Burglar,’ No. 42.

John Edward Purkess appears to have followed a rather erratic career path – in 1851 he was shown in the census records as a carpenter, living in a lodging house at 36 Nutford Place, Marylebone, and in 1861 he was living with his wife Maria and son Walter at 85 Salisbury Street, and shown as a stationer, presumably working with George Purkess junior. However, John and Maria were not married, although they did eventually marry on 12 March 1866, at St. James the Great, Bethnal Green.

Maria was Maria Lucy, born around 1829. Walter had been born around 1847. There appears to be no record of his birth or baptism, but there is a curious marriage record, at Christ Church, Marylebone, dated 19 September 1864, for a Walter Purkess and a Jane Owens. Walter was shown as living in Salisbury Street, and Jane in Devonshire Street. Walter’s father was John Purkess, but his profession was shown as Wheelwright. Furthermore, both Walter and Jane were shown as “of full age” (i.e. over 21), although Walter would only have been around 17 or 18.

12 [Feb 15, 1879] ‘Peace and the Jew Fence,’ cut in The Illustrated Police News.

There appears to be no trace of the family in the 1871 census, but in 1878 or 1879 they moved from 85 Salisbury Street to 13 Salisbury Street, with John still in business as a newsagent. His name had disappeared from the Post Office Directory in 1881, although the census for that year shows John and Maria living at 13 Salisbury Street, John now having become a Broker’s Assistant. He died later that year, with his wife dying in 1882.

John Edward’s brother, Henry William Purkess, born in 1828, spent all of his life working in the Purkess family business. In 1851, he was living with George Purkess senior, his uncle, at 60 Dean Street, presumably working for him although no occupation was given in the census record. In 1861 he was living with Alfred Purkess, his cousin, at 60 Dean Street, described as a publisher’s assistant.

There appears to be no trace of him in the 1871 census, but in 1881 he was recorded living at 135 Marylebone Road, described as a publisher. Also living with him were his wife, Harriet (born in Islington around 1828), and their daughter Amy, born in 1866. (Unfortunately, there appears to be no trace of either a marriage record or a record for Amy’s birth.)

They later moved to Balcombe Street, Marylebone, where Henry died in 1891. Harriet died in Marylebone in 1909.

In the meantime, Alfred Joseph Purkess, having changed his name from Alfred Joseph Towers Hemmens, and his brother Henry Hemmens Purkess, had taken over the business established by George Purkess senior following his death in 1859.

13 [Oct 12, 1867] ‘The Alton Murder,’ advertised in The Illustrated Police News.

The 1861 census shows them occupying 60 Dean Street, both described as publishers. Also in the household were Alfred’s cousin Henry;  Esther Towers (i.e. Alfred’s grandmother), a visitor;  and one servant.

Two years later, on 10 September 1863, Alfred Joseph, using the name Alfred Joseph Towers Hemmens, married Emily Charlotte Pratchett (born in London around 1825) at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Soho. They went on to have four children: Reginald (born 1865), Henry (born 1867), Lizzie Emily (born 1870), and Edwin (born 1871).

In 1871, the head of the household at 60 Dean Street was shown as Joseph Purkess, a bookseller (i.e. Alfred Joseph). With him were his wife Emily, along with three of his children; Henry Purkess, Joseph’s brother, described as a bookseller; and two servants.

14 [Dec 14, 1878] ‘A Man Mistaken for an Escaped Gorilla,’ cut in The Illustrated Police News.

The partnership between Alfred and Henry Purkess went into voluntary liquidation in May 1875, with the notice in the London Gazette referring to “the affairs of Alfred Joseph Towers Hemmens and Henry Purkess”. Amongst their publications had been the penny-part serial The Monk (36 numbers), and a series of Purkess’s Penny Pictorial Plays, which included adaptations of Uncle Tom’s Cabin;  Ivanhoe, or The Jew’s Daughter;  Mazeppa, or The Wild Horse of Tartary; Obi, or Three-Fingered Jack;  and The Motto, or The Hunchback of Paris.

According to Linda Stratmann, Alfred and Henry then emigrated to South Africa, possibly accompanied by William Robert Purkess. William, who was living with his father in Dean Street in 1851, appears to be absent from all the succeeding census records. Neither is there a record of him dying.

