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Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 5:34 am
by InterestedReader
Thanks, Irish Lass.

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 5:35 am
by InterestedReader
Thanks, Irish Lass.

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 1:37 pm
by twinsrwe
Thank you, Irish.

I obtained and verified the dates I posted from the forum thread titled, Uncle Laddy, the Find-a-grave web site, the Geni Genealogy web site and WikiTree Genealogy web site.

Most of the information I posted came from the forum thread titled, Uncle Laddy: http://tinyurl.com/kbkfvsh

Find-A-Grave for Lawdwick Borden (I find it interesting that there are only the first and second wife listed under the heading of spouses, but then a note is added further down in the memorial, which list all four of Lawdwick’s wives.): http://tinyurl.com/pg8yvau

Geni Genealogy for Lawdwick Borden (In this web site all of Lawdwick’s children are listed except Maria Borden, his first daughter): http://tinyurl.com/zvwtmdk

WikiTree Genealogy for Ruhama (Crocker) Borden (This is the web site I used to verify Ruhama’s date of birth and date of marriage): http://tinyurl.com/z4vjbe4

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 3:48 pm
by InterestedReader
Twins, I cast no aspersions your way! :shock:

I was asking / checking because of this website

http://lizziebordenwarpsandwefts.com/th ... ck-borden/

which gives a totally random date for the third marriage...
'February 29 1856'

& just wondered if I was missing something.
The website gives no sources.

I've since found the records for both marriages, Elizas Darling and Chace.
Eliza Darling's lack of death certificate is puzzling.

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 8:14 pm
by twinsrwe
It’s OK, Interested, I did not take offence to your post. No was harm done.

I was pretty sure you were talking about the Warps and Wefts web site. However, I notice that I didn’t indicate the sources for the information I posted either!!! Therefore, I thought I would post my sources and indicate that the information was obtained and verified through varies sources.

I attempted to find where Shelley Dziedzic, the administrator of the Warps and Wefts web site, had obtained her information, but came up with nothing. Another discrepancy I noticed: Shelley posted that Lawdwick married Eliza Darling on March 16, 1843, which is different from the marriage date of Jan. 28, 1843, that Kat posted in the thread titled, Uncle Laddy. (It’s unfortunate that the Geni Genealogy web site obtained a lot of their information from Shelley’s Warps and Wefts web site.)

Shelley was a member of this forum at one time. However, she hasn’t posted anything since September 19, 2010. You could try sending her a PM or e-mail her. Here is her profile page: http://tinyurl.com/jejvp5k

Shelley also has an e-mail address for contacting her in the Warps and Wefts, Site Policies: http://tinyurl.com/z7sur9e

You could also leave a comment at the bottom of the web site page which contains the date of 'February 29 1856': http://tinyurl.com/q7sasxj

I would be interesting to see from where Shelley obtained the marriage date of 'February 29 1856' for Eliza T. Chace, as well as the marriage date of March 16, 1843 for Eliza Darling. I know that anything Kat posted has been thoroughly researched and is accurate; she was an expert at proof reading everything and indicating sources for the information she posted.

I agree, it is puzzling that Eliza Darling’s death certificate is not available for the public. However, it is possible that there is a death certificate for her, but we just haven't found it yet.

I have also wondered why there are so many different spellings for Lawdwick’s name: Lodowick, Ladowick, Lawdwick, Ludwig and Ladwig. The same with his son Holder, sometimes spelled Holden. Is it any wonder that anyone attempting to obtain accurate information becomes confused??? :shaking:

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 8:40 pm
by InterestedReader
Hi again, Twins. I've been piecing together the life of Maria Borden, Lawdwick's one surviving child, and Andrew Borden's cousin. She's very interesting. She certainly didn't vanish!

The 'Murdered Children' legend is mystifying. I rather think those particular two, Holder and Eliza Anne Borden, died at the end of 1849, as per the death records I posted. They died at least a year after their mother - if she died in 1848. I'll continue searching.

