Lizzie Borden Society Forum

Okay, I found this book in the library : Murder, New England by M. William Phelps and the first chapter had one paragraph that caught my attention (I've not looked it up or anything so don't shoot me):

"An interesting genealogical aside to this strange but true New England "murder" story is that infamous axe murderer Lizzie Borden (who was acquitted of murder!) was descended from Thomas Cornell's daughter, who had been born several months after Thomas's execution. The name Sarah Cornell gave to Thomas's child? Innocent Cornell." (p.11)

Now, the story is that in 1673, Rebecca Cornell (mother of Thomas) died a horrible death and at first, it was decided that it was a tragic accident. However, her brother later testifies that the spirit of Rebecca came to visit him 3 nights later. The case was reopened (spirits were taken very seriously back then) and when friends/family were interviewed, it came to light that Thomas and his wife, Sarah didn't get along with Rebecca. Long story short, he was tried, found guilty and executed.

I haven't looked into the case to see what else I can find but so far, I'm intrigued. It was found that Rebecca was stabbed before she burned to death but only some of the bed and floor around her was burned. Intriguing, no?

OMG, MysterReader, you've got my attention on this one. I'll do some research and see what I can find.

twinsrwe wrote:OMG, MysterReader, you've got my attention on this one. I'll do some research and see what I can find.

I can't find anything much more than what I wrote. One of her sons tried to find witnesses or evidence to say Sarah had something to do with the murder (this was 2 years later) but there wasn't anything. I have one website saved where one of her (Rebecca's) daughters give some insight into her mother. Rebecca at one point talked suicide but she was religious and didn't want to do it so that is one of the choices people say happened.

This is the website http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Rebec ... 00-1673%29 that I'm working on (the old English is a bit to sort through). Let me know if you find something out.

In addition to those 2, there is another case involving another family (extended) member: Sarah Cornell was found hanging and a local minister was charged with her murder and acquitted. The link is http://www.history.com/news/family-trad ... ther-too-2

There isn't much on the death of Rebecca. I wish I could find the transcripts from the trial of Thomas. I'm not sure what to think about it all... anyone else have any ideas?

Ah yes, bloody murder followed by arson to destroy the evidence...apparently Thomas didn't have a servant girl who refused a perfectly opportune fabric sale, much to his mischance... Then again, Lizzie isn't the one who ended up at the end of a rope despite her being unable to torch the place.

I agree, MysteryReader, there isn't very much on the death of Rebecca; especially detailed information. However, I did find several interesting things during my research:

Innocent CORNELL was Lizzie’s great, great, great, great grandmother.
Sources: http://tinyurl.com/lm8j677 and http://tinyurl.com/l2jfdso

Descendants of Richard Borden and Innocent Cornell: http://tinyurl.com/l4nn8kn

Genealogy of the Cornell family : being an account of the descendants of Thomas Cornell
(Hint: To turn the page, just left click on the page to the right).
http://tinyurl.com/pnbclka

The story of Rebecca Cornell, based on Occhi's recounts, begins on a cold night in February, 1673. Rebecca, the matriarch of the family whose husband had died years back, was 73-years-old. In the 1600s, to live to the age of 73 was quite an accomplishment, according to the Valley Inn operator. "Seventy-three back then is probably the equivalent of 100 today," Occhi said. Rebecca lived in the house she owned with her son, Thomas, and his wife, as well as their two daughters and four sons from a previous marriage. That one particular night, Rebecca "didn't feel quite right and chose to not have dinner with the family," Occhi said. She retired early to one of the bedrooms on the first floor. To this day, no one knows exactly which room she visited, Occhi said. A little while later, Thomas and his wife heard a noise. They went to check on Rebecca, who was found in her room dead on the floor. "It appears she had tripped and fell into the fireplace," Occhi said. Rebecca was found lying halfway in the fireplace, partially burned. Read more at: http://tinyurl.com/n9vhoyh