On 28 August 1856 George Purkess junior’s sister Elizabeth Atkinson Purkess married Charles Shurey at St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Shurey was a licensed victualler, born in Thame, Oxfordshire, in 1827. They went on to have five children:  Annie (born 8 November 1857), Charles (born 8 May 1859), Harry (born 1 November 1860), George Arthur (born 1862), and Frank (born 20 May 1864. died the following year). In 1861, Shurey, Elizabeth and three of the children were living at 28 Leigh Street, St. Pancras.

15 [Dec 14, 1878] ‘Three Days at Sea on a Chest,’ cut in The Illustrated Police News.

At the time of the 1871 census, Shurey was the landlord of the “Lord Palmerston” at 60 Hampstead Road, St. Pancras, but by 1881 he had taken over the business at 60 Dean Street left by Alfred and Henry Purkess. The census return for that year records him occupying 59 & 60 Dean Street, described as a Publisher and Stationer employing six men and three boys, with his wife, three sons Charles, Harry and George (all shown as Assistant Stationers), along with Henry Purkess, Elizabeth’s brother, who had been born in 1838, and two servants. Henry was also described as an Assistant Stationer.

Charles Shurey died on 20 May 1881, a few weeks after the census was taken. He left a personal estate worth £5,271 (just under half a million pounds in today’s terms). His will, for which his wife and George Purkess junior were executors, stipulated that his business at 60 Dean Street should continue until his youngest son, George Arthur, reached the age of 21 (in 1883). His three sons therefore carried on running the business, which still had the name Purkess & Co., until November 1883, when their partnership was dissolved by mutual consent.

16 [1874] ‘The Whitechapel Tragedy.’

Charles Shurey junior continued running the business, still using the name Purkess & Co. – he is recorded in the 1891 census at 60 Dean Street, described as a newsagent, alongside his wife Laura, a servant and a shop boy. George returned to the licensed trade, becoming a publican. Charles and Harry also launched their own publishing careers, initially independently but later in partnership as Shurey’s Publications, at 2 & 3 Hind Court, 17 Tudor Street, and later 1 Farringdon Avenue.

In 1892 a new company was formed, wholly independent of both the Purkess and Shurey families, to take over the Dean Street business. A consortium of seven men, led by George Lyon Bennett, a former Secretary of the Commercial Union Assurance Company, formed Purkess & Company, Limited, with a share capital of £12,000, divided into 12,000 £1 shares.

It was incorporated on 4 July 1892, operating out of 60 Dean Street, with Bennett as the Managing Director. It took over the remains of the 21 year lease which had been taken out on 60 Dean Street in 1883, as well leases on Nos. 6 and 7 Southampton Mews, Holborn, also part of the old company’s assets. Bennett was initially the majority shareholder, holding 6,997 shares, with a W.E. Mcleod holding 4,998.

17 [Aug 1889] ‘Florence Maybrick, A Thrilling Romance.’

Bennett appears to have quit the company in 1894, with the Hon. Montague Charles Francis Bertie named as Managing Director and a new majority shareholder. But in March that year a receiver was appointed following a court order obtained by the company’s creditors. In April 1896 the receiver notified the Companies Registration Office that the business, now officially at his office at 66 Coleman Street, Moorgate, was not being continued, although he was still acting in an official capacity.

In November 1897 he wrote again saying that some debts were still to be collected and some assets were still to be distributed. The company was finally dissolved by notice in the London Gazette on 17 June 1898.

It is not known when Henry Purkess died, but Elizabeth Shurey, after living at 113 Oxford Street for a while, died on 18 December 1895, at 13 Clarendon Villas, Hove, Sussex, leaving an estate worth just £373. The Purkess publishing dynasty had come to an end.

Note: “THE WORST NEWSPAPER IN ENGLAND” 

— an Interview with George Purkess, Jun. — is HERE.

18 [1879] ‘Marwood the Hangman,’ cut in The Illustrated Police News.

•¡•

 

William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) 1846-1917.

“It is now some generations since Josh Billings, Ned Buntline, and Colonel Prentiss Ingraham, intimate friends of Colonel William F. Cody, used to foregather in the office of Francis S. Smith, then proprietor of the New York Weekly. It was a dingy little office on Rose Street, in New York, but the breath of the great outdoors stirred there when these old-timers got together. As a result of these conversations, Colonel Ingraham and Ned Buntline began to write of the adventures of Buffalo Bill for Street & Smith.” - Foreward to Buffalo Bill Border Stories No. 44, copyright 1907.