As for the marriages, these are the dates on the actual records -

Here is Lawdwick and Eliza Darling:

16th March 1843

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N4QP-YHH



And here is Lawdwick and Eliza Chace:

28th February 1849

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N4W5-TBP

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2015 3:27 pm
by twinsrwe
InterestedReader wrote:Hi again, Twins. I've been piecing together the life of Maria Borden, Lawdwick's one surviving child, and Andrew Borden's cousin. She's very interesting. She certainly didn't vanish!

The 'Murdered Children' legend is mystifying. I rather think those particular two, Holder and Eliza Anne Borden, died at the end of 1849, as per the death records I posted. They died at least a year after their mother - if she died in 1848. I'll continue searching.
I agree, the murder/suicide legend of Eliza Darling Borden and two of her three children, is indeed mystifying. However, I am NOT at all convinced that the two children who died in 1849, were the son and daughter of Lodowick and Eliza Darling Borden. I was going to post a reply in the thread, titled, Two Borden Murders the Less?, but you deleted the information you had posted there. So, I will post my reply here.

I am convinced that these two children were not the children of Lodowick and Eliza Darling Borden.

Parallel Lives, Page 30 (Underling is mine):

Ironically, the event recalled to many older citizens a tragedy of years before, described in the Fall River Weekly News of May 4, 1848, as a “most melancholy occurrence.” The second wife of Lodowick Borden, the former Eliza Darling, and aunt to Andrew J. Borden, who resided in the house on second Street later occupied by Dr. Kelly, “took her two youngest children [six-month-old Holder and three-year-old Eliza], went down cellar, and drowned them in the cistern; then stepping behind the chimney, cut her own throat with a razor, and died almost instantly.” A contemporary diarist noted that Eliza had been “considered a little out of her head for a few days past.” She was left alone in the house with her children, her maid having “stepped out to draw a pail of water,” and at that time Eliza “committed the lamentable deed in a paroxysm of insanity.” The only one to be spared from being a victim of her mother’s demented act was the couple’s eldest child, Maria. Once the tragedy was discovered, it was said that a “great excitement prevail[ed] in town.”

Parallel Lives, Page 927 (Underling is mine):

It is uncertain when the amity between Lizzie and Grace Hartley first blossomed, but it is possible that a mutual ground of understanding played some part in their relationship, for both had been subjected to the voracious curiosity of the press, having watched as their personal affairs were meted out on the front pages of newspapers throughout the country. For Grace, the gossip associated with her name soon passed; Lizzie endured it for the rest of her life.

Grace’s mother, the former Mary Jane Borden, was the daughter of Cook Borden, a wealthy, self-made lumber dealer with myriad business interests, and his wife, nee Mary Ann Bessey. Mary Jane’s father was the sixth of the nine children born to Richard Borden. The eldest of Cook’s siblings was Abraham B. Borden, and his younger brother, the seventh child, was Lodowick, whose two children were murdered by their mother despondent mother in 1848.

On May 26, 2007, In the tread titled, Uncle Laddy, Harry posted (Underling is mine):

I did find mention of the crime in the Boston Globe of June 18, 1893. The article was discussing murders that occurred in the area near the Borden house on Second Street over the years. In part it reads:

"... Some time back in the forties, about 1845, the little low cottage house next the Borden estate on 2d st. was occupied by Ladwick Borden, an uncle of the late Andrew J. Borden, and here it was about that time that Ladwick Borden's wife Eliza, in a fit of temporary insanity, drowned her two youngest children in a cistern and then cut her own throat. An older child, a girl, married, and today living in Fall River, escaped from the clutches of the irresponsible woman or she, too, would have been a victim of her mother's diseased mind. This was the second of the great crimes, and, while it was horrifying in the extreme, it did not create the sensation which accompanied the murder of Miss Cornell and is

Today Almost Forgotten

by the inhabitants. Indeed, if it had not been brought to mind by the Borden tragedy last August in the next house it would have passed entirely from memory. ..."

Look at the estimated date of birth for Eliza Anne Borden; 1849 is the year after Eliza Darling killed herself, therefore this child cannot possibly be the daughter of Lodowick and Eliza Darling Borden. However, since Lodowick married Eliza Chace on Feb, 28, 1849, then it is a possibility this child may have been the daughter of Lodowick and Eliza Chase, but as far as I know, there is no documentation that they had any children.

