Ellen was most likely born Ellen Maguire in 1841 in New York, to John & Ellen (Maiden Name Unknown) Maguire.
Ellen married Alfred A Clegg on 17 Nov 1864 in New York. He was also a well known pickpocket went by the name of Old JImmy Clegg.
They had the following children:
Eleanor Susannah Clegg
1866–
Alfred A Clegg
1868–
George Wright Clegg
1874–
Charles Lee Clegg
1878–1953
She was a very close friend of the first Underworld Lady BOSS Mother Mendelbaum in New York City, here's a clipping.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/42524666/ellen_clegg/?xid=637&_ga=2.160391294.2100674869.1578972602-1337949228.1570736414
I will be writing a blog post on her another time.
Seems no one know when this couple died, I looked through records on Ancestry and Familysearch and I didn't find anything I would say was 100% for sure them.
What a fascinating time in our history, and a criminal art that has practically disappeared, pickpocketing that is. As time changes so does the criminal and their crimes.
RECORD.
Ellen Clegg is an old and expert pickpocket, shoplifter, and hand-bag opener. She was one of Mrs. Mandelbaum’s women, and is well known throughout the country. Her picture is in the Rogues’ Gallery in several of the large cities. She is a clever woman, and the wife of Old Jimmy Clegg, alias Bailey, alias Lee, alias Thomas, who was convicted and sentenced in Portsmouth, N.H., in April, 1882, for four years, for picking pockets.
This team has traveled through the country for years, and been arrested time and time again. Ellen was arrested in Boston, Mass., on December 6, 1876, in company of Tilly Miller, Black Lena, and four other notorious shoplifters, and her picture taken for the Rogues’ Gallery.
She was arrested again in Boston in 1878 for picking pockets, and sent to the House of Correction.
Again arrested in New York City on November 24, 1879, in company of Walter Price (197), under the name of Mary Gray, charged with shoplifting. (See record of No. 197.) She pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to three years in the penitentiary on Blackwell’s Island, N.Y., by Judge Gildersleeve, on December 16, 1879. Price went to State prison. Ellen’s time expired in this case on April 16, 1882.
She was arrested again in Boston on May 21, 1883, for shoplifting, and sentenced to one year in the House of Correction. Arrested again in Boston on December 22, 1885, and again sent to the House of Correction for one year. In this case Ellen was detected in the act of opening a lady’s hand-bag and attempting to remove a pocket-book. Her picture is a pretty good one, taken in 1876.
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| Photo of Ellen |
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| Alfred A Clegg |
Eleanor Susannah Clegg
1866–
Alfred A Clegg
1868–
George Wright Clegg
1874–
Charles Lee Clegg
1878–1953
She was a very close friend of the first Underworld Lady BOSS Mother Mendelbaum in New York City, here's a clipping.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/42524666/ellen_clegg/?xid=637&_ga=2.160391294.2100674869.1578972602-1337949228.1570736414
I will be writing a blog post on her another time.
Seems no one know when this couple died, I looked through records on Ancestry and Familysearch and I didn't find anything I would say was 100% for sure them.
What a fascinating time in our history, and a criminal art that has practically disappeared, pickpocketing that is. As time changes so does the criminal and their crimes.
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