Ned Buntline wrote the first Buffalo Bill serial, Buffalo Bill, the King of the Border Men, for Street & Smith’s New York Weekly story paper beginning December 23, 1869. He followed up with two more serials, Buffalo Bill’s Best Shot; or, the Heart of Spotted Tail, and Buffalo Bill’s Last Victory; or, Dove Eye, the Lodge Queen. Street & Smith’s Log Cabin Library reprinted the last two titles. Buntline also wrote Texas Jack; or, Buffalo Bill’s Brother for De Witt’s Ten Cent Romances.

Colonel Prentiss Ingraham’s father was Joseph Holt Ingraham, author of the 1836 romance Lafitte, or The Pirate of the Gulf. Ingraham the younger, who also wrote as Major Dangerfield Burr, began writing Buffalo Bill serials for the story papers of Beadle & Adams. In 1882 Beadle's Boy's Library of Sport, Story and Adventure Volume 1 # 1 published Adventures of Buffalo Bill, From Boyhood to Manhood. Beadle story paper serials were then reprinted in Beadle’s New York Dime Library and Beadle’s Half-Dime Library. 

Contrary to the reminiscence above Ingraham did not join Street & Smith until 1901, and then quite reluctantly, it took the urging of Gilbert Patten and a meeting with Ormond G. Smith to convince him to write for the firm. His first story for Smith was Buffalo Bill, the Border King: A Story of Daring Deeds, which appeared in Buffalo Bill Stories No. 1 on May 18, 1901. To add some confusion Smith reprinted Beadle & Adams serials in the Log Cabin Library as well as new Ingraham stories. The Colonel passed away in 1904 and the Buffalo Bill Stories were taken over by St. George Rathborne and lady novelist Laurana W. Sheldon (Nos. 160 through 170). Other authors included William Wallace Cook, W. Bert Foster, and John H. Whitson.

Buffalo Bill Stories ceased publication on September 4, 1912 and New Buffalo Bill Weekly began publishing reprints with number 1 of that issue. Following these were a series of paperback reprints in Far West Library, Buffalo Bill Border Stories, and Great Western Library. In 1919 Buffalo Bill Weekly became Western Story.

Five issues of Beadle’s Half-Dime Library were given as “by Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody),” No. 8, Kansas King; or, the Red Right Hand, No. 19, The Phantom Spy; or, the Pilot of the Prairie, No. 55, Deadly-Eye, the Unknown Scout, No. 68, Border Robin Hood; or, the Prairie Rover, and no. 158, Fancy Frank of Colorado; or, the Trapper’s Trust and four Buffalo Bill titles were published in Frank Tousey’s Wide Awake Library. In 1894 appeared a sixth Buffalo Bill authored work, Wild Bill, the Wild West Duelist : or, The Girl Mascot of Moonlight Mine. 

In England in 1886 Ralph Rollington published Buffalo Bill, by Captain M. Hunter, in The New Boys’ Paper. Reprints of Ned Buntline’s Buffalo Bill’s Best Shot and Buffalo Bill’s Last Victory appeared in William Emmett Laurence’s Young Briton about 1871.

In 1887 Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show opened at Earls Court Exhibition in London and George Purkess Jr. issued 74 penny numbers of Buffalo Bill to capitalize on his popularity. General Publishing Company issued a Buffalo Bill Wild West Series at the same time. Also that year James Henderson’s Weekly Budget published Buffalo Bill’s Secret Service Trail, by Major Dangerfield Burr, (Colonel Ingraham) 5th Regt. Cavalry, U.S. Army, Red Renard, the Indian Detective; or the Gold Buzzards of Colorado, by Buffalo Bill (Hon. W. F. Cody), The Personal Recollections of Buffalo Bill, by Col. Paul B. Sutcliffe, late U. S. Army, and The White King of the Pawnees, by Ned Buntline. Buffalo Bill’s First Trail; or, Will Cody the Pony Express Rider, was adapted for James Henderson’s Young Folks by Captain W. D. L’Estrange.

In 1907 James Henderson and Sons Nugget Library featured Buffalo Bill’s Chum; or, Little Grit the Wild Rider. Amalgamated published a Nugget Library in 1920. Aldine’s Buffalo Bill Library began in 1916 and in 1926  Buffalo Bill and Janver’s Treasure appeared in no. 27 of George Newnes New Redskin Library. 

Worst Newspaper in England

“THE WORST NEWSPAPER IN ENGLAND” an Interview with the Proprietor of the “POLICE NEWS.” Pall Mall Gazette 23 Nov 1886.

