Joe Riley and Elizabeth McLaren

Moving back to Yorkshire

While they were in Battle, Joe and Elizabeth Helen had two children, William (1879) and Jeanie (1880). By 3rd April 1881, the family was listed as living at 10 The Crescent in Hipperholme. Lawrence Riley was born in 1882, whilst the family were still living in Hipperholme.

Percy (Percival) Riley’s marriage certificate from 1920, he lists his father’s occupation as a surveyor.

Joe Riley listed his occupation in the census as Architect, certainly different to his previous career as the host of an Inn. There are newspaper references to Joe Riley being in partnership with Abraham Sharp of Bradford in an Architecture and Surveying business by September 1881. 

From the Bradford Directory of 1883, Joe Riley had moved from Hipperholme to Westfield in Wyke, a village around 2 miles away. On 29th September 1883, there was a report of Joe Riley, architect of Westfield in Wyke, being convicted of assault on a neighbour.

Changing fortunes

This seems to have marked another change in Joe and Elizabeth Riley’s life. There was no mention of the Architecture and Surveying partnership with Abraham Sharp from that point onwards. Where Joe Riley’s first conviction for permitting gambling in 1878 happened the other end of the country, this court appearance and scandal would have had an impact in the district. By 1885, Joe and Elizabeth were found to be in Tottenham in London where the birth of a fourth child, Percival Malcolm Riley, was recorded on the 11th July 1885.

The next sighting of Joe Riley was with the death of his father, John Riley, on 21st August 1884. In John Riley’s will his property and goods were divided between his extended family. Joe Riley was bequeathed more than £2000 (Around £150,000 or $260,000 CAD), a not insubstantial sum. The instructions in the will said that the money was in the control of Trustees to ensure that it was fairly spent and invested. It appears that from this money, Joe bought a property, Moorfield in the village of Clayton, in the moors between Halifax and Bradford.

A country gentleman and then decline

The next mentions of Joe Riley in Clayton are from the results of agricultural shows across England. If it is the same Joe Riley, then amongst the prizes he won were 3rd place in the National Dairy Show in 1888 in the Hornless she-goat class, 1st prize in the Black red game hen and 2nd prize in the Brown red game hen in the 1888 Wharfdale Agricultural Show at Otley and another 2nd place in the Brown red game hen at the Royal Manchester and Liverpool Agricultural Show. Around the same time, Joe and Elizabeth had their final child, Norman Claude Riley on 26th June 1888.

At the time of the 1891 census Joe and Elizabeth, and their children were residing at 100 Windsor Road in Southport in Lancashire. Southport was a seaside town which was gaining a reputation as a place for middle-class people from Yorkshire and Lancashire to spend their long summers. In the census, Joe’s occupation was listed as a ‘Feather dealer’.  It’s unknown whether this was Joe Riley’s actual profession or a description of what he was made by a cynical census collector. At that time, it was seven years after the death of his father and he was in receipt of a trustee income from his Father’s estate. There is no accessible information about Joe and Elizabeth Helen’s private life in Southport, but there is information that, Elizabeth Haley, visited them in 1892. Her death was recorded at Joe Riley and Elizabeth Helen McLaren’s  house but the attribution on her death certificate that she was still living in Hipperholme suggests that she was a visitor rather than a resident.

Then something odd happens. The final entry in official records that relate to Joe was a probate record from 1924

The probate document was issued at the request of Joe Riley and Elizabeth Helen Riley’s son Percy (Percival) in 1924. Courts were only able to make such a decree at least seven years after the presumed death of a person, but there needed to be a coroner’s inquiry before the judgement was made.

So what happened to Joe Riley? At present it has not been possible to find any official records or memoires that confirm what occurred. However there is some circumstantial evidence that may relate to the disappearance.

There was a newspaper report from London in October 1895 describe the arrest and committal of a builder, David Atkins.  Atkins was charged with taking money for more bricks used in the building of a set of apartment houses in London. His accomplice was named as Joe Riley. Riley was alleged to have exaggerated the number of bricks used on the project meaning an overpayment of more than £300. At the time of the committal hearing, Joe Riley had absconded and no trace of him could be found.

