The sad story of John Corvan, son of Patrick and Cecilia.

As previously mentioned, John Corvan was born in 1850, the second of seven sons born to Patrick Stephen Corvan and Cecilia Burn.He married Elizabeth Inch on July 20, 1873, at St. Martins In The Fields.
John lived with his parents in Clements Lane, St. Clement Danes, until his marriage. His father died in 1873 and his mother in 1875, and being the only married sibling John and his wife Elizabeth took on the role of raising the younger Corvan children- James, Rosa, Albert and Vincent.He had an elder brother, Thomas Patrick Corvan, but apparently John was considered to be a better choice.

The Corvans remained in St. Clement Danes until the late 1870s, during which time Elizabeth gave birth to three children- Rose Cecilia in 1874, John Stephen in 1875 and Elizabeth in 1877.
By the time their next child, Vincent Corvan, was born in 1879, the family had moved to Rotherhithe in Surrey. The 1881 census found them living at 18 Parfitt Street, Rotherhithe:

John Corvan/ head/ 30/ ornamental engraver/ born St. Clement Danes
Elizabeth Corvan/ wife/ 30/ born St. Giles
Rosa Corvan/ daughter/ 6/ born St. Clement Danes
John Corvan/ son/ 5/ born St. Clement Danes
Elizabeth Corvan/daughter/ 3/ born St. Clement Danes
Vincent Corvan/son/1/born Rotherhithe, Surrey.
Rosa Corvan/sister/24/ dressmaker/ born St. Clement Danes.

Two of the other boys had obtained employment and moved away from home- James and Albert, aged 21 and 19, were boarding together at 28 Charles Street, London, in the home of Irishwoman Margaret Russell. James was an upholsterer and Albert a plumber.I am yet to find any trace of Vincent.

In late 1881 an event occured which would result in this young family becoming destroyed...a relatively simple, very common occurrence, but one that would rip the Corvan family apart.
Rosa Corvan, John's only surviving sister, became pregnant to a man named Vincent Coleman. The resulting child was born in the June 1/4 of 1882 in St. Olave district of Rotherhithe, and was registered as "Vincent Corvin".
The presence of an illegitimate child in the Catholic Corvan household proved to be very unsettling for John Corvan, and depressed him to the extent that he attempted suicide. He was charged before a magistrate with this crime, but matters really came to a head on February 4, 1884.
The father of Rosa's son, Vincent Coleman,had taken the child away, an act which was very much against the wishes of Rosa. John apparently welcomed the opportunity to rid his house of little Vincent, because he and Rosa got into an argument that quickly escalated into violence.Rosa badly cut her brother's hand with a glass, and John, in a rage, picked up a heavy hammer and started to hit her about the head and body with it. Rosa ended up having to escape out of a first floor window, where she was found hanging by a passerby who, with the assistance of a policeman, helped her down and took her to hospital.

The case was briefly covered in local papers, and in more depth on the Oldbaileyonline website. These reports will be included in the following blog entry.