27/02/2019
Here is the first installment of the story of Laurence Bradley - the accused in Murder in Mullingar.
Banished – The Bradley Family in America
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Laurence Bradley – a Mullingar man who was cathedral clerk accused of murder at Mullingar Cathedral on St. Stephen’s night in 1892 – was twice tried for the crime, but never convicted. Realizing after two hung juries that a conviction for the poisoning death of James Kelly was unlikely, officials attempted to rid themselves of the man and his family at the centre of this scandalous affair, and paid for them to make their way to America with instructions to never return. But to this day, many remain convinced of Laurence Bradley’s guilt and believe him to be a murderer.
Laurence’s story begins in 1846, the year he was born and baptised in Rochfortbridge Parish to parents James Bradley and Catherine Dalton. He was raised in the townland of Kilbride in County Westmeath – located between Rochfortbridge and Lough Ennell, south of Mullingar. He started work as a young man of around 19 years of age in 1864 as the cathedral clerk at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Mullingar – a job he held until the time of his arrest for murder.
In February of 1873 he married Ann Whelehan in Mullingar. Ann was born in Mullingar, the daughter of Patrick Whelehan and Bridget Hetherson. Later in life, Ann claimed to have been born in 1854, but her baptismal record shows she was baptised in February 1849 – meaning she was born in late 1848 or early 1849.
After their marriage, the family of Laurence and Ann quickly grew. According to baptismal records, Lawrence and Ann had at least 12 children:
Bridget Mae and twin James – born in 1874
Joseph Michael – born in 1875
Lawrence Patrick – born in 1877
Thomas Joseph – born in 1878
Patrick – born in 1880
Mary Catherine – born in 1882
Maurice/Morris Aloysius – born in 1883
Anna J – born in 1885
Margaret – born in 1887
John James – born in 1890
Mary – born in 1891
In her account of the murder trial, Ruth Illingworth mentions the wife and daughter of Laurence attending the trial. It is likely that it was the eldest daughter, Bridget, who accompanied her mother as she would have been around 20 years of age. Several of the children appear to have died as infants or young children including Bridget’s twin James, as well as Patrick, Mary Catherine, Margaret, and Mary.
So in February of 1894, when the family was sent to America, there would have been nine family members making the voyage – the accused Laurence, his wife Ann, and his children (ranging in ages from 4 to 20 years of age) John James, Anna, Maurice, Thomas, Lawrence, Joseph, and Bridget. The family left Mullingar by train on the 24th of February 1894, the last time the people of Mullingar would lay eyes on the Bradleys.
For Mullingar, the departure of Laurence and his family was the end of the story. But the story of the Bradley family must have continued on. What happened to Laurence Bradley and his family? Did they make it to America? If so, where did they settle? What did they do there? And…if Laurence Bradley really was a killer, would he be compelled to murder once again?
It isn’t until 1900, six years after the Bradley family were sent from Mullingar, that the they are first found together in America – in the 1900 United States Federal Census. They are living on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn Ward 13, Kings County, New York, in a rented tenement.
In that year, Laurence was working as a hotel porter. His sons were employed as a bartender, an office clerk, a messenger, and a dry goods clerk, while his eldest daughter Bridget was a milliner clerk. The two youngest children were attending school.
They appeared to be the typical Irish immigrant family living in New York. But perhaps everything wasn’t quite what it seemed. There was one bit of puzzling information in their census record. They all listed their year of immigration to America as 1892 – the year the murder took place. But we know they didn’t even leave Mullingar until 1894, and we’re not certain when they left the country. Could this have been an attempt to hide Laurence’s past?
In what is likely his Petition for Naturalization to become an American citizen in 1897, Lawrence, who stated his occupation as that of a spice miller, claimed he arrived in America on the 20th of October, 1891. If this is indeed the right Lawrence (and it appears by his address in Brooklyn that it is him), he was likely claiming an arrival date of around 3 years earlier than when he actually arrived. According to this record, Lawrence became a citizen of the US through naturalization on the 19th of January, 1897. His signature appears on the petition, asserting how long he has been in America and that “he is of good moral character”.
Another clue that the family was making an effort to not be linked back to the murder in Mullingar are their immigration records – or perhaps we should say their lack of immigration records. Arrival records for immigrants to New York in 1894 do exist. And it should be relatively easy to find nine people of the same last name arriving together in New York in 1894. However, this isn’t the case. No arrival records could be found for the family. Could they have travelled under a different surname making it impossible to trace them back to Mullingar?
Regardless of these lingering questions, the family did seem to be doing relatively well in America in 1900. It would appear that they had left their past behind them in Mullingar and started anew. But doesn’t the past just always have a way of catching up to someone desperate to leave it behind?
Writter by genealogist Janice Mann ©
Part 2 next Wednesday 6th March 2019
Tragedy – An Accidental Death? (Part 2)
Janice Mann is a full-time Genealogists.
Janice can be contacted if you require a researcher in genealogy. Her website is www.lilactree.ca
