William Alexander Ripper was my great grandfather's brother. The son of a chimney sweep in Victorian London, living in poverty and squalid conditions that may provide some background to the criminal actions of William Alexander Ripper.

Early Life

William was born into squalor in Victorian London in 1855. The family lived in a poor quality, rented tenement in Spiller's Court off Webber Row, Waterloo, behind the theatre now known as "The Old Vic".

In the 1860s and 1870s the theatre was a music hall with a bawdy clientele. Infant mortality in the area exceeded 50% by the age of 5 years of age. William's father was a chimney sweep (with all the hazards to health that prevailed in Victorian times), an occupation of low regard and entered into by many who saw the opportunity for theft from clients' houses. It was known that sweeps would hide items stolen from their clients' houses in the soot that they took away. William followed his father into the trade and, no doubt, its accompanying felonies. The authorities tried to control chimney sweeps by licensing them, not with much success. Few, if any, sweeps were as compliant as Dick van Dyke's character in Mary Poppins.

"The Water Babies" by Charles Kingsley (1863) has, as its main protagonist, a young chimney sweep named Tom. It is a didactic, moral fable intended as a satire and a tract against child labour, demonstrating that the removal of social obstacles was the means by which a better society could be formed. William, unlike his father, was literate but it is unlikely that he read the book and, even if he had, the content would have had no relevance in his life, given his need to live hand to mouth from day to day.

Other than the two census returns of 1861, when he was recorded as a 5 year old scholar, and 1871, when he was a 17 year old chimney sweep, nothing has been found to tell us about his life before his marriage. There are references from 1880 that infer he was a member of the local militia but the date of his joining is not known.

William married Caroline Foster on 27th December 1875 at the celebrated church of St Mary, Lambeth that stood at the entrance to the London home of the Archbishop of Canterbury (as shown here). William signed the register but his bride and her mother, one of the witnesses, made their mark; her brother, Henry, signed as the other witness. As will be seen from the following narrative the Foster family, like William Alexander Ripper's own family, had criminal tendencies.

1877 - Rhoda Birchell.

It is highly likely that William Alexander Ripper had a daughter who was named Rhoda Burchell when she was born around 1877. This story came to light as a result of DNA matching and is related on this website in the DNA - Discoveries section.

3 March 1878 - Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper

"CAUTION TO CHIMNEY SWEEPERS

"William Ripper, a master sweep residing in Friar Street, Blackfriar's Road, was summoned by the police under the Chimney Sweepers Act, 2 and 4 Vic., cap.85, sec.18, for lending his certificate: and Henry William Foster, a journeyman sweep, was charged with borrowing the same, contrary to the provisions of the act.
"Henry Mudford, police serjeant, 4L R, stated that on the 4th instant he met the defendant Foster coming out of a house where he had been at work, and he produced a certificate. Witness asked him if it was his, and whether he was a master. He at first replied in the affirmative, but afterwards said the certificate did not belong to him, but had been lent to him by his master.
"Witness examined the certificate, and proceeded to Ripper's house and asked him whether he had lent Foster his licence. He replied that he had, Foster was his journeyman, and that he had a perfect right to do so. He also said that he gave it to Foster to show in case he should be stopped by the police. Ripper said he was a master sweep, and was justified in lending any of his journeymen the licence. - Foster said that he had borrowed it, believing it to be all right.
"Mr. Benson told them clearly they were both mistaken. The Act of Parliament was clear on the subject. The master must keep all the licences, and must not allow his journeymen to have them. He fined Ripper, for lending the licence, 5s. and costs, and Foster, for borrowing it, also 5s., and 2s. costs."

It is unlikely that this was William's first brush with the law, and it was certainly not to be his last. Henry William Foster was a younger brother of William's wife, Caroline; the Foster family seem to have been in close collaboration with the Rippers in their clandestine ventures.

28 Apr 1879 - Old Bailey proceedings of Surrey Cases

Case 505
William Ripper (24), Rape of Georgina Alice Rivers (14)
Mr Besley prosecuted, Baron Pollock presided.
Ten Years' Penal Servitude
The trial took place in the Old Court (one of the courtrooms in the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey) in 5 May 1879, before Mr Justice Coleridge. Two cases were brought, one for rape and the other for actual bodily harm. The case for rape having been heard, the second case was not tried as William had already been convicted.

Case documents (courtesy of The National Archives) - From CRIM 4/904
List of witnesses on the reverse of the Indictment

"Msrs Shaen & Co, Solicitors "Georgina Alice Rivers [victim] "Georgina Rivers [victim's mother] "Charles Corbett Blades, Surgeon [to L Division] "Henry Foster (crossed out)* "William Dawe 229 L [Police Constable L Division] "Mary Ann Yarwood** "A true bill [signed J Mills?]" " ... Jury say guilty. To be kept in penal servitude ten years. "The Jurors for our Lady the Queen, upon their Oath present, That William Ripper "on the twenty second Day of April in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and seventy nine "with Force and Arms at the Parish of Saint George in the Borough of Southwark in the County of Surrey "and within the Jurisdiction of the said Court, in and upon Georgina Alice Rivers in the Peace of God "and our said Lady the Queen then and there being feloniously did make an assault and her "the said Georgiana Alice Rivers then and there against her will violently and feloniously did "ravish and casually know Against the Power of Statute in such case made and provided." * probably a witness who was not called; almost certainly the brother of William Ripper's wife, Caroline ** witness who lived in Pocock Street near to William Ripper, who lived in Friar Street

Georgina Alice Rivers' birth registration shows her born in the last quarter of 1865 in St Luke's district, Finsbury. In the 1871 census she is shown aged 5 and living with her parents, George and Georgina Rivers, at 6 Thomas Avenue, Waterloo, London. In 1881 she was recorded as Alice Rivers, a 14 (sic) year old servant in the lodging house of Helen Champion at 149 Dover Street in Newington. In 1885 she married Edward Cavendish. They had no children and lived in Battersea, as shown on the 1891 and 1901 censuses. They were in West Ham in 1911. Alice died in 1917 in Barnet district, possibly Friern Barnet Hospital.

The Police Gazette from 2nd January 1880 to 23rd February 1880

Deserted From the Militia

"William Ripper; 1st Surrey Corps; Lambeth; sweep; aged 24½; 5' 4" tall; brown hair; grey eyes, sallow complexion; deserted 16 June [1879]; cut over left eye"

William would not have been available to attend the muster on 16 June 1879, or any thereafter, having been imprisoned in April 1879.

1881 census - Chatham Prison, Kent

1889 - Released from prison on licence and rearrested for an assault on his wife

Saturday, February 23, 1889 - THE SOUTH LONDON PRESS

"Breaking a Wife’s Arm
"William Ripper (35), chimney-sweep, was charged, on a warrant, before Mr. Rutzen, with violently assaulting his wife.
"Detective Reed, P Division, stated that prosecutrix was not present. She had been attending St. Thomas's Hospital, her arm having been broken. Mr. De Rutzen directed that her sworn information should be read, and this showed that the prosecutrix lived with her husband at a house in Union-court, Walworth-road.
"On Thursday she applied for a summons against him for assault, and the application was granted. On Saturday the summons was served upon him, and he said he would do for her. He went out, and when he returned she was kneeling down cleaning the floor. He deliberately kicked her on the arm, causing her great pain, and she had to go to St. Thomas's Hospital.
"Detective Reed informed his worship that the prisoner had gone through part of a sentence of 10 years’ penal servitude, and was out on license.
"Mr. De Rutzen ordered a remand."