Did JWB visit Mary's boarding house after the assassination?

[STS Lincolnite]

(02-23-2015 10:58 AM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote:  

(02-23-2015 10:42 AM)STS Lincolnite Wrote:  

(02-23-2015 10:25 AM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote:  At John Surratt's trial, Olivia Jenkins claimed that the visitor to the boardinghouse was a man who brought her some papers.

I'll have to go back and read Ms. Jenkins testimony from the Surratt trial to give myself a little context. I do find it strange that someone would be delivering papers to a woman/girl (who I believe was unmarried and about 15 years old) after 9:00 pm. That just doesn't seem to match up with what my idea of the social standards of the time would allow. I am by no means an expert on the social standards of the mid 19th century however.

She was about 19 (and unmarried). She testified that the man called during supper, that Anna Surratt answered the door, and that the man (a Captain Scott of the navy) left some papers for her. As the man didn't see her alone (and indeed doesn't seem to have seen her at all, but just dropped by with the papers), I don't think there would be any impropriety.

Thanks Susan. This clarifies some for me and confuses me some. I got the age as 15 yo from Steers book. If she was 19 and the call was at supper time (assuming 6-7 pm which I would think would be a common supper time), and papers dropped off I agree there would be no impropriety by the standards of the day.

However, the visit to the boarding house Weichmann referred to was late in the evening stating it was roughly an hour before the assassination (which by most accounts occurred at about 10:20 pm so the boarding house visit probably around the 9:00 hour). Did they eat supper as late as 9:00 or after? The visitor to the boarding house Weichmann is referring to would seem to me to be an entirely different visitor than Miss Jenkins described.