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Wed May 17, 2017 10:19 pm
by KGDevil
John B. Chace, music teacher, is listed as living at number 96 second street in the city directories from 1876 up to as late as 1890. What's interesting are the overlapping years that show John B. Chace living at 96 Second, and Miss Alice Russell and her family living at 96 Second as well. Specifically the years that I've been able to access of 1880, 1885-1890. This makes me scratch my head a bit. Was the house divided into apartments?

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 5:50 am
by InterestedReader
It was John Chace's wife who owned the house, I think. Maria Borden Chace - Andrew Borden's cousin and Ladowick's daughter.

Maria was Ladowick's biological daughter by second wife Eliza, and as his one surviving child I suppose she was his heir.

Maria's birth:
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q29G-WPCX

Her parents' marriage:
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q29P-4PTX

John B. Chace always sounds a bit dilettante - he was a music-teacher and then a florist :smile:

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 8:35 am
by KGDevil
Thank you, interested. I was aware of the marriage to Lodowicks daughter . I was also aware that Alice Russell stated that she lived in the Kelley house for awhile. What left me scratching my head was the length of time is shows both the Russell's and Maria's family at the same address. Was the house divided into apartments? For example in 1888 it shows John B. Chance , now piano teacher at that address. It also shows Miss Alice Russell, bookkeeper, and her mother Judith, a nurse, boarded at 96 Second. Did the Chace's live there or did John just teach from there? He shows up at no other address, Maria doesn't show there at all.

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 8:45 am
by KGDevil
The directory listings.

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 8:52 am
by InterestedReader
Yes, but didn't Chace have his actual family home elsewhere? I'll look through my findings for you, because I did all this... 96 was a small house. Chace might have just given his lessons there!

Maria herself had been living in the Borden house, in other words next door, a good long while... She married in 1873 (from memory), Ladowick dies in 1874...

This is John and Maria in 1880, where he's now a Florist.
(But for some reason it's not presently showing an image of the record)

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH63-TKK

Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 9:12 am
by InterestedReader
The map above, showing her ownership, is about 1880-1882.
Is there a way to see if Maria still owned it 10 years later?

By 1900, certainly, they're at Middle Street - she was there til she died:

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M95K-3VS

He's a Music Teacher in 1900. And he was a 'Paper Hanger' when she married him... I'm guessing she brought money into that marriage.

P.S. Can you give me a link for the 1888 City Directory please? I've never yet managed to find it, or the 1892.

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 9:33 am
by InterestedReader
Yes, it looks as if Alice Russell and her mother, and the Chaces, are all living at 96.
You can see from the Household ID numbers.
Must have been a squash.

Oh. Here's a transcription of the Census:

http://ccbit.cs.umass.edu/lizzie/images ... ondst.html

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 11:18 am
by KGDevil
It seemed a bit odd because in a city directory a person's work address was often listed as well as their living address. Like with Miss Alice Russell she is listed as bookkeeper at 18 S. Main Street, but boarding at 96 Second. This is why is appeared they were all living at 96 Second to me. Which seemed an odd arrangement.

Re:

Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 11:21 am
by KGDevil
InterestedReader wrote: P.S. Can you give me a link for the 1888 City Directory please? I've never yet managed to find it, or the 1892.
I see the city directories listed on ancestry. If there is something specific you would like me to look for I'd be happy to look it up.

I see John B. Chance listed at 96 Second as late as 1890. The same with Miss Alice Russell.

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 11:22 am
by KGDevil
InterestedReader wrote:Yes, it looks as if Alice Russell and her mother, and the Chaces, are all living at 96.
You can see from the Household ID numbers.
Must have been a squash.

Oh. Here's a transcription of the Census:

http://ccbit.cs.umass.edu/lizzie/images ... ondst.html
Thank you for that transcription. It is very helpful informative. :smile:

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 11:25 am
by KGDevil
Also somewhere around 1896-97 I believe the houses on second street were renumbered. I see Dr. Kelley now listed as 240 Second street.

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 11:54 am
by InterestedReader
KGDevil wrote:It seemed a bit odd because in a city directory a person's work address was often listed as well as their living address. Like with Miss Alice Russell she is listed as bookkeeper at 18 S. Main Street, but boarding at 96 Second. This is why is appeared they were all living at 96 Second to me. Which seemed an odd arrangement.

