Sherlock Holmes Chronology

Ok here's the final timeline I've made after rereading the entire canon and making notes on dates. This does not apply to any fanfic I've written, which play by their own rules. This is just what I've worked out from the Holmes stories themselves, but attempting to make chronological sense. I will use the four-letter abbreviations by Jay Finley Crist, to save typing.

In the "Adventures" stories, Holmes and Watson keep referring between cases as if they happened in order, but I ignore those references as Watson self-promoting, just like in SIGN he keeps referring to STUD as if it was recent, rather than years ago, and pretends that the Baker Street Irregulars haven't aged. As I said before, Watson lies out of discretion. In SPEC for example, Watson specifically states that he could not publish it until after the lady (Helen Stoner) died. In other cases, the principle people have not yet died, so Watson could be changing names and dates out of discretion for the clients. That's the only way to make GLOR make sense, that Watson substituted the Crimean War from 1855 instead of a war from 1845, so that the real Victor Trevor cannot be identified. Holmes could have asked Watson to do so, for the sake of his college friend.

Even if we assumed that Watson was honest, the dates would not make sense. For example, Watson claims that SCAN occurred on March 20, 1888, then he leaves IDEN undated other than a reference to the King of Bohemia some weeks ago. But REDH refers to Mary Sutherland's case (that is, IDEN) being just "the other day" even though REDH is in autumn 1890. How can IDEN be just weeks after March 1888, yet just "the other day" before 1890? (Unless there was some second case for the King of Bohemia, in 1890, for which Holmes accepted a gaudy snuffbox for payment.) Thus these references between stories can't be relied upon. It's dramatic license pretending that Holmes is commenting as each story is published. Holmes after all faked his death in May 1891, and Watson published the short stories starting in July 1891, after the presumed death.

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So finally here's the chronology. This is the short version, a plain list of the stories in order. I'll post something later that gives the reasoning behind the dates.

1. GLOR - Summer 1875 when Holmes solves the case. Maybe 1885 when Holmes tells the story to Watson "one winter's night"
2. MUSG - 1879 when Holmes solves the case. Holmes tells the case to Watson on another winter's night, after having told GLOR.
3. STUD - March 1881, see my notes on the Orontes troopship and the weekday.
4. RESI - October 1881 based on the original Strand text, before the mind-reading scene was grafted on from CARD. Or October 1886, if Watson is fibbing to protect Trevelyan. The Worthingdon bank gang were sentenced to 15 years and got out way too early.
5. SPEC - April 1883
6. COPP - early spring 1884
7. BERY - Friday in February 1885
8. YELL - Saturday in early spring 1886
9. VALL - January 1887
10. REIG - April 1887. The Lyons telegram is the 14th, but the Reigate case starts on the 25th.
11. SILV - July 7-12, 1887, see previous discussion of problems.
12. SIGN - Sept 1887, with marriage in November or December 1887. (Although parts of the Chap 1 discussion can be from earlier, such as the reference to Holmes having cases on the continent; he's already been to France as stated in REIG. Watson is clearly summarizing things that have happened over the years since 1881.)
13. NOBL - October 1887
14. SCAN - March 20-22, 1888
15. STOC - June 1888. Watson explains how he bought his Paddington practice months earlier.
16. GREE - June 20, 1888
17. NAVA - late July, 1888
18. CROO - summer 1888, maybe August
19. SECO - autumn 1888
20. FIVE - late Sept 1888 (refers to Mrs. Watson visiting her mother or aunt; let's say she visited either Mrs. Cecil Forrester or her school friend Kate Whitney from TWIS.)
21. HOUN - Oct 1888 (let's say Mrs. Watson is still visiting friends, per T. S. Blakeney)
22. BOSC - June 1889. June 3rd is a Monday, and Holmes was called in Thursday or Friday.
23. IDEN - Monday June 17th 1889 to the next day. The wedding was on Friday the 14th. Another option would be February 1890, to have the Friday wedding on Valentine's day.
24. TWIS - July 19, 1889. (Watson says June 19th, but the July is actually on Friday.)
25. ENGR - summer 1889
26. DYIN - a Saturday in Nov 1889, "the second year of my married life." Also, this makes it less uncomfortably close to Holmes faking his death in FINA.
27. BLUE - Dec 27, 1889
28. CARD - August 1890 (Mrs. Watson gone visiting again)
29. REDH - Oct 4, 1890. Watson has moved from Paddington to Kensington.
30. FINA - April 24, 1891 to May 4, 1891
31. EMPT - April 1894, with Watson's bereavement having taken place in the the past 3 years
32. WIST - mid June 1894 to be near a different quarter-day.
33. NORW - August 1894. Watson mentions having sold his Kensington practice to move back to Baker Street.
34. GOLD - November 1894
35. 3STU - spring, maybe May, 1895
36. BLAC - July, 1895
37. LADY - summer 1895 or 1896
38. BRUC - 3rd week of November 1895
39. VEIL - late in 1896
40. THOR - Oct 4-5, 1896
41. SUSS - Nov 19, 1896
42. ABBE - late January 1897
43. MISS - February 1897
44. DEVI - March 16, 1897
45. REDC - winter
46. CHAS - January 4, 1898
47. SOLI - April 23, 1898. I changed the year from 1895, so that the date is actually Saturday, and the case doesn't conflict with 3STU
48. DANC - July to August, 1898
49. RETI - summer 1898, there is now a telephone installed at 221B
50. SIXN - June 1900
51. PRIO - May 16, 1901
52. SHOS - May, before Derby Day
53. 3GAR - June 1902
54. ILLU - September 3-14, 1902, Watson living in Queen Anne Street now
55. 3GAB - late 1902, after Watson moved out and hasn't followed Holmes's cases lately
56. BLAN - January 1903, after the Boer War ended in May 1902, and Holmes claims that Watson selfishly deserted him for a wife.
57. MAZA - summer evening, Watson visiting and remarking to Billy that nothing's changed; also needs to be late for the electric bell, and the gramophone to work without cranking.
58. CREE - Sep 6, 1903
59. LION - July 1907, Holmes says he and an old housekeeper are alone with the bees. Only an occasional weekend visit from Watson.
60. LAST - August 2, 1914. Plus Holmes spent 2 years before undercover in America. Martha is a spy working under Mycroft in government, not the same as Mrs. Hudson or the Sussex housekeeper. Presumably Mrs. Hudson is retired, and the housekeeper is watching over Holmes's house and bees in his absence.

So these are my decisions, though some placements are uncertain and vague when I don't have enough data. Some are only based on whether Watson appears to be living with Holmes, or lives elsewhere due to marriage. Watson sets so many cases in the summer after his marriage that we need both 1888 and 1889 to spread them out. He should have given us more mid 1880 tales to fill in the hole, when they were bachelors. Or spread some out to autumn/winter instead of all summer!

Also, I'm missing a 3rd case for 1890. Watson says he only recorded 3 cases that year because he didn't visit as much (or maybe wasn't invited as much). I used to have 3 cases that year but I moved stuff around. Maybe an unrecorded case goes there, or I'll move things again later. We'll see.