# Mary Ann Nichols
**Mary Ann Nichols**, known as Polly (26 August 1845 – 31 August 1888), was a London woman whose murder in Buck's Row, Whitechapel, opened the sequence of killings attributed to the unidentified serial killer remembered as [Jack the Ripper](https://www.edgepedia.org/jack-the-ripper). She is conventionally counted as the first of the so-called canonical five victims, alongside [Annie Chapman](https://www.edgepedia.org/annie-chapman), Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and [Mary Jane Kelly](https://www.edgepedia.org/mary-jane-kelly), all killed between August and November 1888.[1](https://www.eno.org/discover-opera/the-women-of-whitechapel-the-untold-stories/) • [2](https://www.casebook.org/victims/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 26 August 1845, daughter of Edward and Caroline Walker; middle child of the family[1](https://www.eno.org/discover-opera/the-women-of-whitechapel-the-untold-stories/) |
| Education | Studied at school until she was 15, learning to read and write, unusual for a working-class girl of the time[1](https://www.eno.org/discover-opera/the-women-of-whitechapel-the-untold-stories/) |
| Marriage | Married William Nichols, a printer; the marriage broke down and she left her husband and children in 1880[3](https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/GCSE/History/2016/Teaching-and-learning-materials/Whitechapel-historic-environment-teaching-resource.pdf) |
| Last years | Spent much of the 1880s drifting between workhouses and common lodging houses, paying fourpence a night for a bed at 18 Thrawl Street, Spitalfields[4](https://thehistorypress.co.uk/article/the-victims-of-jack-the-ripper/) • [5](https://mro.massey.ac.nz/server/api/core/bitstreams/3a3488d1-5d9b-4cf2-8f63-3b5143cc7bbf/content) |
| Death | Found dead in Buck's Row, Whitechapel, on the morning of Friday 31 August 1888, with her throat cut and her body mutilated[6](https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/morning_advertiser/18880918/) • [7](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/August-31/jack-the-ripper-claims-first-victim) |
| Inquest | Conducted by Wynne Baxter, coroner for the South-Eastern Division of Middlesex, at the Working Lads' Institute, Whitechapel Road[8](https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/times/18880903/) |
| Canonical status | First of the five victims generally accepted as killed by the same hand[2](https://www.casebook.org/victims/) |
## Early life and marriage
Polly Nichols was the middle child of Edward and [Caroline Walker](https://www.edgepedia.org/caroline-walker). Unlike many working-class girls of the period, she remained at school until she was 15 and learned both to read and to write.[1](https://www.eno.org/discover-opera/the-women-of-whitechapel-the-untold-stories/) She married William Nichols, a printer, and the couple had children together; one account gives six children[1](https://www.eno.org/discover-opera/the-women-of-whitechapel-the-untold-stories/) and another five, of whom the husband took four after the separation.[9](https://www.ancient-origins.net/whitechapel-canonical-five-jack-ripper%E2%80%99s-victims)
The marriage broke down, and in 1880 Nichols left her husband and children. She later described the split as tied to her suspicion that her husband was involved with a neighbor. From then on she cycled through the workhouse and common lodging houses, begging for the money for a night's shelter.[3](https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/GCSE/History/2016/Teaching-and-learning-materials/Whitechapel-historic-environment-teaching-resource.pdf) Her husband claimed she had deserted the family and resorted to prostitution, for which there was no evidence; her circumstances did deteriorate through a drinking problem and repeated spells in workhouses.[9](https://www.ancient-origins.net/whitechapel-canonical-five-jack-ripper%E2%80%99s-victims)
## The 1880s: workhouse and lodging house
Nichols spent a good deal of the 1880s on the drift around London.[4](https://thehistorypress.co.uk/article/the-victims-of-jack-the-ripper/) A study of the poor law institutions she entered shows that her admissions were not random: Lambeth workhouse in 1883, several Holborn institutions and the Strand workhouse in 1887, and Lambeth again in 1888, facilities where the trade in pauper corpses was thriving by that decade.[10](https://doi.org/10.4000/chs.1667) In early August 1888 she entered Gray's End workhouse in a crime-ridden Holborn parish known as Little Ireland. The final month of her life was described in that account as a sad one.[10](https://doi.org/10.4000/chs.1667)
By the last week of August she was sleeping at a common lodging house at 18 Thrawl Street in Spitalfields, paying fourpence a night for her bed.[5](https://mro.massey.ac.nz/server/api/core/bitstreams/3a3488d1-5d9b-4cf2-8f63-3b5143cc7bbf/content) On the night she died she showed off a new black velvet bonnet to the lodging house keeper.[9](https://www.ancient-origins.net/whitechapel-canonical-five-jack-ripper%E2%80%99s-victims)
## Murder in Buck's Row
Nichols's body was found on the pavement in a gateway in Buck's Row, Whitechapel, early on the morning of Friday 31 August 1888. The *Morning Advertiser* later described the dead woman as Mary Ann Nichols, 43, the wife of a machinist, lately living in Coburg Road, Old Kent Road, her body shockingly mutilated.[6](https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/morning_advertiser/18880918/) The *Echo* reported that a goods train had passed on the East London Railway at about half-past three on the morning of the murder, the 3.7 out from New Cross, which was probably the time when she was either killed or placed in Buck's Row.[11](https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/echo/18880906/)
The police obtained no early clue to the perpetrator. The *Times* noted that the murder had many points of similarity with two other killings of women of the class called "unfortunates" in the same neighborhood, including that of Martha Turner on 7 August, all within about 300 yards of each other, and that the police believed the three crimes were the work of one individual.[8](https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/times/18880903/) Inspectors Helson and Abberline attended the inquest for the Commissioners of Police.[6](https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/morning_advertiser/18880918/) Her body was removed to the Old Montague Street Workhouse Infirmary.[12](https://www.nafd.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/The-funerals-of-the-victims-of-Jack-the-Ripper-PART-1-December-2018.pdf)