Yes, indeed - but teaching piano could be a genteel effort in your own home. Usually was, I think. Do we ever have his Floristry business address?

My guess is Maria may have made money from properties, while John was not a 'driven' man. His cv is unusual, paper hanger to music teacher to florist.

The strangest aspect is why Maria would want to live in that house.

Re: Re:

Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 12:29 pm
by InterestedReader
KGDevil wrote: I see John B. Chance listed at 96 Second as late as 1890. The same with Miss Alice Russell.

But John and Maria couldn't still be there August 1892, surely? I'd assumed the Kelly's took up all of it.

It used to fascinate me there might be Chaces next door.

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 1:00 pm
by KGDevil
It shows Dr. Kelley as living at 96 Second in 1891. Dr. Kelley lived there, along with the same maid Mary Doolan, until 1899. In 1900 Dr. Kelley is moved to third Street.

Here are the city directory pages for Fall River in 1890 that show John B. Chace and Alice Russell at 96 Second.

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2018 8:07 am
by KGDevil
As to the proper spelling of Lawdwick Borden's name, his last will and testament also is signed as Lawdwick Borden.

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2022 1:10 pm
by CagneyBT
The narratives of “The Other Borden Murders” and “The Children In the Well” have become a source of ghostly folklore over the years. Many questions surrounding the story revolve around the identity of Lawdwick Borden’s wife, Elizabeth Darling, and the fate of their surviving child, Maria Borden. (Lawdwick Borden was the uncle of Andrew J. Borden).

Thanks to the forum members who have contributed their research over the years, I was able to compile the genealogy below. Once Elizabeth Darling’s maiden name was discovered, the pieces of the puzzle came together.

Elizabeth Hathaway, daughter of Michael Hathaway and Hannah Davis, married Silas J. Darling in Fall River on Dec. 1, 1830. Their known children were William W., b. 1833 & George Washington Darling, b. 1835, d. Jan. 4, 1840.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FH4Z-YVS

Silas J. Darling , b . 11 May 1807 , d . 6 Nov 1840 ; 1719 m . 1 Dec 1830 in Fall River Elizabeth Hathaway , daughter of Michael and Hannah [ Davis ] Hathaway Source: Dennis Darling of Braintree and Mendon and Some of His Desecendants, pg. 143, William A. Martin, Lou Ella Johnson Martin, 2002.

Silas J. Darling died Nov. 5, 1840. He died intestate, and the details of the probate were published Dec. 21, 1840. “To the Honorable Oliver Prescott, Esq. Judge of Probate in and of the county of Bristol, this may certify that I, Eliza Darling, am the wife of Silas J. Darling late of Fall River deceased, and that your honor would appoint Seth Darling of Fall River in said county in Bristol administrator to settle the estate of my said husband Silas J. Darling...” (signed) Eliza Darling. In Feb. 1841, Judge Prescott signed an order granting Elizabeth $150 out of the personal estate..
Source Citation Bristol County (Mass.) Probate Records 1690-1881; Author: Bristol County (Massachusetts). Register of Probate; Probate Place: Bristol, . DescriptionNotes: Probate Records, Damascus, Gabriel - Davenport, Abby D.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/127 ... on-darling

Elizabeth (Hathaway) Darling then married Lawdwick Borden on March 16, 1843. She was his second wife (He first married Maria Briggs on Sept. 18, 1833).

Lawdwick and Elizabeth had three children together: Maria Borden, b. Oct. 22, 1844, followed by Eliza Anne Borden c. 1846 and Holder Borden in 1847.
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q28L-DQ2S
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FXHC-RHM
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/103 ... r-s-borden
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/103 ... ann-borden[/i]

In May of 1848, Elizabeth Darling Borden murdered her two youngest children before taking her own life.

