Detectives of the same name

How were two detectives named Nelson related, if at all? In fact, who even WAS one of them?

I have a lot of scrawled, handwritten notes about private detectives. Often, I've seen one mentioned in the newspapers when I've been searching for someone else, and I make a note to research them later. Or I might see one mentioned in the census, and go off down a rabbit hole.

In today's post, my research started with a scrawled transcription of a 1921 census entry. At the time, I was between subscriptions, and Ancestry hadn't put the 1921 census online, so all I had was a brief record of what I believed to be a single household in Bristol.

This listed two families living at 9 Union Place: William Horatio Nelson with his wife and five of their children; and Robinson Nelson and his wife. I had recorded them both as being private detectives. I started researching how they were related, initially, but eventually came to the conclusion that they weren't - or if they were, it was as cousins of some sort. William Horatio Nelson was a Bristolian, as were his parents. Robinson Nelson, though, was a Yorkshireman.

Bristol - home of private detective William Horatio Nelson

William was fairly easy to research: he was a former groom and soldier born in 1887 to William H Nelson, a porter, and Elizabeth, a charwoman. In his childhood, he lived in a house shared with his paternal grandparents - one of whom was Irish - and his aunts and uncle.

In the summer of 1921, decided to set up as a private detective. He placed several adverts in the Western Daily Press:

"PRIVATE DETECTIVE: DISENGAGED. Secret watchings, divorce evidence obtained. Maintenance orders annulled. Write Nelson, 9 Union Place, Redcliff."

He seems to have been frequently disengaged, and soon left this fledgling career behind. His father died in 1934; he died in 1961.

But what of Robinson Nelson, who I had marked as part of his household? Checking the 1921 census showed that the two Nelsons were not part of the same household, and that Robinson (a more common name than you might imagine) was not a private detective, although his entry for his occupation does not make it 100% clear what he was. Trying to find the origins of this Robinson Nelson, though, made an intriguing link to William Horatio Nelson, though.

The 1921 census stated that Robinson Nelson had been born in Halifax, Yorkshire, in 1866, and that he was married to a lady named Evelyn, six years his junior. Yet I could not find this couple anywhere else. There was no marriage for them, no other census entries. But researching West Yorkshire records, I found a Robinson Nelson, who claimed to have been born in London in 1854, despite having lived in West Yorkshire for many years.

This Robinson Nelson was a rather intriguing character. From at least 1888, he had been working as a 'hand-writing expert', teaching locals 'business hand' but also developing a speciality in appearing as a writing expert in local court cases, such as in cases involving libel and the sending of anonymous letters traducing other tradesmen's reputations. He gave himself the title of 'Professor', which the newspapers tended to put in inverted commas, highlighting the fact that he had no academic credentials to justify the title.

In 1893, Nelson had himself appeared in court, charged with deserting his wife. Kate Higgins, a woman from Hunslet, Leeds, had married Nelson just six weeks earlier. She claimed that immediately after their marriage, they had returned to Nelson's home at Mirfield, only to find another woman established there. Nelson claimed that she was his aunt - his mother's sister - but Kate was insistent that the woman was her husband's mistress, and that he intended for all three to live together in a menage a trois. The woman went by the name of Madame Vera, but Nelson said her real name was Annie Nelson. He argued that Kate was unreasonable, that this woman was his relative, and that, in fact, he wanted to end the marriage because Kate was an unpleasant drunk. The court was dubious about his claims, and cross when they asked Nelson about his income as a writing expert, believing that he deliberately downplayed what he earned. They agreed to a separation order, and for Nelson to pay Kate regular maintenance.

Coverage of Nelson’s marital issues in the Dewsbury Chronicle (public domain, via British Newspaper Archive)

The 1891 census is the only one that writing expert Robinson Nelson definitely appears in, and this is intriguing. It shows him living at Hollinroyd Wood, Dewsbury, with a Scottish 'aunt' named Annie Douglas, and a 16 year old he claims to be his brother, with the familiar name of Prince Nelson. Prince was, he said, born in Birmingham. Needless to say, I can't find this Prince anywhere else, and there was no birth registered under this name for the right time or place. There were several Ann or Annie Douglases born in Scotland, but none appear to have a link to Nelson.

However, in the 1893 court case, Nelson admitted that this was not his real name - he said his surname was actually Robinson. Sadly, the newspapers covering the case did not report what he claimed his first name was. Given that he lied about his name, he may have lied about other details as well. For example, was he really a Londoner? In Yorkshire, he was consistently known as Robinson Nelson, and he knew the area well. He gave lessons weekly at various locations across West Yorkshire, and at various points, lived in Dewsbury, Leeds and Bradford, being on the register of electors.

What is equally interesting is that in the Edwardian era, Nelson branched out, adding private detective to his repertoire. He was also advertising handwriting and arithmetic lessons in Keighley and Shipley, and still giving evidence in court cases - this is, presumably, what encouraged him to take on a private detective role as both jobs shared similarities, such as the gathering and giving of evidence. In 1909 and 1910, he was still advertising his services as a private eye, while in 1908 and 1911, he was giving handwriting evidence.

There is only one entry for a Robinson Nelson in the 1911 census for West Yorkshire, but this Nelson, living in Bradford, is a bit different from the 1891 one: he has a middle initial (J), is 13 years younger than the handwriting expert would be, based on his 1891 age, and is working as an estate agent. He claims to have been married around 1909, but is boarding with a family away from his wife. He also gives his place of birth as Halifax.

This appears to be the same Robinson Nelson as the one who appears in Bristol in 1921. They are the same age, and born in the same place. But could it also be the same man as the handwriting expert and private detective? It seems likely. There are, as I have mentioned, several other men of this name, but there were only a few in Yorkshire (the main other one being a man born in 1903 in Rathmell, who was also, strangely, married to a lady called Evelyn, but who was a joiner and better recorded in the archives).

Unfortunately, given that Nelson admitted to using a fake name, I'm not sure I'll be able to find out who he really was. But I do strongly suspect that he was a born Yorkshireman, simply claiming to be a Londoner because it made him sound more exotic, marrying well with his other claim to be a professor. But his birth, and probably his death, are not registered under the name he worked under as both a handwriting expert and a private detective, so he remains - for now - a mystery... unlike his Bristolian counterpart.