Coachman, William Hamilton

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irishlass78
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Coachman, William Hamilton

Post by irishlass78 »

Came across this in the Boston Globe. First time I can recall hearing of this name in relation to the Borden family.

Boston Daily Globe, April 6, 1895

“Was Not The Borden Murderer...Mistake of Brighton Man Causes The Arrest Of Miss Lizzie Borden's Former Coachman, Will Hamilton”

“Hello Will Hamilton!” These were the words with which ex-Gov. Robinson greeted William Hamilton at the Brighton police station yesterday morning.
Hamilton had passed through a trying ordeal during the proceeding 21 hours. He is a colored man, 51 years of age, and for the past few weeks has been in rather hard luck. A few weeks ago he came to Allston and succeeded in securing enough employment at the Wilton house to pay for his lodging, room and meals. At spare moments, he did odd jobs wherever he could find them.
Hamilton was employed in the Borden family in Fall River at the time of the murder of Mr. and Mrs. Borden. This fact was the cause of him being at the Brighton police station yesterday forenoon.
On last Thursday forenoon he decided to send a letter to his former mistress, Miss Lizzie Borden, asking for assistance. He entered a shoe shop on Lincoln St. and asked an occupant of the place to write the letter for him. His request was willingly complied with, and Hamilton was hopefully looking forward to the assistance, which he expected would be forthcoming.
His hopes were dashed to the ground when policeman Jenkins of Division 11 soon appeared and put him under arrest. He was taken to the station house and locked up “on suspicion.” He remained a prisoner until yesterday morning.
It appears that the man who wrote the letter for him immediately notified the police that he had located the murderer of Mr. and Mrs. Borden. After Hamilton had been put under arrest, the police of Fall River were notified, and yesterday morning five of them, accompanied by ex-Gov. Robinson and lawyer Adams, visited Brighton for the purpose of seeing the prisoner.
When they saw him Gov. Robinson said, “Hello, Will Hamilton!” to which the crestfallen man replied, “How do you do, Mr. Robinson?” Then Mr. Robinson said, “Why, we know him. He is all right. Let him out.” Mr. Adams and the police from Fall River also identified Hamilton and said that he was all right. He was accordingly released from custody and hastened to the Wilton house to make known the cause of his absence.
He is much affected by the affair and says that he did not know what was going to happen to him. He said, “I am 51 years of age, and I never was in such a fix before in my life.” He said that he had been employed in the Borden family for about eight years, and that he was on his way to the depot to meet Miss Emma Borden at the time of the murders. He had been employed by Gov. Robinson before working for the Bordens.
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violette
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Re: Coachman, William Hamilton

Post by violette »

I don't recall hearing of William Hamilton either. Although there are so many 'minor characters' that it's difficult to remember all.

I did a search and found two William Hamilton's living in Fall River in 1892.
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irishlass78
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Re: Coachman, William Hamilton

Post by irishlass78 »

I thought it interesting that he was the coachman who picked Emma up at the train depot. Also that he was employed by the Bordens for a number of years.
Curiousmind2014
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Re: Coachman, William Hamilton

Post by Curiousmind2014 »

I think Fall River society had an elite group, and they protected one of their kind. I believe that's what some people who lived in Fall River were trying to say. They protected Lizzie during the trial to protect their identity, but then they left her all alone.
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Re: Coachman, William Hamilton

Post by InterestedReader »

The more I look at this story the more I like it.

In order to dismiss it entirely one has to believe the Boston Globe would invent the doings of George D. Robinson - one-time senator, congressman, Governor of Massachusetts and perennially, lawyer. So let's accept he probably did go to Brighton with the five Fall River police-officers and Boston lawyer Melvin Adams from Lizzie's defence 'team', to release the man from jail.

Why was Hamilton sending to Lizzie Borden for assistance?
Can there be any truth in the man's claim he was employed as the Bordens' coachman for eight years? And still retained in some fashion in August 1892?

He won't be caught doing so by the Census. In the criminal proceedings no-one mentions a coachman-employee. Bridget Sullivan is questioned as to when the Bordens kept a carriage and she deposes that Borden had given it up about a year previously. Could it be that the Bordens once employed their own coachman but would afterwards employ him to drive a hired carriage?

We know that throughout the Trial Lizzie Borden manoeuvred with flourish thanks to a coachman called 'Little Abram Lee', in press reports. He too was black. Here he is the day of her acquittal:

'Lizzie quietly left the court house for the stable with the assistance of her black coachman, Little Abram Lee. It was Mr. Lee who drove Lizzie to and from the court house during the trial. Reporters and the crowds assumed Lizzie was headed for the train station. At 5:32 p.m. Emma, Lizzie, Mr. and Mrs. Holmes, and Att. Robinson were on the rocky road from New Bedford to Fall River in Kirby & Hicks Stable's brand new landau. It was drawn by two black horses set off with gold mounted harnesses...'

(Boston Daily Globe 21st June 1893)

I've searched for 'William Hamilton' in the black workforce of Massachusetts, in both the 1880 and 1900 Census. A black coachman may have been a modish thing to have, but it's rare to actually find one, listed as the occupation. The black community of Massachusetts tend to be working the land or occasionally, servants. I've found just one Hamilton family with a man working as 'Coachman' - in fact, two men, of successive generations, father and son. Neither man fits in all particulars, their ages and their christian names aren't a match, but they've something else in their favour and I've not yet found an alternative.

