Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts

Lizzie was acquitted in her own home town tonight at Superior Court in a repeat of the mock trial redux which was so well attended last month in New Bedford.  Will she make it three in a row next month in Taunton when the excellent cast takes the stand again?  Read all about tonight’s trial in the Herald News article by Debbie Allard with some superb photos by Jack Foley.http://www.heraldnews.com/news/x637610488/NOT-GUILTY-Lizzie-retrial-falls-in-line-with-history

Today’s South Coast Today puts Lizzie in the Press again with coverage of last night’s “Mock Trial”. Read the story at http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090925/NEWS/909250337

The 1893 Lizzie Borden trial re-enactment at Bristol County courthouse is the must-see event for September.  The courtroom where it all happened in June of 1893 is much today as it was on the day when Lizzie sat on the hard wooden bench and hid her enigmatic face behind her fan.  Even the Victorian wooden Defense and Prosecution tables where Robinson and Knowlton held forth are still in place.  A large oil portrait of Attorney Knowlton hangs on the wall today.  A large turnout is expected and tickets will soon be a hot commodity in the area. An open house will be held the night of the re-enactment from 6 – 7 p.m. when the “trial” begins.

The free program is open to the public, with limited seating.

 Mail a self-addressed stamped envelope to “Lizzie, Redux Request”, care of Clerk Magistrate Marc J. Santos, Bristol Count Clerk of Courts, 441 County St., New Bedford, MA 02740 for tickets. There will be two tickets issued per request. Tickets will be honored until 20 minutes before the performance, after which there will be a general admission as room is available.

2009 markes the 150th anniversary for the Massachusetts Superior courts.  Many events and displays are on tap for the year . Of particular interest is this notation on their web site

“Lizzie Borden, Redux ~ Multiple dates and locations

 New Bedford Superior Courthouse ~ September 24

Fall River Superior Courthouse ~ October 22

 Taunton Superior Courthouse ~ November 19

 Ms. Borden was acquitted of the murder of her father

and mother and no other suspect was ever identified.

The trial, which took place in 1893 in the New Bedford

Superior Court, continues to interest and intrigue the

public. Not a re-enactment but in a mock trial, Ms.

Borden will be tried again with two lawyers serving as

team prosecutors and two lawyers as team defense. The

audience will vote a verdict.”

To see a listing of all the big doings for the year visit http://www.mass.gov/courts/press/summary-of-events.pdf

Bridget Sullivan’s whereabouts from after Lizzie’s aquittal in June of 1893 up until she was located in Anaconda, Montana in 1896 married to a Sullivan, has always been a source of mystery.  Did Lizzie’s attorneys give Miss Sullivan money to “get out of town”?  Did Bridget stay in the city, find work elsewhere, or go back home to Ireland to visit her family after her ordeal with the Borden family?  Naturally, Bridget Sullivan is a common name for an Irish immigrant, and we may never know her full story of those missing years.  Recently Ancestry.com made available ship passenger manifests.  A Bridget Sullivan is shown traveling to Queenstown, Ireland from Boston in June 1894, on the same Cunarder steamship, the RMS Scythia, on which Lizzie left in 1890 with her lady friends for her 19 week Grand Tour.  Bridget was obliged to be available for the witness box until after Lizzie’s acquittal-but did she have to work an extra year after to save passage money?  When did she return to America before going to Montana?  Some questions we may never be able to answer, but this entry below in the Scythia passenger list is a good possibility.  Bridget is listed as being 28 years old and bound for Liverpool with the usual stop at Queenstown first where she would have disembarked.  The ship reached Liverpool on June 19th.

RMS Scythia (steel engraving courtesy of Norway Heritage)

Above photo is the top of the page with information catagories.

Special thanks to my sleuthing partner, Mike Poirier, for helping me with this quest.

Denise Noe’s article on the persuasive leader of the Borden Dream Team, Mr. George Robinson, may be found at the following link.  It was first published in The Hatchet, the journal for Borden case studies.

 http://mensnewsdaily.com/2007/08/25/george-robinson-the-extraordinary-man-who-did-so-much-to-free-lizzie-borden/

 In a novel twist on the old tale, audience members at the production of Lizzie Borden and the 40 Whacks will be active participants in a mock trial this Thursday, August 23rd at the Lynn, Massachusetts Historical Society.  The drama will unfold at 7 p.m. and admisssion is free. For more information visit this link.

http://www.bostonnow.com/entertainment/theater/2007/08/21/free_lizzie_in_lynn/

August began and is ending up with Lizzie!  The calendar year goes April, May, June, July, Lizzie, September. . . . . . . .

The documentation regarding the final disposal of Hosea Knowlton’s ashes after they left Forest Hills in Boston, to the scattering over the fishing pond in Marion has arrived from the town hall office of records.  The first document is a file card from The Rural Cemetery of New Bedford.

The second and third photos below are copies from the original record, detailing the death on Decemeber 18, 1902. 

The death certificate copy

 (click on all photos for printable, full-sized images)

     More information is coming in today from all over about Mr. Knowlton.  One mystery is solved, the woman in the New Bedford plot is Mr. Knowlton’s mother Mary who died after an accident in July of 1902, not Hosea’s wife, who like her husband, was cremated. 

“While in New Bedford, the Knowlton’s lived at the corner of Union and Cottage Streets, not far from the former Union Street residence of Attorney General George Marston. They also had a summer residence at Marion… for several years years in later life he was clean shaven. He had some ability at the piano and was accustomed to playing a polka for his children and their young friends.  …  It is a tradition that in the unexpected absence of the  incumbent he once filled in as organist at vthe Universalist Church.

“Mr. Knowlton was deeply affected by the death, as a result of an accident in Boston of  his venerable mother, in the summer of 1902, shortly before she she was to make her home in his family (in Marion, Massachusetts). “He (Knowlton) died at his summer home in Marion, Massachusetts.” In The Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. Lizzie A. Borden, p. 446.

 Knowlton really loved Marion,  even his mother was going to move in until the accident in Boston in 1902.

He (Knowlton)  married May 22, 1873, Sylvia Bassett Almy of this city (New Bedford), daughter of Sophia (Allen) Almy of Eighth Street (New Bedford). Mrs. Knowlton was also cremated. “