Bridget Maddigan (1846-1909) offers a lesson for those who seek a surefire method of avoiding paying rent for the cold winter months.
Maddigan made the news many times over the decades in Montreal but her final mention also betrays the free rent strategy she employed before her violent, premature death on 27 December 1909.
Maddigan's untraditional living arrangement offers an idea for cheap, free refuge that might be useful to some even to this day.
In the summer Maddigan would live with acquaintances, usually a man named Timothy Riordan.
In the wintertime she'd live rent free, in local jails.
By 1909 she had been wintering behind bars for at least 15 years, years, after her husband died, according to a friend.
Maddigan was born in Ireland and was a chronic visitor to Montreal jail cells from an early age, most usually for vagrancy, known then as the crime, or misdeameanor of being "loose, idle and disorderly."
Her court sentences are mentioned many times in Montreal newspapers, starting from 26 June 1860 when she pleaded guilty along with James Creamer and Marie Anne Sullivan, on charges not disclosed in the newspaper. The next year, on 22 February, she and Elizbeth Hackett, Theresa Stanley and Mary Anne Delaney got 30 days for the loose idle and disorderly thing. She was sent back to jail for 10 days and three weeks later that year.
Her pattern continued through 1878 when she was busted for being drunk along with Ellen Crane, Anne Reddy, Zoe Page, Thomas Murphy, Ann Finn and Patrick Waddick and was sentenced to a pair of months for it on 9 February.
Upon being released she was sent back in for another month for swearing in public on Beade Street, wherever that was. Three years later she got fined $13 for assaulting and breaking the window of a woman named Henderson.
Maddigan had a pair of sons, Robert and David and was married to an Anglican.
Anyway, Maddigan got beaten to death in a home on Farm Street between Wellington and St. Patrick. Farm Street is a now-disappeared street one west of Bridge.
The culprit was Timothy Riordan, 55, who kicked her in the head after getting irritated at her constant begging him for money for booze. Riordan had recently been forced to sell his oven to pay his bills. Riordan's daughter was also living in the home with her tiny infant who slept in a pile of rags.
Riordan ended up killing Maddigan by knocking her to the floor and kicking her in the head.
Her body was found outside on the street by a young neighbor and police quickly arrested Riordan. He was tried and a judge found him insane a few months later. He was sent to the Longue Pointe insane asylum, now known as the Louis Hippolite Lafontaine hospital.
So anyway, staying in jail probably isn't a great way to solve your housing issues but if you opt to go that route, be comforted knowing that you won't be the first to try that strategy.
9 fe b 1878 ann finn, bridget reddy, bridget madigan, ellen crane, anne reddy, zoe page, thomas murphy and patrick waddick drunk. 2 months sentenced.
*10 april 1878 bridge maddigan drunk in beade street, one month in jauil. ann finn searing in usule street, one month.
28 sept 1881 - thef - 6 months
21 uly 1881 fined $1 and costs and $13 damage for assaulted Mrs. Henderson on Craig St.
Here are some documents around my 2x great-grandmother Bridget Madigan Lessells' life. I know she was born in Ireland but I don't know just where or exactly when. Her sons Robert and David both list "Northern Ireland" as their mother's place of birth in the 1930 US census.
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22 feb 1861 elizabeth hackette thersa stanley mary ann delaney and ridget madigan confessed idle and disordeerly persons committed to 30 days jail each loose idle and disorderly - 22 feb 1861
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9 oct 1861 voluntary confession as a loose idle and dsiroderly person committed to jail for 10 days.
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2 july 1861 got 3 weeks for the same charge.
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9 fe b 1878 ann finn, bridget reddy, bridget madigan, ellen crane, anne reddy, zoe page, thomas murphy and patrick waddick drunk. 2 months sentenced.
*10 april 1878 bridge maddigan drunk in beade street, one month in jauil. ann finn searing in usule street, one month.
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28 sept 1881 - thef - 6 months
Here are some documents around my 2x great-grandmother Bridget Madigan Lessells' life. I know she was born in Ireland but I don't know just where or exactly when. Her sons Robert and David both list "Northern Ireland" as their mother's place of birth in the 1930 US census.
21 uly 1881 fined $1 and costs and $13 damage for assaulted Mrs. Henderson on Craig St.
27 Dec 1909 Mrs. Bridget Lacalles, 76 found dead on the sidewalk at 18 Farm St. 1015 st night. Chrimas eve tragedy she lived with Timothy Riordan and his daughter Mrs. George Myers. They wer earrested.
Myeres had a 5 month old daughter. cops came from the Grand Trunk station and found the body ont he sidewalk. Riordan was found on St. Patrick street by Constable O'Connor.
Mrs Myers had a face cut and bruised both eyesw blackened . her baby was sleeping in a pile of rag.s. "my father beat her yesterday and she fell behind the lounge and lay there." Her dad hd beat her too.
the riordans had only just move dthere the prevoius may. riordan was a drunk with a note from the temperance society about his daughters death.
lots of fights between him and his daughter.
riordan abou5 55 was a driver of a svanvenger wagon of the incineration department he had worked there for 2 years.
