Bridget Sullivan and the Dudleys

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irishlass78
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Bridget Sullivan and the Dudleys

Post by irishlass78 »

I've always considered the Bridget E. Sullivan who worked for Milton Reed at 606 Highland Ave (in 1900) and the Bridget E. Sullivan who later worked for Mary A. Short (1910-1920) to be a strong Borden Bridget candidate. However, I've also found some information that could make a strong case for Anaconda Bridget.

Recently, I was sorting through some ship manifests with various Bridget Sullivan passengers. I took a second look at one that I had previously dismissed. The manifest is for the ship “Campania” traveling from Liverpool to New York, arriving on May 25, 1895. There is a Bridget Sullivan, age 22, and a Johanna Sullivan, also aged 22, both in transit to Michigan. For this reason, I initially dismissed her as our Bridget.. However, there was another person apparently traveling with the Sullivans named Matilda Dudley whose final destination was Fall River, MA.

Curious, I checked the 1900 census for Fall River. Matilda Dudley was employed by the Winward family as a servant at 605 Highland Avenue...neighbors of Milton Reed & Bridget E. Sullivan at 606 Highland Avenue.

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1 ... cc=1325221

Remember the newspaper article about the sister of Andrew Jennings' servant girl who was acquainted with Bridget?

From The Boston Post, Saturday, August 20, 1892
Bridget Sullivan has several friends in this city, but one and all have put forth every effort not to be publicly known. One of these friends is a young lady whose brother was, till his death, closely identified with the girl upon whom many eyes are centered. In fact, he was Bridget Sullivan’s sweetheart, and arrangements had been fully made for the ceremony that was to unite them as man and wife. Fate, however, had settled that the event should never take place, for a short time before the date set the poor fellow suddenly died. Then Bridget thought the more of his sister, and since then the girls have met and confided in one another. These two were joined by a sister of Attorney Jennings’s servant girl, and the trio were as one. The two girls are at present in Boston. One is keeping house for a prominent family and the other is a visitor.


Well, Matilda had a sister named Catherine Dudley, also known as “Kate” or “Katie.”

On June 3, 1891, Kate Dudley, age 20, Ellen Dudley, age 24, and Mary Dudley, age 18, arrived in Boston aboard “the Wisconsin.” With them was a Matilda Sullivan, age 17.

I couldn't find any Kate or Catherine Dudleys in the city directories prior to 1900. However, being a servant, she probably wouldn't be listed.

There's only one Kate Dudley in the 1900 census for Fall River, working for the Place family. But her date of immigration is 1899.

However, in the 1910 census, a Kate Dudley is working for Andrew J. Jennings at 421 June Street as a cook.

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1 ... cc=1727033

Kate was still working for Jennings in 1920:

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1 ... cc=1488411

She was listed in the city directories as a resident of 421 June Street as late as 1929.

In 1930, Kate and Matilda are boarders at 182 Whipple Street, Fall River, which was the address for the St. Francis Guild for Working Girls. Also living there is another Catherine Dudley, a niece, who immigrated in 1928. Two other nieces, Maggie and Matilda, immigrated to Fall River in 1922. A nephew, Michael Dudley, immigrated in 1909 to join his aunt, Kate Dudley, living at 421 June Street. Michael later went to Butte, Montana. Another nephew, Eugene “Gene” Dudley,” also immigrated to Butte and was a pallbearer, along with John M. Sullivan (Anaconda Bridget's husband) for Timothy Sullivan in 1937. (Timothy was the husband of Bridget's niece, Mary, who lived at 112 E. Woolman St.).

Kate Dudley & Matilda Dudley were born in Garnish, in the Dursey Islands. They were the children of Humphrey Dudley (baptised Sullivan) and Margaret Kelly. (According to the Irish genealogist, Riobard O'Dwyer, the surname “Dudley” is a branch name of the clan “Sullivan,” especially in the Dursey Islands.. Some born on Dursey were baptised “Dudley” and married as a “Sullivan,” and vice-versa).

Their brother, James Dudley, was a shop keeper and post master in Billeragh, Cork.. He was married twice; both wives were named Catherine O'Sullivan. His first wife died in 1897.

James Dudley family in 1901 census:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/p ... h/1095266/

And in the 1911 census:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/p ... gh/378524/

It's believed that the Borden Bridget was also born in Billeragh and her siblings appear on the same 1901 & 1911 census. According to O'Dwyer, Bridget had a brother, Dennis, who married Honora O'Sullivan. A Dennis & Honora Sullivan lived in household #1 in the 1901 Irish Census...the Dudleys lived at household #9.

In short, I believe our Bridget is related somehow to the Dudley family. She may have indeed gone home to Ireland after the murders and returned in 1895 with the Dudley sisters. Maybe she intended to go to Michigan originally and changed her mind...maybe she went directly to Montana. Kate Dudley, if she was indeed related to Bridget and had contact with her, would presumably have knowledge of her whereabouts, as would Andrew Jennings. And didn't the information that Bridget Sullivan went to Montana originate with Jennings' notes in the “hip-bath collection?”
Steveads2004
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Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2006 3:36 pm
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Location: Attleboro, MA

Re: Bridget Sullivan and the Dudleys

Post by Steveads2004 »

Fascinating stuff...I get lost with the names and relations my brain is not wired that way so I am most impressed with your work Will the FRHS ever release the info they have been "preserving"for so many years?
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