On perceiving that the readers of the Pall Mall Gazette who express their opinions on current topics through the medium of our Prize Puzzle Column had voted the Police News to be the “worst English newspaper,” one of our representatives betook himself to the office of the journal which has required so unique a distinction, in order to learn something as to its character, career, and circulation, and to discover what points its conductors could plead in defence of the publication. He was without delay introduced to the proprietor, Mr. George Purkess, who received the “verdict of the jury” with great good temper, not to say complacency, readily answered when put to the question, and urbanely volunteered much interesting information as to the history and position of his illustrated weekly calendar of crimes, casualties, and curious incidents.

THE PREMISES AND THE PROPRIETOR.

The office of the Police News (writes our representative) is situated in “the neck” of the Strand, and the presence of a small crowd, gathered in front of the pictorial placard (really the first page of the paper) descriptive of the new issue, caused it to be “spotted” yards away. The premises are not of the princely and palatial order. A small shop, in fact, does duty as a publishing office, and the editorial rooms on the upper floors are diminutive and dark, and certainly, late on a wet November afternoon, also somewhat dismal. The proprietor’s apartment is three parts office and one part sitting room. On the desk lie copies of Truth and Punch, while on the walls are a number of coloured pictures mostly identified in some way with the Police News. There are several sketches which have been given away with Christmas numbers of the paper -- for the Police News has invariably a Christmas supplement, devoted entirely (“for this occasion only”) to pity, charity, and love, with a slight admixture of mild humour. The proprietor is most enamoured of “The Clown in Love,” by one De Vochie, which was given away with the Christmas Extra for 1884. There are also excellent portraits of Gladstone and Disraeli, which have been issued with the paper at different times. The most interesting picture is a coloured illustration of “The crowd outside the office of the Police News,” from a volume entitled “London Sights.” The proprietor himself is a stout, comfortable- looking man of middle age, medium height, and dark complexion. He has just sold “a pretty house” by the Thames, and confesses that he “would be telling a lie” if he did not acknowledge that good fortune had been meted out to him in very generous measure.

WHAT THE PAPER IS LIKE

The Police News has long passed its majority, having been founded in 1863. It was originally published by Mr. Lee and Bulpin, who, after the lapse of two or three years, sold it to Mr. Purkess, who, as one of a family of publishers, had conceived that there was a “good thing” in it. Messrs. Lee and Bulpin, by the way, subsequently sought to establish a similar paper in the United States, but without success. Mr. Purkess possesses the file of his journal which was prepared by the late Mr. Charles Reade, who once wrote him a letter complimenting him on the paper. These volumes were indexed in a marvellous manner by Mr. Reade; in one instance there were as many as thirty-six pages of index. Mr. Purkess obtained the file for ten guineas. The Police News is a paper of four pages, about the size of a morning journal; the price a penny. The first page only is devoted to pictorial blocks. The remaining three pages are devoted principally to articles descriptive of the leading murders, suicides, offences, and casualties of the week. There is usually, besides, a brief “leading article” on some current topic of general interest, and there is a column of “Passing Notes” on events outside the region of police and law. In the issue of 30th ult. the Collins-Gosse controversy is alluded to, and literary “log-rolling” denounced; while a note on the death of Archer, in last weeks number, winds up thus: “We have clearly not much reason to boast of the taste or intelligence of a generation which makes heroes of mere horse-riders.” The staff -- an editor and sub-editor -- cut the bulk of the contents of the paper from the daily journals, and it is cast together with scarcely an attempt at an attractive arrangement. The illustrations on the front page are for the most part vivid representations of tragedies and horrors of all kinds. These are vividly portrayed and strikingly executed. Here are the titles of the illustrations that have appeared in the last five weeks: “Tragic Occurrence in the Borough,” “For Heaven’s Sake, stop and hear the Matter Explained,” with the reply “Never Mind, my dear Brother, the ‘Matter’ explains itself,” “Suicide in a Railway Carriage,” “Desperate Encounter between English and French Fishermen at Ramsgate,” “Gored to Death by a Bull,” “Fatal Accident at the Toxteth Workhouse,” “Suicide and Murder of Four Children at Fulham,” (several sketches), “The Girl in Boy’s Clothes,” (several sketches), “The Affray at Gerard’s Cross, Slough,” “Stabbing a Performing Bear,” “Shocking Discovery at Lambeth,” “Burned to Death through Reading in Bed,” “The Irish Poisoning Case,” “A Lunatic Baited by a Mob,” (several sketches), “A Runaway Horse in the City,” “Fatal Occurrence at Shadwell,” “Extraordinary Suicide,” “The Burglary at the Residence of the Comte de Paris,” “Fatal Gun Accident,” “Savage Assault,” “Double Murder at Lytham,” “Shocking Tragedy in Bloomsbury,” “Thief Captured by a Cabman,” “Suicide of a Woman at Islington,” “Tragic Murder at Paris: a Desperate Death-struggle,” “Sad Death at Bowes Park,” “The Late Fred Archer, Champion Jockey: Portrait and Scenes,” “Fatal Fire at Ramsgate, Loss of Five Lives,” “Wife Murder at Norwich.” Mr. Purkess assured me that he has half-a-dozen artists on his staff in London; and he produced a book containing the names and addresses of from seventy to a hundred artists in various parts of the country whom he employs on occasion. Whatever else his journal may be, Mr. Purkess claims credit for the fact that it is “the cleanest paper in the country,” bar none. He stated that he never permits to appear such pictures as disgrace the pages of the notorious New York Police Gazette, which was lying on a chair in the editor’s room; and he declared that even reports of indecent assault cases are rigorously excluded from the columns of the Police News. An examination of the last five issues discloses two cases of an indelicate nature, not to mention Divorce Court cases; but so far as can be determined by an inspection of these last numbers, Mr. Purkess’s paper is certainly freer than the ordinary daily and weekly journals from reports of the character described. This favourable impression, however, is scarcely strengthened when our glance is extended to the advertisement columns.