## The inquest and aftermath
Wynne Baxter, coroner for the South-Eastern Division of Middlesex, opened his inquiry at the Working Lads' Institute on Whitechapel Road and resumed it there over the following days.[8](https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/times/18880903/) • [13](https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/times/18880904/) Witnesses included local residents and a watchman who said no disturbance had been heard in the neighborhood on the morning of the murder.[6](https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/morning_advertiser/18880918/) The funeral of the victim was reported in the press in the following week, while the murderer remained unarrested and [Metropolitan Police](https://www.edgepedia.org/metropolitan-police) dissatisfaction with the state of the investigation was reported in the same columns.[11](https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/echo/18880906/)
The killing of Annie Chapman, the second canonical victim, followed eight days after Nichols's death.[2](https://www.casebook.org/victims/) None of the [Whitechapel murders](https://www.edgepedia.org/whitechapel-murders) was ever solved, and the killer was never identified.[14](https://time.com/4788951/unsolved-murders-mysteries-list/)
## Historical picture and revision
For over a century Nichols was routinely described as a prostitute, and the canonical five were assumed to have been soliciting on the streets of [Whitechapel](https://www.edgepedia.org/whitechapel). Recent research summarized by the social historian Hallie Rubenhold, author of *The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper*, found no objective archival record proving that Nichols, Annie Chapman, or [Catherine Eddowes](https://www.edgepedia.org/catherine-eddowes) were ever involved in prostitution; only [Elizabeth Stride](https://www.edgepedia.org/elizabeth-stride) and Mary Jane Kelly have documented connection to it.[15](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1748895821992460) Rubenhold's book examined workhouse documents, marriage records, and censuses to reconstruct the women's lives and the roles of poverty, misogyny, and social instability in them.[16](https://time.com/5566076/jack-the-ripper-true-crime-victims/) At the inquest, one juryman asked why the police had not offered a reward, remarking that if the victim had been a rich woman the question would have answered itself.[5](https://mro.massey.ac.nz/server/api/core/bitstreams/3a3488d1-5d9b-4cf2-8f63-3b5143cc7bbf/content)
Her life has also reached the stage: the composer Iain Bell and librettist Emma Jenkins made Polly a central figure in the opera *Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel*, premiered by English National Opera, which portrays the women of the Whitechapel doss houses in 1888 as subjects rather than casualties of the story.[1](https://www.eno.org/discover-opera/the-women-of-whitechapel-the-untold-stories/)
## References
1. [Mary Ann 'Polly' Nichols, The Women of Whitechapel: The Untold Stories, English National Opera](https://www.eno.org/discover-opera/the-women-of-whitechapel-the-untold-stories/)
2. [Jack the Ripper Victims, Casebook: Jack the Ripper](https://www.casebook.org/victims/)
3. [Whitechapel historic environment teaching resource, Pearson](https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/GCSE/History/2016/Teaching-and-learning-materials/Whitechapel-historic-environment-teaching-resource.pdf)
4. [The Victims of Jack the Ripper, The History Press](https://thehistorypress.co.uk/article/the-victims-of-jack-the-ripper/)
5. [The Media Representation of the Whitechapel Murder Victims, Massey University repository](https://mro.massey.ac.nz/server/api/core/bitstreams/3a3488d1-5d9b-4cf2-8f63-3b5143cc7bbf/content)
6. [Morning Advertiser, 18 September 1888, Casebook: Jack the Ripper](https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/morning_advertiser/18880918/)
7. [Jack the Ripper's First Victim Murdered, August 31, 1888, HISTORY](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/August-31/jack-the-ripper-claims-first-victim)
8. [The Times (London), 3 September 1888, Casebook: Jack the Ripper](https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/times/18880903/)
9. [The Whitechapel Canonical Five: Jack the Ripper's Victims, Ancient Origins](https://www.ancient-origins.net/whitechapel-canonical-five-jack-ripper%E2%80%99s-victims)
10. [Dissecting Jack-the-Ripper: An Anatomy of Murder in the Metropolis, Cultural and Social History](https://doi.org/10.4000/chs.1667)
11. [Echo (London), 6 September 1888, Casebook: Jack the Ripper](https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/echo/18880906/)
12. [The Funerals of the Victims of Jack the Ripper, Part 1, National Association of Funeral Directors](https://www.nafd.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/The-funerals-of-the-victims-of-Jack-the-Ripper-PART-1-December-2018.pdf)
13. [The Times (London), 4 September 1888, Casebook: Jack the Ripper](https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/times/18880904/)
14. [The 6 Most Mysterious Unsolved Murders of All Time, TIME](https://time.com/4788951/unsolved-murders-mysteries-list/)
15. [A New Front in the History Wars? Responding to Rubenhold's Feminist Revision of the Ripper, Paul Bleakley, Crime, Media, Culture](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1748895821992460)
16. [We Remember Killers, But Not Those Who Die, TIME](https://time.com/5566076/jack-the-ripper-true-crime-victims/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › European history › Western Europe › Western Europe from the Congress of Vienna to 1914 (1815 to 1914) › Society and culture, 1815 to 1914*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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