Here is Charles Hamilton, in 1880. He's 50 and he's a 'Coachman':
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH6M-W5N

Here is Charles in 1900:
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M95F-RS8
He's been reduced to 'Day Labour' but his son Edward, 43, is now listed as the 'Coachman'.

Charles and his wife Lucretia had a large family, their children being Almy, George, Ensign, Alice, Robert, Edwin, William and Edward. William had died of cholera in 1877, so the William can be ruled out. In fact, of Lucretia's eight children, by 1900 four were dead. (Curiously, the 1900 Census says Lucretia bore seven. Well, eight sons and daughters are appearing.)

There's a large extended family of Hamiltons here in Pittsfield, Berkshire, MA. At first I thought Pittsfield a bit far from Fall River but then again, Pittsfield is just the right distance from Chicopee, in Springfield, where George Robinson had his household. Robinson may very well have hired his coachman from this Hamilton family. Oddly, on the day of Lizzie's acquittal, Robinson seems in charge of the transport.

So the reality behind 'Will Hamilton' may be a 65 year old man fibbing about his age because he's desperate. As to the christian name... I suppose even in enlightened Massachusetts they weren't above bestowing soubriquets on the black staff. For that matter have I found 'Little Abram Lee'? No.

And now the outstanding novelty in the article, Hamilton's bleat that he'd been 'on his way to the depot to meet Miss Emma Borden at the time of the murders'.

I've never formed a clear picture of just how Emma travelled home from Fairhaven that day, and after spending much time searching through the Forum I see why. It's by no means agreed upon. This is Rebello, page 82:

'The telegram was more than likely sent to the Western Union Co. in New Bedford . In 1892, the telegraph company had several telegraph locations; 32 Water Street, Parker House, Northern Depot and 51 William Street. The Postal Telegraph Co., another telegraph company in New Bedford, was at 126 Union Street. There was no telegraph office in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, in 1892. [...]

'Emma left Fairhaven by carriage or from the Fairhaven Railroad Station. She arrived at the Pearl Street Railway Station in New Bedford then took the 3:40 p.m. train to Weir Junction and proceeded on to the Bowenville Station in Fall River. ( Inquest:107) Emma arrived in Fall River at 5 p.m. ( Trial: 1550).'


And this is a Fairhaven resident, the very knowledgeable 'Fairhaven Guy', writing here in 2005. He finds Rebello to be in error on two counts:

'First, I am quite certain that there was a telegraph office in our Fairhaven railroad station long before 1892. [...]

'Second, Fairhaven's Branch Railroad line came in from the east--from Wareham and running through Marion, Mattapoisett and into Fairhaven where it ended at the waterfront. It was virtually impossible to take the Fairhaven train to the Pearl Street station in New Bedford. The lines didn't connect. Emma would have to have taken a carriage or a horse-drawn trolley across the Fairhaven-New Bedford Bridge to get to the train station at Pearl Street. Rebello suggests the Fairhaven train was a possibility. It was not.'


This seems to be the case. I looked at maps, even I could see it.

Due to endless problems about who had a telephone and who had a telegraph office and where the railways went and why Emma seems to have chosen a barmy route, it's left unclear. All I find is uncertainty about just how she did get home.

Emma's return was, supposedly, un-planned. Un-expected. She'd been there two weeks, according to Lizzie at the Inquest (who's so befuddled by the time-question, as she tells of short strangers loitering in the night, it sounds as if she found Emma's absence traumatic.) Mrs Brownell told news reporters Emma had been due to stay in Fairhaven an extended time, something like 'rest of the summer'. And yet I wanted to see if any part of Hamilton's words could be true. Where would 'the depot' be? I'm not sure, I'm half a world away. Did he collect her or did he not? I mean, we don't really know how she made any part of the journey. It's not impossible that Hamilton was asked to get her from 'depot' to door. Or was that the ever-useful Dr Bowen...

One thing is remarkable. Two years after the trial was done and dusted Robinson took Melvin Adams and the five Fall River police officers to extricate this man held on suspicion of the Borden murders. Robinson and Adams were both important men who couldn't afford to waste their time. The ex-Governor seems to be acting philanthropically... But why all the manpower? Was this in actuality a containment measure? Was Hamilton part of an untold story which could still make an unfortunate impression? How on earth was he 'on his way' to collect Emma that August day?

Hamilton, even in 1895, is familiar to Robinson, Adams and the Fall River officers and is described as 'Lizzie Borden's former coachman'. Did he again work for the Borden sisters after the trial, 1893-1894? He's fallen out of work in March 1895, he says. Has he since just fallen through the cracks?

I'm going to look through newspapers for any further version of this event.
Has anyone else found anything?
Scott Crowder
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Re: Coachman, William Hamilton

Post by Scott Crowder »

I would think that the "Trial of the Century" and all that that implies, even back then, due to the papers going bonkers and the public being enthralled, was the reason why the ex-Governor brought along so many men. By the time he got there he may well have been facing a huge crowd gathered around to see the Borden Killer caught at last, along with newspapermen etc. Not to mention it's 1890's and the suspect is a black man. So manpower seems appropriate to the circumstances.
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