Tragical Event. One of the most deplorable events that has happened in this part of the country for many years occurred at Fall River last evening. The wife of Mr. Ladererich Borden, an estimable inhabitant of that town, drowned her two youngest children, one 3 1/2 years and the other 1 year old, in a cistern, and then took her own life. Mrs. Borden has within a few days shown undeniable evidences of an unsound mind, expressing fears that they should come to want, though her husband is in good circumstances, & c. Yesterday afternoon a girl who lived with Mrs. Borden went out to get a pail of water. On her return, Mrs. Borden and the two younger children were missing. She asked an elder child where her mother was gone and was told that she had gone to the cellar. (Note: The elder child must have been Maria). She went to the cellar door, but was afraid to enter on hearing the groans of Mrs. B. The neighbors were called in and found Mrs. B. extended on the floor with her throat cut and just alive. The children were both dead in the cistern. This dreadful tragedy has caused a great excitement in Fall River,, and a deep sympathy is felt for Mr. Borden in this sudden and dreadful bereavement. Boston Traveller

Melancholly Affair: A most melancholly occurrence look place in Fall River, Wednesday afternoon between the hours of four and five. The wife of Mr. Lawdwick Borden, one of our most respectable citizens, residing on Second Street, took her two youngest children; went down cellar, and drowned them in a cistern, then stepping behind the chimney, cut her own throat with a razor, and died almost instantly. No one was present at the time, the servant girl having just stepped out to draw a pail of water, leaving Mrs. B. with her three youngest children. One ot the children drowned was six months old. Mrs. Borden had appeared rather melancholly for a few days past, and it is probable that she committed the lamentable deed in a paroxysm of insanity. Fall River News.

After the tragedy, Lawdwick Borden married Elizabeth Chace in Fall River on Feb. 8, 1849. After her death, he married Ruhama Crocker on Oct. 19, 1864. Lawdwick died in 1874.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FH9Q-1NF
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPHY-7CF4


In 1850, Maria Borden, the surviving child of the murder/suicide, was living with her father Lawdwick and stepmother, Eliza.. She was recorded as 5 years old. Also living in the household was Samuel Hinckley, age 18, b. Maine.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MD9N-GSF.
1855 Census: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MQ4G-N12
1860 Census: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZH4-KW6
1865 Census: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MQHK-N99

Maria married Samuel Hinckley on Oct. 2, 1866 in Fall River. He was a painter, born in Machias, Maine, and a civil war veteran. It was his second marriage and her first.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N479-9JM

In the 1870 census. Maria Hinckley was residing in her father’s household without her husband.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDS2-4MC

Maria next married John B. Chace on Nov. 27, 1873 in Fall River, MA. The record notes that it’s her second marriage. She married under her maiden name, suggesting that she and Samuel Hinckley had divorced. A divorce seems likely as Samuel also remarried on Jan. 31, 1874 to a woman named Julia Harris in Boston. He died in Riverside, CA in 1918.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPHY-2Z7W
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N443-ZZL
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/725 ... b-hinckley

Maria and John’s first child, Lawdwick Chace, was born on Dec. 31, 1874 and died on March 2, 1875. Their daughter, Emma, was born on May 20, 1876.(She married Harry F. Goulding).
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/103 ... ck-b-chace
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/103 ... a-goulding

The Chace family appears in the city directory at 96 Second St. in Fall River as early as 1876. Ruhama (Crocker) Borden, Lawdwick’s widow, is listed as a resident in 1878 and died there on June 18 1879.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FH3P-729

In 1880, Maria was living at 96 Second St with her husband John & daughter, Emma. They shared the address with Alice Russell and Alice’s mother, Judith. And next door, at 92 Second, lived Maria’s first cousin, Andrew J. Borden. The Chace family lived at 96 Second until c. 1890 before moving to 517 Middle St.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH63-TKK

Maria Borden Chace died in June 1909.
Fall River Daily Evening News,17 Jun 1909: "Death of Mrs John B Chace. Mrs Maria (Borden) Chace, wife of John B Chace, died Wednesday morning at her home No 517 Middle street after an Illness of a year and a half, aged 65 years She was the daughter of the late Lawdwlck and Eliza (Hathaway) Borden. Despite her long illness, Mrs Chace bore up bravely under the ordeal and never one word of complaint was uttered by her. Her death will be a matter of sincere regret among her many acquaintances wilh whom she was a great favorite. Besides her husband, John B Chace who is a music teacher, the deceased is survived by one daughter, Miss Emma L Chace."
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N49W-PMP (The death certificate erroneously notes Lawdwick as "Frederick.")

