Ancestors At Work
Our fearless investigator Nell Darby reveals how you can find out if your forebear was a real-life Miss Marple or Sherlock Holmes
Nell Darby investigates the secret lives of private eyes
The middle of the 19th century saw the increase in popularity of a particular occupation – that of the private detective. They had existed in the early part of the century, primarily engaged on rather dry matters, mainly relating to helping out financial institutions. However, one piece of legislation was chiefly responsible for their growth and fortunes, and that was the 1857 Matrimonial Causes Act.
This Act opened up divorce to warring couples. Previously, those wishing to end a marriage had to seek a private Act of Parliament to do so – something that put divorce out of the reach of all but the wealthiest. The Matrimonial Causes Act, however, made it possible to petition for divorce through the law courts, as long as you could provide evidence of wrongdoing. A man could gain a divorce if he had evidence that his wife had committed adultery; a woman could do the same if she could prove her husband’s adultery and another offence, such as desertion or marital violence. How could this evidence be gained? A key way was through employing a private detective – or ‘private inquiry agent’ – to shadow a husband or wife, or to infiltrate a household, or befriend an individual; to gain their trust and get them to incriminate themselves, or to see them engaging in suspicious
‘Working as a private eye was a popular choice for the emerging middle classes’
behaviour. As the number of petitions for divorces gradually rose, so too did the number of individuals who sought to make money from this growing market.
A Varied Workload
Divorces became the bread-andbutter work for a majority of detectives by the turn of the 20th century, but they also sorted out embarrassing entanglements for families, such as helping to end their children’s unsuitable relationships; investigated fraud and other crimes on behalf of financiers, manufacturers, merchants and insurance companies; looked into blackmail cases; and served legal papers. Clients might be a cuckolded husband, a spurned wife, or – for the more successful detectives – politicians, bankers, newspaper publishers or sportsmen.
Some detectives were individuals working on a selfemployed
basis, either from home or a rented office; others were the proprietors of agencies with offices and staff. These members of staff might be secretaries or agents; they might be based permanently at the agency or be what we would call freelance or temporary staff, taking on ad-hoc work for other detectives. London-based agencies and detectives often employed agents based in the provinces to take on a case and report back.
Working as a private eye was a popular choice for the emerging middle classes in the latter 19th century. Many resourceful young men from ordinary backgrounds who had benefited from the
Elementary Education Acts went into work as clerks, learnt useful skills from their employers then left to become private investigators. The most famous of the late Victorian and Edwardian detectives, Henry Slater, was the pseudonym of George Tinsley, who worked as a solicitor’s clerk, learnt shorthand through his job and set himself up as a self-employed shorthand tutor. He then started work as a private detective around 1885, initially on his own before establishing an agency in Basinghall Street in the City of London.
By the mid-1890s, Slater’s keen eye for self-promotion had made him famous. One of his advertising strategies was to boast an army of “cycling lady
detectives” working for him in 1896. Indeed the profession provided opportunities for women of all marital statuses, including widows, and for all ages. In the days before women were accepted formally into the police, they were still able to undertake investigative work as a private detective. Conversely, many police detectives, who retired in middle age, started new careers as private detectives, and had an advantage over women thanks to their skills and experience. Some women who were married to present or former policemen, though, learnt some valuable skills from their spouse.
Many of the successful privatedetective agencies by the 1890s were based in London. The area around Covent Garden and the Strand was particularly popular with detectives because of the theatres close by (they might be asked to investigate blackmail or thefts involving theatrical figures, both fairly common types of crime); near the law courts was also a good location. However, private detectives also operated on a lower-key basis from their own homes, while cities such as Belfast, Sheffield and Cardiff had enough work to keep local inquiry agents busy. They occasionally got the chance to be involved in more meaty cases than marital strife and financial skulduggery, such as when London’s William Burgess apprehended a man he witnessed commit manslaughter in 1880 then collected evidence for the prosecution.
Dodgy Dealings
The fact that the industry was egalitarian caused some concern in a class-conscious society. Private detectives were often portrayed as mercenary in the press, and reports of some people pretending to be detectives in pursuit of a suspect to gain free meals or accommodation from restaurateurs or hoteliers hardly helped the profession’s reputation. Even Slater’s agency folded in ignominy in 1904, when its owner and several of his employees were tried at the Old Bailey for faking evidence in a divorce case. Yet attempts to legislate the industry, which really began in 1913, are still ongoing. In the meantime, private detectives continue to be commissioned to uncover our secrets and lies.