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The Crown Inn, Broad Street

Thank you for the kind welcome Polly! Mrs Pratt's daughter apparently left the Crown in Feb 1860 and went to work in another pub called the 'Swan With Two Necks' - wonderful name, that! I think it is very possible that I am related to the family, but to know for sure, I need more info about Mrs. Pratt - especially her first name. You're right regarding the newspapers - the murder was covered both locally and in the Times of London, but I cannot find either a mention of her mother or even Sarah's age at the time of her death. It seems the focus was more on the murderer, Francis Price, than his victim. I haven't had an opportunity to read the local press reports first hand, but if I can get no clues through the forum, I think that will have to be the next step. I'm running out of places to look!
Paul
 
So Sarah Pratt was working a the Swan with two necks at the time of her murder in April 1860 - was that pub also in Birmingham?
Was Sarah unmarried - still using the name Pratt when she was murdered? I am just wondering if finding where she was buried might help provide details. We have people on here with access to Key Hill Cemetery and Warstone Lane Cemetery records - I know it's a long shot but you never know - she may of been buried in one of those.
Did it mention her funeral in the papers?
 
www.midlandspubs.co.uk said:
I have posted a list of post-war licensees of this famous pub. If anybody remembers any of them please pipe up!

History of the Crown Inn on Broad Street in Birmingham

History and Information on the Crown Inn on Broad Street in Birmingham in Warwickshire
www.midlandspubs.co.uk www.midlandspubs.co.uk
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I rememebr John Peake and his Mrs very well he was a gentleman , the two ladies that worked for him looking after the smoke room was Ann and Pat , the latter ended up working in the Barrel Summer Lane after John had left the Crown
 
One thing I did forget there used to be a character in there most nights of the week , in his 50's I guess always had a silk hankie in his top pocket and wore a dicky bow his name was Ted , he always drank halves and was always ready for another if you were in the chair anybody remember him ? . When the Crown closed for the evening at weekends he was always off to the clubs
 
LeeSteventon said:
We know this to be (originally called) the Crown Inn and was established in 1791 by George's grandfather, John Owen. We know this because during a visit to the Birmingham Archives and tracing through Wills and other documents, we found a photograph of a pencil drawing of the Crown Inn on Broad Street and much to our delight, the name John Owen was written above the door!
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This is incorrect. The Owen family did not enter the story of the Crown Inn until the 1830s. Also, this cutting from Joseph McKenna's "Central Birmingham Pubs Vol.2" is also incorrect ....

Crown.jpg

Trival, but it was not No.26 at the start. It was not even listed as Broad Street but King Edward's Place. The first number it had on Broad Street was No.7.
More importantly, George Owen was not licensee at the turn of the eighteenth century, as stated in the book. William Taylor was publican by 1793 and he remained in charge of the Crown Inn until 1818. He was succeeded by the jeweller, James Bloore, who moved from the Swan on Navigation Street. During his time at the pub the licence register, on two occasions, listed the premises as the Three Crowns. Many years later, in the census of 1861, the enumerator also recorded the property as the Three Crowns. This may be because the name pervaded as a colloquialism as other records such as directories list it as the Crown Inn.
 
Oh dear, another error being compounded in print .....

Crown Inn.jpg

William Butler married Mary J. Ewing who was certainly NOT George Owen's sister. George Owen married Eliza Ewing at Solihull in December 1863. She was recorded as a resident of Solihull at the time of their marriage and her father was recorded as Alexander Ewing, manager of a gas works. I do not have the necessary Ancestry subscription to check Scottish records so I cannot ascertain if Eliza and Mary J. were sisters - anybody interested enough to look them up? Mary J. Ewing was born in Dunbartonshire but in 1861 was living at Aston with her cousin, the soda water manufacturer, Samuel Goffe.
 
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www.midlandspubs.co.uk said:
Mary J. Ewing was born in Dunbartonshire but in 1861 was living at Aston with her cousin, the soda water manufacturer, Samuel Goffe.
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Bit of an awkward look-up but I am almost certain they were sisters. Born in August 1840 at Dumbarton, Mary Jane Ewing's parents were Alexander and Eliza Ewing. So, William Butler married George Owen's sister-in-law not, as stated in the book, his sister. This is not simply pedantry on my part - if things are not checked properly then we may as well just make it all up. Once little details are allowed to slip through, the bigger picture gets distorted. In this case, it makes the link between George Owen and William Butler and little more distant than previously thought.
 
On her baptism Mary Jane Ewing's parents are listed as Alexander Ewing and Eliza Vale. Can't see one for Eliza but in 1851 there are a Mary and Eliza Ewing (and 2 brothers) listed as step daughters of a James Malcolm living in Lanarkshire, wife Eliza.

And there is a marriage for a James Malcolm to an Eliza Vale in 1849. There's not a lot of details on the record I can see so don't know why she's listed as Vale and not Ewing.
 
And not really relevant but may be the reason Mary & Eliza came to Bham. Their mother Eliza Vale was baptised at St Mary's, Handsworth and it was where she married Alexander Ewing in 1835.

She is listed as Spirit Merchant in 1851.
 
MWS said:
On her baptism Mary Jane Ewing's parents are listed as Alexander Ewing and Eliza Vale. Can't see one for Eliza but in 1851 there are a Mary and Eliza Ewing (and 2 brothers) listed as step daughters of a James Malcolm living in Lanarkshire, wife Eliza.

And there is a marriage for a James Malcolm to an Eliza Vale in 1849. There's not a lot of details on the record I can see so don't know why she's listed as Vale and not Ewing.
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Thanks for digging into this. I did see her as a step-daughter in the limited Scottish records I can access ....

Malcolm.jpg

I didn't see Eliza and only an Eva. Could be a transcription issue. I hadn't looked up Eliza Vale at Handsworth so that is interesting detail you have included. Thanks again, Kieron
 
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