Maria’s half brother and Lawdwick’s stepson, William W. Darling, would have been 15 years old at the time of the murder/suicide involving his mother and two half-siblings. In 1850, he resided in the household of Isaac and Martha (Hathaway) Borden in Fall River. Martha was William’s aunt.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MD9N-KV7

William married Mary Hargraves on May 29, 1853 in Fall River. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N49G-H84

He’s listed in the 1859 & 1864 Fall River city directories at 13 Ferry St. William was an engineer for the Fall River Iron Works and assistant pumping engineer for the Fall River Water Dept. until his resignation in 1907. He died in Jan. 1913 in Fall River, age 80.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N4W4-Z29

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2022 6:12 pm
by InterestedReader
Hello. I once investigated this thoroughly and it's an odd business. There are no records of death for those two 'murdered' children, Eliza Anne and Holder/Holden. There are no records of their birth. I found no record of Eliza Hathaway/Darling/Borden's death. That's quite a lot of missing documentation & I see you haven't found it either.

For those deaths I remember literally scouring through 1848 records page by page and they're not there. Absence of all records for the children made me wonder if they were Ladowick's but not Eliza's - they were extra-marital. There's no actual evidence of their existence. (I'm not a genealogist. It took me a while to realise anyone can put anything on FindaGrave.)

Of the few newspaper accounts it was reported variously that mother Eliza died and mother Eliza survived. It's possible she was removed to an asylum. I found some indications of this and of her then living a long, institutionalised life.

Maria Borden/Chace's life by contrast is easy to track. Maria prospered.

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 10:57 pm
by CagneyBT
Hi Interested 😊

It is indeed strange that there are no birth or death records. It's possible many during that period were lost, damaged or destroyed. It's been known to happen.🤷‍♀️ We can only go by the existing records and build a genealogy based on the information that is available.

I was curious by your statement, "It's possible she was removed to an asylum. I found some indications of this and of her then living a long, institutionalised life."

That would certainly shed a whole new light on the mystery. Can you share what you may have found? Curious minds want to know! 😊

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 7:24 am
by InterestedReader
Ooh, will I need to search out these records, it's aeons since I was looking into this.

From memory it's successive Census entries for a hospital in-patient, death records and some strange references which appeared in the press on the suicide of William Borden, as to how many of his family were in asylums.

As to records being lost - yes of course. But with the hand-written Massachusetts Death records of that era, you will have worked with them and know they bear compilation dates - its actually quite a short time before they compile the universal list, just a couple of years. It's then more or less, not later. And I think the statistics are against a nexus of disparate records getting lost - two birth records, three death records, the one family.

As a woman why murder two children but not three? That always seemed odd to me. Two possibilities suggested themselves. The third child is the eldest, the strongest, and less easily subdued. Or - the eldest is your child, the younger two aren't.

I must hunt through those weird early Census again where you just have a Principal then everybody else is a no-name tick.

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2022 7:20 am
by InterestedReader
Ooh, will I need to search out these records, it's aeons since I was looking into this.

From memory it's successive Census entries for a hospital in-patient, death records, and some strange references which appeared in the press on the suicide of William Borden as to how many of his family were in asylums.

The records getting lost - yes of course. But with the hand-written Massachusetts Death records of that era, you will have worked with them and know they bear compilation dates - its actually quite a short time before they compile the universal list, just a couple of years. It's then more or less, not later. And I think statistical probability can't be in its favour, this nexus of disparate records being lost - two siblings their birth and death records missing, the adult's death missing, five missing records in one family across a nothing of time.

Why does a woman murder two children but not three? That always seemed odd to me. The third child being the eldest, the strongest, perhaps she's less easily subdued. Or - the eldest is her child, the younger two aren't.

I must hunt through those weird early Census again where you just have a Principal then everybody else is a no-name tick.

Re: Eliza Darling Borden and Maria Borden Hinckley, Mother and Daughter

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2023 11:28 am
by camgarsky4
Here is a thread that discusses the killing of the children and suicide next door to the Andrew J. Borden house.