The Weird Urchin Obsessed With Queen Victoria
Thomas Flower was creepy, but nowhere close to the creepiness of Edward Jones, a teenager dubbed “Boy Jones” by palace staff. Around 5AM on December 14th, 1838, a palace servant saw a hideous face in a window. It was smudged with soot, and belonged to an ugly youth who impishly grinned at him.
Investigation revealed that a palace room had been ransacked, so the alarm was sounded, and the hunt for the intruder was on. A constable spotted a teenager outside the palace, gave chase, tackled, and seized him. The arrestee was an unfortunately featured young man, whose face and clothes were covered in grease and soot. He had on two pairs of pants, and when the outer one was removed, several pairs of ladies’ drawers fell out – Queen Victoria’s panties.
The kid gave his name as Edward Cotton – subsequent investigation revealed his real name to be Edward Jones, a fourteen-year-old urchin. He had gotten into Victoria’s bedroom, and along with her panties, had stolen a letter, her portrait, and assorted linens. That he had gotten that close to the queen was bad enough. Discovering how long he had been in the palace was worse: Edward Jones had lived in the royal residence for a year.
In the daytime, he hid behind furniture, or in the chimneys and other spaces in the palace walls. At night, he wandered Buckingham’s halls. When he hungered, he raided the kitchen, and when he got too dirty, he rinsed his shirt in the wash. During meetings between the queen and her ministers, he sometimes hid under the table and eavesdropped.