THE ILLUSTRATIONS. -- THEIR ACCURACY.

“I acknowledge it to be a sensational newspaper,” said Mr. Purkess, in reply to a question in which the reputation acquired by the journal was suggested, “but we are also credited with giving the best portraits published by any journal, not excluding the Illustrated London News and the Graphic. We take great trouble and incur considerable expense to secure good portraits. While I have given as low as sixpence, I have paid as high as £50 for a portrait. The £50 was paid for Wainwright’s portrait: only one man possessed it, and unfortunately I went to him, instead of allowing him to come to me. Mr. Plimsoll, I remember, wrote me cordially thanking us for an admirable portrait of himself which we had published. I know there exists a popular impression that our illustrations are largely imaginative, but as a matter of fact we are continually striving after accuracy of delineation. If a tragedy were to occur in London to-day, we would send an artist straightway to the scene; should a terrible murder or extraordinary incident be reported from the country, we would at once dispatch a telegram to one of the artists whose names are in the book I have shown to you, or, if we are not acquainted with an artist in the locality, we would advise a newsagent to instruct one on our behalf. Often artists will send up sketches without previous communication of any kind; sometimes they will warn us by telegram to expect a sketch. The artist of course always endeavours to get a view of the scene of the tragedy, outrage, suicide, or accident, and we always give a picture of the house in which the inquest is held; but naturally, in sketches of this kind, from the very character of the incident, the imagination must be given some freedom. Our artists always try to obtain portraits of the actors in the scenes which they depict, but when these cannot be had they are driven to work upon verbal or written descriptions of the persons portrayed. If people would only think of it, they would instantly perceive that the accuracy of our illustrations is one of the secrets of our success. We always have a large sale in the district of the tragedy, incident, or casualty which we illustrate, which is the best proof of the honesty of our drawings. Our principal blocks this week, for instance, relate to Archer; the sketches were done by an artist whom I specially sent down to Newmarket. The blocks ordinarily take forty-eight hours, but often they are finished in twenty-four, and sometimes, as in the case of the fire at Newmarket, published in this week’s issue, they are done in twelve hours. I believe that our sketches cost me something like £200 to £300 a year. Whenever I see a good thing I never stand on terms.” “I suppose the high-class illustrated journals look down upon you with contempt?” “Oh, there is a sort of jealousy on their part.”

