William Henry Bury - London

London

In October 1887, William arrived in Bow, London, and found work selling sawdust for James Martin. Martin is believed to have run a brothel at 80 Quickett Street, Bow, where Bury lived initially in the stable with the horse, but he later moved into the house. There, he met Ellen Elliot, who was employed by Martin as a servant and probably a prostitute.

Ellen had been born on 24 October 1854 at the Bricklayer's Arms public house in Queen's Row, Walworth, London, and was the daughter of publican George Elliot, who died in 1873. She had worked as a needlewoman and in a jute factory. In 1883, Ellen had had an illegitimate daughter, also called Ellen, but she had died in Poplar workhouse in December 1885. Ellen had worked for Martin since 1886. In March 1888, Ellen and William left Martin's employ, and moved to a furnished room at 3 Swaton Road, Bow, where they lived together until their marriage on Easter Monday, 2 April 1888, at Bromley Parish Church. Martin later said he had sacked William because he owed him money.

Both Martin and the landlady at 3 Swaton Road, Elizabeth Haynes, described Bury as a violent drunk. On 7 April 1888, Haynes caught Bury kneeling on his bride of five days threatening to cut her throat with a knife. Haynes subsequently evicted them, and Ellen sold one sixth of some shares in a railway company that she had inherited from a maiden aunt, Margaret Barren, to pay William's debt to Martin. William was re-employed by Martin, and the couple moved to 11 Blackthorn Street, close to Swaton Road. According to Martin, William was now suffering from venereal disease. In June, Ellen sold the remaining shares in the railway company, and in August they moved to 3 Spanby Road, which was adjacent to where William stabled his horse. With Ellen's income from the shares, William and Ellen had a week's holiday in Wolverhampton with a drinking buddy of William's and Ellen bought new jewellery. but William continued to assault his wife. By the first week of December, Ellen's windfall was nearly spent, and William sold his horse and cart. In January the following year, he told his landlord at 3 Spanby Road that he was thinking of emigrating to Brisbane, Australia, and asked him to make two wooden crates for the journey. Instead, William and Ellen moved to Dundee in Scotland. According to Ellen's sister, Margaret Corney, Ellen was not keen to go and only did so because William had told her he had obtained a position in a jute factory there. However, William's claim to have been offered a job by a jute merchant was false.