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Insanity In Borden Line

Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2016 4:51 pm
by hmcrabtree
Hello, this is my first post!
Though I have always been interested in the Lizzie Borden murders, I am here to look into any insanity in the family. I am researching a different line of the Bordens that moved to NC way back many generations, and researching someone who is on a census as "insane."
I did see one discussion of William S, Eliza, and Amanda having been in Taunton Asylum and William S (accused by Brown as the killer) hanging himself. Now I'm really intrigued. I do understand that in the past women especially could be labeled insane for any number of reasons. But I would like to know how far back any alleged mental illness went in the family.
hmc

Re: Insanity In Borden Line

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2016 9:39 pm
by twinsrwe
Hello, hmcrabtree, welcome to the forum. I apologize for taking so long to reply to your post; the presidential debates have been taking up a lot of my time. :sad:

It is an interesting question, you have there. I did a Google search and found the following web sites quite intriguing, although they may not be the kind of information you are looking for.

Lizzie Borden was Guilty…with Good Reason(s): http://tinyurl.com/jps2zwv

What role did psychopathy play in Lizzie Borden’s case? (Check out the refereances for this article.): http://tinyurl.com/odj5fye

This article in about Eliza Darling Borden, who was married to Lawdwick Borden, a brother of Abraham Bowen Borden, who was Andrew Jackson Borden’s father. Keep in mind that Eliza was not a blood relative of the Borden family. However, she was definitely insane: http://tinyurl.com/gne6m2g

Re: Insanity In Borden Line

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2016 10:59 pm
by hmcrabtree
Thanks! Will check them out.
I am researching a family that the subject of my book married into. His wife's mother was marked "insane" on the 1860 census. I know that could have meant a lot, but I was surprised to see her grandmother, a Borden, her family came from MA and RI. So I checked around and sure enough, her grandfather's brother, if I recall all this correctly, is the line down to Andrew Borden. So I was curious about insanity going up the line that way.
hmc

Re: Insanity In Borden Line

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2017 3:56 pm
by geistannalise
I share a progenitor with Lizzie's father. I am also a therapist and believe Lizzie and other women were "victims" of the times, not that they didn't have decent lives, but that many freedoms we have today were not allowed back in Lizzie's time. Generationally women were raised in their particular society knowing how things are and going to be. I have heavily studied my family genealogy and am only seeing specific mental illnesses in my generation and more specifically our children's generation. I am not so sure current generational issues are hereditary or genetic, but could be environmental as well. I do not do blood testing and such, but it would be interesting if the DNA were present to check for hereditary/genetic abnormalities in the Borden families. I am also wondering due to life being different, how easy was it 50-150 years ago to live around mental illness and look normal to the public and sometimes within the family. IMHO I do not think Lizzie murdered her parents, but she may have known who could have or did do it. I have found nothing in my studies to indicate that Lizzie did the murders. The crimes are malicious, rage filled, and probably done by someone close to the family. Police work was different then and this case was botched from the beginning compared to today's standards.

Re: Insanity In Borden Line

Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2018 12:07 pm
by jimmysnan
I read a book KiLLED STRANGELY about Rebecca Briggs Cornell who was supposedly murdered by her son, Thomas Cornell
http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety. ... good-fire/
I have done genealogical research on this family as my relative Richard Borden married Innocent CORNELL daughter of Thomas Cornell who was executed for his mothers murder.

