Booth in Boston April 1865

[Dave Taylor]

Just to add to the intrigue...

The late Art Loux once posted on this forum:

"I believe Booth & Lady checked into the Aquidneck House on April 5. The handwriting on the register is not Booth's. Mr. Hall found another J. W. Booth who lived in Boston and speculated the guy with lady was not our JWB."

However, this is not the way Art's book reads. In his book he accepts the fact that it's our JWB at the Aquidneck House in Newport.

You can see how the word "Boston" was written here.

I came across the same gentleman as Mr. Hall when I was researching yesterday. A James W. Booth had recently moved to Boston in 1865 with his wife and daughter. A son was born to the pair later in April of 1865 who they coincidentally named Edwin Booth. I'm not sure this Mrs. Booth would have been up for traveling when she was practically 9 months pregnant. And if this was the "Lady" where was the couple's daughter at the time?

Like Art, I originally did not believe this was Booth's handwriting. The B in Booth is different than in Booth's normal signature. However, the way the J is connected to the W is the exact same way Booth connected the two. In the word Boston, Booth regains his traditional style of making his capital Bs. The word Lady also matches his handwriting perfectly. In the end, I had to admit that it was Booth's signature, albeit a strange variation for him.