No, Bridget Sullivan did NOT work for George Winston in Anaconda as his maid

There is a page from something (book, pamphlet, sign) being circulated on FaceBook that purports all manner of gossip, innuendo, and outright disinformation regarding Bridget Sullivan — she of Andrew Borden household fame.

(Please right click on any of the images in this post to open in a new window to see them enlarged and more clearly)

It has been shared again and again and again, gaining notoriety and increasing conversations about not only Bridget’s later worklife, but how she confessed on her deathbed and was paid by Lizzie for “her evasive testimony.”

Let’s start at the end of the story, shall we?

There is zero evidence that Bridget confessed anything on her deathbed to anyone about anything. At the time of her death in 1948, she was blind (cause unknown) and senile. Her immediate cause of death is listed as “exhaustion, cardiac failure, chronic myocarditis due to arteriosclerosis senility.” No autopsy was performed. At the time of her death, according to her death certificate, she was 73, a widow of some 9 years (m. in 1905 to John M. Sullivan), and passed away in the County Hospital in Butte, Montana.

Her home address is listed as 112 East Woolman Street in Butte. The informant of her death was the County Hospital, not an individual.

John and Bridget had no children. She is buried next to her husband in Mt. Olive Cemetery in Anaconda, Montana.

 

During the trial of Lizzie Borden in 1893 (and at the inquest and preliminary hearing as well), Bridget Sullivan answered every question fully and to the best of her recollection. She was not evasive or unsure of her answers. She never wavered in her various testimonies (the transcription of her inquest appearance is lost) and no attorney or newspaperman at the time questioned her veracity or sincerity. While some of her testimony differed from that of others in small ways, she was not equivocating in her responses to either the defense or prosecution. ANYONE who says differently has not read these primary sources.

When we see her date of birth on her death certificate as 1875, however, we know it to be wrong. An 1875 birth would mean Bridget had been 18 at the time of the trial and 17 at the time of the murders. This is an impossibility; Bridget Sullivan was not a teenager during the crimes. Better evidence, I think, comes from her tombstone, which shows her date of birth as 1869. This date would make her 23 at the time of the murders and 24 at trial when she thought she was 26.

 

Now to Bridget Sullivan’s age and immigration. In her sworn trial testimony of 1893, she says she is 26 and that she has been in this country for 7 years, marking an immigration date of 1886.

This is from the trial transcript, page 192-193:

Q. (By Mr. Moody.) What is your full name?
A. Bridget Sullivan.

Q. And were you in the Borden household sometimes called Maggie?
A. Yes, sir.

Q. By whom were you called Maggie, by the whole family?
A. No, sir.

Q. By whom?
A. By Lizzie and Emma.

Q. By Miss Emma and Miss Lizzie?
A. Yes, sir.

Q. Won’t you be kind enough to tell us how old you are, Miss Sullivan?
A. 26 years old.

Q. I believe you never have been married?
A. No, sir.

Q. How long have you been in this country?
A. Six years last May—seven years last May.

Q. And where were you born?
A. In Ireland.

Q. And came here seven years ago?
A. Yes, sir.

Q. Came to what part of this country?
A. I came to Newport.

Q. Newport, Rhode Island?
A. Yes, sir.

Q. Did you have any folks here when you came here?
A. No, sir.

Q. Father, mother, brother or sisters?
A. No, sir.

Q. And have you any here now?
A. No, sir. I ain’t got no folks here, no more than relations.

Q. When you went to Newport did you stay there quite a while?
A. Twelve months.

Q. And from Newport where did you go?
A. I went out to South Bethlehem.

Q. That was in Pennsylvania?
A. Yes, sir.

Q. When did you come to Fall River?
A. I came there four years—I was two years out when I came to Fall River; two years in America when I came to Fall River.

Q. Did you go to the Bordens the first place in Fall River?
A. No, sir. I went to Mrs. Reed.

Q. When did you go to work for Mr. Borden?
A. I was there two years and nine months.

Q. At the time of his death?
A. Yes, sir.

Q. Was there any other domestic servant in the family except yourself?
A. No, sir, not while I was there.

 

How can someone not know their birthday?