AN ENORMOUS CIRCULATION

The paper is printed on the Tuesday under Saturday’s date. On the Wednesdays it is sent to the country, on Thursdays it is despatched to town agents. It is printed on the flat, from six stereo formes. The machines are kept at work until the Saturday, in order that whatever demand may exist may be adequately met. Six thousand pictorial placards are printed every week, 3000 of which are sent to agents in direct communication with the publisher’s office. Smith and Son send out the paper to agents whom they supply with other periodicals; but they do not show it on their stalls, and Mr. Purkess has not cared to open a hopeless controversy by asking them to do so. The wholesale price is 1s. 5d. For a quire of 26; the price of other journals is 1s. 4d. Per quire. “Our independent position enables us to demand higher terms,” explains Mr. Purkess. The paper is most highly circulated in Manchester and Liverpool; Birmingham and the Black Country stand next; then Scotland (Glasgow and Edinburgh) and the North of England about rank together in appreciation of the journal; the London circulation is only about one-eighth of the entire issue. The lowest weekly circulation ranges from 150,000 to 200,000 copies; it often runs much higher; and it has two or three times reached the enormous number of 600,000, as when the cases of Wainwright and Peace excited popular interest. The sale over the Bartlett case was not so good as usual, although Mr. Purkess declares that they had “some magnificent portraits.” He never seeks advertisements, but he generally has a column or two, for which he gets £20 a column. “People run away with the idea that the circulation lies entirely among the lower classes, but that is somewhat of a mistake. I have had even the name of a dowager-marchionesss on my subscription list; an earl has written me for a ‘Life of Calcraft,’ and I have a number of letters from reverend gentlemen asking for copies. The police are also purchasers of the paper. The police lend our staff every assistance; yes, even the higher officers. That, I suppose, is on account of the goodness of our portraits. My artists get into every court; for example, next week’s number will contain excellent portraits of Miss Scott and Mr. Sebright, taken in the Divorce Court. The paper, in fact, is found all over the world. Recently Mr. Du Val, the entertainer, sent me a copy which he had picked up in Hyderabad, where it was presented with a pair of slippers. There have been some half-dozen unsuccessful attempts to start rival journals; £20,000 or £30,000 must have been squandered in these fruitless efforts. I don’t advertise nor send out placards; people buy it for what it is worth; it seems to sell for some reason. Unless it had merit, it could never have lived.”

THE PROPRIETOR’S DEFENCE.

“Now, Mr. Purkess, I dare say you know what people say about your paper -- that it is a bad paper, which encourages the commission of crime, and generally tends to the demoralization of the people into whose hands it falls. What have you to say in answer to statements of that kind?” “Yes, I know the people talk in that sort of way,” replied Mr. Purkess, “but they are decidedly in error. We cannot get out of the fact that the paper is sensational, but still, barring the sensational illustrations, there is nothing in the paper to which objection can reasonably be taken. And as to the illustrations, why the Illustrated London News and the Graphic now publish portraits of criminals and scenes of criminality, which they did not formerly do. If such a policy is not bad for them, it cannot be bad for me.” “But, Mr. Purkess, the fact that they have become black would not make you white; and the popular impression is that your paper makes for criminality, that many of your patrons are apt to believe that they will have attained to the heights of heroism and glorification when their portrait appears in the Police News.” “Certainly not,” answered the proprietor, “it rather tends to prevent crime. Ten years ago, a murderer said to his friends, ‘If you would do me a service, keep my portrait out of the Police News.’ People really don’t like to have their portraits in the paper, and a prisoner will try all he can, by making a wry face or otherwise, to prevent my artists from securing a good portrait. As to the illustration of crime, what do Miss Braddon and other novelists do? Don’t they illustrate crime?” “Has the Police News ever led to the discovery of any crime?” “No, I can’t say that.” “But you say that, instead of being a standing incitement to crime, it rather elevates those who patronise it, and is really an encouragement to a good life?” “I won’t say it elevates them, but it does not add to the criminality of the country -- in fact it is a distinct deterrent to crime, because it warns people of the horrors of crime, and the results following upon the commission thereof.” “I know what people say,” concluded Mr. Purkess, ‘but as I replied to a friend who asked me why I did not produce some other paper than the Police News, ‘We can’t all have Timeses and Telegraphs, and if we can’t have the Telegraph or the Times, we must put up with the Police News.’”

POSTSCRIPT:

DEATH OF MR. G. PURKESS.

We regret to announce that Mr. George Purkess, proprietor of the Family Doctor and this journal, died on Saturday morning at his residence in Avenue-road, Regent’s Park, from tuberculosis. A few weeks ago he underwent an operation, and was thought to be going on well. As late as Friday afternoon he was visited by his old friend, Mr. Arthur Swanborough, manager of the Royal Music Hall. Deceased was highly esteemed by a large circle of friends. Dec 7, 1892 IPN

The funeral of Mr. George Purkess, the late proprietor of the Family Doctor and of the well-known periodical familiarly known as the Police News took place on Thursday at Highgate Cemetary. Mr. Purkess was a Freemason and a liberal contributor to various funds. - Dec 17, 1892