Elzaer Bois, 20, found the body. he lives on farm street. the young man's mother had complained to riordan about beating on the woman.
maddigan had lived wit the myers family off and on for 16 years since her husband died.
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drunken bridget maddigan struck mrs henderson without any provocation. she went inside but was prevented by her assistant who beat her with her ginger beer bottle. henerson got inside and shut the door maddigan broke the window $13 damage. 20 july 1881 -
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1860 26 june arraigned with two others pleaded not guilty, charges not explained.Jeams Creamer Mary anne Sullivan
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22 feb 1861 elizabeth hackette thersa stanley mary ann delaney and ridget madigan confessed idle and disordeerly persons committed to 30 days jail each loose idle and disorderly - 22 feb 1861
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9 oct 1861 voluntary confession as a loose idle and dsiroderly person committed to jail for 10 days.
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2 july 1861 got 3 weeks for the same charge.
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9 fe b 1878 ann finn, bridget reddy, bridget madigan, ellen crane, anne reddy, zoe page, thomas murphy and patrick waddick drunk. 2 months sentenced.
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10 april 1878 bridge maddigan drunk in beade street, one month in jauil. ann finn searing in usule street, one month.
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28 sept 1881 - thef - 6 months
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she lived aoff an on at roirdans hose for 15 years in the summer and generally went to jail for hte winter.
midweek they ran out of money an dhe sold a large cook range fro 410.
she had been drunk for a whole week and aggravating him for money. she was asking him for 10 cents to buy booze. he beacmse angry and tossed her to the floor and kicke her.
- 10 march 1910 he was deemed insane and unfit to stand trial. sent to the longue pointed asylum (st jean de dieu, aka lh lafontaine) - mental excitiation "softening of the brain" his daughter mrs myers had been detained in jail for 2 months as a witenss. released at once.
5 ja\\h 5 jan he showed no intrest in the proceedings.
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So here are:
- 1871 Census showing John ("J.T.") and Bridget living in Compton, Quebec (Eastern Townships) with Bridget's daughter Isabella from her first marriage (to James Buttler) and their son Robert. Robert was informally adopted by the Brady family of Malone New York in the 1880s and used the name Brady the rest of his life. He did remain in contact with his Lessells siblings into adulthood though. They were godparents to each other's children, witnesses at weddings, etc.
- 1867 marriage record for John and Bridget. John was not a Catholic so they married in an Anglican church in Quebec City.
- 1909 Burial record for Bridget. I've had that for several months but only found out about a week ago how she died. Basilique Notre-Dame is where sons David and Richard (who died in infancy) were baptized.
- 1909 article from the Montreal Gazette about Bridget's death. It gives good detail without the sensationalist "POOLS OF BLOOD!" paragraph headings some of the other papers used.
- 1875 intake ledger from the Gaol of Quebec showing Bridget being booked on March 1 1875 along with son Robert. She gave birth to daughter Anna on March 2. My ggfather David was about 3. I don't know who looked after the other children when she was jailed with the others. I have no idea where the father was during all this. Mary Meekins is also shown on the same ledger. She acted as godmother for Anna.
- 1875 baptismal record for Anna at St-Jean-Baptiste, Quebec City. I've had that for a long time but only found the prison records a few months ago on BAnQ. Fantastic database.
- PDF of a spreadsheet I created listing Bridget's incarcerations as per the BAnQ database. It also shows daughter Isabella (aka Mary in one entry) and sons Robert and David. When the children's names are indented they were booked along with Bridget. When not indented they were booked separately the next day. If you do a newspaper search on BAnQ for Bridget Madigan you'll find her mentioned in police blotter reports that correspond to her jail bookings.
Bridit Madican aka Morrigan as incorrectly spelle dfon her brith certificate.
--Hello, I was searching for the location of Farm St in Point St Charles and found a blog post of yours from 2013 about that very neighborhood. (https://coolopolis.blogspot.com/2013/03/farm-village-in-point-gone-and-forgotten.html). I was all absorbed in the maps you posted and so didn’t read all the way through the post right away. When I did, my jaw dropped. You mentioned the 1909 beating death of “Bridget Lecalles”. That’s why I was looking up Farm Street! Bridget was my great-great grandmother. She often went by her maiden name, Bridget Madigan (sometimes also Maddigan). Her married name was in fact “Lessells”, usually rendered Lascelles and a bunch of other ways. Her husband, my 2x great-grandfather John Lessells spelled it that way on their marriage record and that remained the preferred spelling for his and Bridget’s descendants. John’s family originated in Fifeshire, Scotland as “Lessels”. https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/3936930?docref=yYT_As-07ZujFL0NQ8Etfg
Bridget was apparently quite a badass. I find over 40 sentences she served in the Québec Gaol between 1859 and 1878, mostly for “loose idle and disorderly” (vagrancy, public drunkenness) and a few for larceny. In the 1870s her children would often be jailed with her, including my great-grandfather David Bernard Lessells when he was only 5 years old. She even gave birth to her daughter Anna in jail in March 1875. A fellow inmate, Mary Meekins, served as the baby’s godmother. Whatever her faults were, Bridget did not deserve to die the way she did. But in a weird way the sensationalist news coverage of her murder gave me a snapshot of things she did and said and how she lived and I’m grateful for that.