It is likely that Bridget Sullivan did not, in fact, know the year of her birth. This is particularly noticeable when her statements about her origins are compared to legal documents, testimony, and census records. It is not known for certain if Bridget simply didn’t know when she was born or if she was asserting a right to privacy and expressing her distrust of authority by not giving an accurate accounting when asked. According to her relatives, however, who I spoke to myself, not knowing one’s year of birth was common in large Irish families, to which Bridget belonged, due to the intense poverty that precluded the celebration of birthdays. Bridget Sullivan was one of twelve children—not an uncommon occurrence.

The story that Bridget was paid off (to the tune of $5,000) by the Borden sisters is the stuff of myth. Neither did she, upon her voyage to Ireland in 1895 aboard the steamer RMS Lucania, buy her family a farm. (READ ABOUT THIS TRIP HOME FROM AN ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN THE HATCHET, NOW ONLINE).

To sum up the story of Bridget’s trip to Ireland in 1895, she went steerage, at a cost of approximately $16.50, hardly the choice of luxurious travel for a woman of means. In addition, Irish history is clear that, until 1900, individuals could not own farms in Ireland. The feudal system was still very much in place, with regions being designated by Baronies. Where Bridget’s family was from, Billeragh (Kilnamanagh, Cork), the Barony was Bear, which covered the northwesterly portion of the county. The Irish Land League was formed specifically to abolish landlordism in Ireland, reduce “rack-rents,” and provide a pathway for families to own the land they worked on. It wasn’t until 1902, when the Land Conference created the Land (Purchase) Act of 1903, that Irish tenant farmers could become landowners by purchasing their freeholds with government loans. For this reason alone, it is probable, then, that Bridget did not visit Ireland to purchase a farm for her parents.

Neither did she (as they still say on a tour of the Lizzie Borden B&B), upon her return to America sometime before 1900, purchase a “big ranch in Montana.” Instead, we find that in the US Federal Census record of 1900 that Bridget worked as a cook for a manager of a smelting company in South Butte by the name of Richard T. Pearce.

Bridget was a live-in cook and part of Pearce’s household—not a ranch owner after all. She is reported to be 32 years old, with an Irish father and Irish mother, and a US immigration date of 1885.

It may be through her work at this house that she met her husband John M. Sullivan, who was a smelterman at the copper mine. Regardless, John and Bridget were married in 1905. On her marriage license, she lists her age as 35, born to Eugene Sullivan and Margaret Leary (just like the death certificate).

If Bridget Sullivan really was 26 in 1893, she would have been born in 1867, which is two years off from her tombstone of 1869, eight years off from her death certificate of 1875, and four years off from her marriage license of 1871.

So when was Bridget Sullivan actually born? Investigation is ongoing. However, all of this discussion of dates of birth and ages is not important in this case because the numbers are close to each other. For instance, the 1900 census above, taken in June of 1900, lists her as 32. If the date on her marriage license is to be believed, she would have been 29. But her census record above shows a birth date of 1868, which is only one year away from her testimony in 1893.

Confused? Well, so were the enumerators of the census during Bridget’s lifetime. She invariably gave different dates for her immigration and age, which one could chalk up to her being Free Irish and thus untrusting of any government entity like a census taker. In her final census of 1940, most hilariously, she lists the date of her immigration as 1892!

The only reason why we need to be reasonably certain of her birth is to compare it to the page of gossip and inaccurate research at the very top of this post.

Here is the “evidence,” and the only way to know, that Judge George Winston had a servant whose name was Bridget Sullivan—the 1910 US Federal Census:

Please note that this Bridget Sullivan is listed as a member of the household living on Main Street, is 28, single, of Irish/English heritage, and immigrated to the US in 1905. Her employer, George B. Winston, is Judge of the District Court, a man of some means and reputation. One can count on his household being properly and accurately enumerated in this census record.

Here is the 1910 US Federal Census record for Bridget Sullivan, formerly of Fall River:

Note here that she is living at 412 Monroe Street with her husband, John M. Sullivan. He is a smelter. Bridget is listed as his wife of five years (remember, they married in 1905), and being 40 years of age. She is of Irish/Irish heritage, just like her husband, and claims to have immigrated to the US in 1890.

She cannot be in two places at the same time, with two different ages, two different dates of immigration, two different marriage statuses.

Ergo, the entirety of the story being circulated about the Bridget Sullivan portion of Judge George B. Winston’s life is not correct. They got the wrong Bridget Sullivan.