David Atkins was tried in the County of London Quarter Sessions at the end of October 1895 and found guilty.  Before sentencing, his Barrister tabled material in mitigation including a letter from Joe Riley to the fraud victim.

The presiding Judge decided to adjourn the sentence.

The question is whether this is the right Joe Riley? There are two specific reasons that may strengthen a case. Earlier in his life Joe Riley had been an architect and surveyor. In that job he would have had familiarity with the processes around quantities of building materials and the books needed to keep track of these. The second clue is in the probate record for Joe Riley.  His disappearance stems from the 26th September 1895. From the newspaper articles, David Atkins was arrested on 30th September and Riley absconded 3 days prior, therefore the 26th or 27th September. The facts seem too coincidental to not be same person.

What happened next to Joe Riley can’t presently be found. He appears to have had no further contact with his family and his departure left them in a bad way. Reading into the letter presented in court, it reads like the writing of a desperate man pushed to the edge and he may have fallen off a cliff. It could be that the ‘drink and gambling’ consumed him and he may have just drifted away on the streets or into the Thames River, or taken a ship to a far-off place. What can be seen is that the family that he left behind went into pieces.

In the probate of Joe Riley in 1924, it declares 

It appears that Elizabeth Helen McLaren was being supported by either the Riley or McLaren family as a private patient at Spelthorne.  

By 1911 it seems that Elizabeth Helen McLaren had moved to another Mental institution in London, Peckham House.  This is more difficult to substantiate as, quite rightly, in the 1911 census residents of Mental Institutes are only referred to by their first name initials. By 1911 she was no longer resident at Spelthorne and the Peckham House register has an “E.H.R.” born in 1856, a widow from Halifax .This patient "E.H.R." is probably Elizabeth Helen Riley (McLaren)

The only other available information is that she died at a third Mental Institution, Netherne Hospital in Reigate on the outskirts of London on the 6th January 1928.  This hospital wasn’t far from where her son Percy lived with his wife Ethel. We can’t know for certain, but it may have been that he visited her there. 

Elizabeth Helen McLaren would have been in Mental Institutions or asylums or sanatoria for around 30 years before she died. The common thread between the three hospitals where we know she was a patient was that, for private patients, there was a high standard of care. In Netherne Hospital, where she died, it was described, 'Netherne gained a reputation as a pioneering force in the treatment of mental health and in setting standards for the care of patients. Patients enjoyed good food, books, newspapers, indoor and outdoor games and church services at St Luke’s, the on-site church.'

This reads like Elizabeth Helen McLaren was not, at least financially, abandoned by the family. There was mention of Trustees administering her financial affairs that would have paid for her care. When she died, she left an estate of £447 to her son Percy Riley.

Piecing together what Joe, Elizabeth and their children’s lives must have been like, Joe does not read like a settled individual. The inheritance he received in 1884 must have provided some financial stability and security for the family. The house on the edge of the moors in Clayton would have been lovely in summer, but isolated in winter. For Elizabeth McLaren, a life in 1888, of 5 children under the age of 9 and a husband who spent, at least the summer, travelling the country with his show livestock,  must have been difficult. The family was wealthy enough to have at least one servant to help, but perhaps there were signs of the family implosion that was to come.

We don’t know precisely when the family breakdown took place. From the probate of Joe Riley, organised by his son Percival (Percy) Riley in 1924, Joe Riley was declared dead from the 26th September 1895. Over the next 50 years or so the history of the five siblings can be traced through a combination of government records and legal correspondence trying to settle the legacies of John Riley and William Malcolm McLaren.

This is quite the story of three generations of McLarens. From clan territory in Scotland and then to Canada. An incredibly successful Merchant in England’s booming Northern economy to his daughter and son-in-law whose lives imploded, one through illness and one as a mystery. It isn’t an unusual story, it just makes it real as it’s possible to track their rise and fall by official documents. 

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