Abbie Borden Weld in her book stated that it was Innocent Wordell that he married but I have not found any real evidence to prove that and I found this
REFERENCE book "Rhode Island Historical Society Volume 2 #F76 RIHS sdser Volume 2 1893 was written by Ray Greene Huling from Cambridge Mass who was doing the genealogy on the Hazard-Perry family.
American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI)
BORDEN, Innocent (Cornell)
Birth Date: 167? Birth Place: Rhode Island
Volume: 16 Page Number: 117
Reference: Gen. Column of the " Boston Transcript". 1906-1941.( The greatest single source of material for gen. Data for the N.E. area and for the period 1600-1800. Completely indexed in the Index.): 10 Oct 1928, 7721; 11 Nov 1929, 9255
CORNELL, Innocent
Birth Date: 167? Birth Place:
Volume: 34 Page Number: 388
Reference: Gen. Column of the " Boston Transcript". 1906-1941. ( The greatest single source of material for gen. Data for the N.E. area and for the period 1600-1800. Completely indexed in the Index.): 10 Oct 1928, 7721; 11 Nov 1929, 9255
A GENEALOGICAL "FIND." Publications of the Rhode Island Historical Society By Rhode Island Historical Society. Vol.II January, 1895 No.4.
"Last August, (which year this is it does not say,) while visiting the beautiful Wilcox Memorial Building in Westerly, I was kindly shown some bundles of historical papers that had come into the possession of the newly formed Pawcatuck Valley Historical Society. Several of these had a personal interest for me, but one of them was so useful in settling a doubtful point in genealogy that I here record it, in the hope that other searchers into family history may find it of value. It was a small scrap of time-stained paper, without date or signature, bearing these words:
"Cornell hung, killed mother with spindle, his daughter Innocent married a Borden, his daughter married Robert uncle of Thomas B. Hazard, his daughter Sarah married Stephen Champlin father of Smooth Stephen, Jeffery, Thomas, and daughter who married Sam Congdon and was the father of George Congdon. Smooth Stephen married a Perry."
For some years I had been searching for the parentage of Innocent, the wife of Richard (John, Richard) Borden of Portsmouth. The husband was born October 24, 1671, and died July 12, 1732. If this fragment told the truth the mystery was solved. With eagerness I began to trace the scrap of paper back to it's author. Inquiry of the Librarian at the Wilcox Memorial elicited the information that the paper was one of several contributed by Hon. Richard Wheeler, of Stonington. Further inquiry of that gentleman brought word that he had found the fragment amoung some papers that had belonged to the late Hon. Elisha R. Potter of Kingston. This was as far as I could go, but it was enough to satisfy me of the probable truth of the statements the paper contained. I conjecture that it was a memorandum jotted down at the request of Judge Potter by someone whose memory had been jogged by a curious question from the patient investigator.
Next I set about finding any possible confirmation of the statement. Among my own records I found at once that Sarah Borden, the oldest daughter of Richard and Innocent, born July 31, 1694, married _____Hazard, of Newport. This was something to the point, confirming the third statement of the fragment, and explaining the reason for the first name of the daughter Sarah mentioned in the fourth statement. Further investigation in Austin's Geneological Dictionary showed that Thomas (Thomas) Cornell, who was executed May 23, 1673, had a daughter Innocent, and also that Richard Borden's mother, Mary Earle (William 2, Ralph 1), was first cousin of Innocent Cornell, as the latter's mother was Sarah Earle (Ralph 1). A further search amoung those interested in Cornell genealogy made clear the fact that no other marriage has ever been ascribed to this Innocent. One correspondent is declaring his assent to the identification of Innocent Cornell with Innocent Borden, ventured the interesting conjecture that Innocent, whose birth must have been near 1673, may have been a posthumous child, and that her name may have been her mother's indignant protest at the cruel judicial murder of the father of the babe. Certainly no man in these days would be executed on such evidence as the records contain in this case.
The incident is only one of many evidences of the value of local historical collections. Little by little they attract to each other the old documents which to the owner are of little account, but to one who can interpret them and fit them into place, are of untold value. I should be glad to know of such centres of collection in every Rhode Island town. RAY GREENE HULING, Cambridge Mass. sent to the Rhode Island Historical Society."
I know this does not answer the question of which Innocent it was but, talking to the librarian, I gleaned that there was no marriage record from the Quaker Meeting house on Richard Borden and Innocent Cornell. They were not Quakers at this time. Gershom Wodell and Sarah Mott were and so were all of their children. You are not allowed to make copies of the books from the Friends Meeting house here in Newport as they are 500 years old and the Librarian looks everything up for you. I guess we just have to take his word for it. Also there was no Innocent Wordell listed at the Friends records for Gershom Wordell's children, that century.
(end Jodi's citation)

So yes there has been insanity from way back.

Re: Insanity In Borden Line

Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2018 12:39 pm
by hmcrabtree
This is interesting, thanks!

Re: Insanity In Borden Line

Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2023 12:34 pm
by Rdbates16
Trust me, you are 100% correct. This line of Bordens had MANY family in the Taunton Insane Asylum. This Amanda M. Borden (sister of William S. Borden) was married to my 3rd great grandfather Richard Bates who died in 1892. Amanda M. Borden was the widow of Nicholas Taylor.

This Amanda M. Borden Taylor had been in the Taunton Insane Asylum for 8 years before he married her.

William S. Borden was committed to Taunton Insane Asylum 2 months after being married

He had 2 sisters in Taunton Asylum and 2 Aunts.
Charles Lott Borden (Amanda's father) also went mad later in life.