Today's Valley Inn Restaurant stands where this unusual murder case took place—the only case in U.S. history where "spectral evidence" or ghost testimony offered at trial resulted in the conviction and hanging of the accused killer. One cold winter night in 1673, Rebecca, 73, was found dead on her bedroom floor lying halfway in the fireplace, partially burned. Did her adult son Thomas Cornell kill her? An unusual witness accused him as such, and right up until his execution, he proclaimed his innocence. Read more at: http://tinyurl.com/pr492cb

The house in which Rebecca Cornell died. … Her room was on the first floor to the left of the entry. (Hint: Click on the book cover to look inside, and then scroll down to the first page, which starts with a picture of the house on it): http://tinyurl.com/m5j35s8

Thomas received a fair trial in the context of his era. What was strange was the outcome, given that "the odds" were in Thomas’s favor (49): homicide convictions were rare, the evidence against him was entirely circumstantial, and the defendant’s high status as a frequent town officeholder and former legislator made him a likely candidate for clemency, if convicted. Yet after the trial jury brought in a verdict of guilty and the judges pronounced a sentence of death, Thomas (all the while protesting his innocence) declined to petition either the legislature or the crown for clemency. Hence the forty-six-year-old swung from the gallows on May 23, watched by a crowd of a thousand.
And yet the legal actions did not end there. One year later, Wickopash, an Indian who had been a servant in the Cornell household in 1673, was indicted for abetting the murder. We know only the bare bones of the proceeding: He pleaded not guilty and was acquitted by a jury of nine English settlers and three Native Americans. In late 1675, one of Thomas Cornell’s brothers, suspicious that Thomas’s wife Sarah had had a hand in their mother’s death, initiated a highly unusual private prosecution against her but then failed to bring witnesses or make good the charge when the time of trial arrived. Sarah herself had already publicly declared her own verdict in her husband’s case: when she gave birth to Thomas’s posthumous daughter, Sarah named the child Innocent.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/l2del8b

Whereas you Thomas Cornell have beene in this Court, Indicted, and Charged for Murdering your Mother Mrs Rebeca Cornell Widdow, and you being by your Peers the Jurry found Guilty, Know, and to that end, prepare your selfe, that you are by this Court sentenced to be carryed from hence to the Common Goale, and from thence on ffryday next which will be the 23th Day of this instant month May, about one of the Clocke, to be carryed from the sayd Goale to the place of Execution, the Gallows, and there to be Hanged by ye neck untill you are Dead Dead.—
Source, Trial of Thomas Cornell for the murder of his mother, Rebecca Cornell: http://tinyurl.com/ptdlgsm

Did Thomas Cornell murder his mother?
Certainly he wasn’t the only one who had the opportunity to do so; the house was full of people that night. In fact, a year after Thomas’s death, the servant Wickopash was tried as an accomplice to the murder. Nothing is known about the case against him, but he was acquitted.
In 1675, Rebecca’s son William tried to make a case against Thomas’s wife for the murder, but he failed to produce any witnesses or evidence against her.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/ozrvqfd

Here is a picture of the Cornell Family Homestead that was in the photo section of the Find-A-Grave write-up on Stephen Cornell, who was the brother of Innocent Cornell Borden. Source: http://tinyurl.com/nrnqmfz : Here is the site of the Cornell graves:

Rebecca may not have been murdered; some people (a minority for sure) think she may have been a victim of spontaneous human combustion. One of my kids - the scientist, of course - spent a huge amount of time studying this phenomena in early high school.

You’re right Debbie. Her death could have been spontaneous human combustion, embers from the fireplace, embers from the pipe she smoked or suicide.

Here are a couple of links, which I found interesting:

http://tinyurl.com/ozrvqfd

http://tinyurl.com/makbl6w

debbiediablo wrote:Rebecca may not have been murdered; some people (a minority for sure) think she may have been a victim of spontaneous human combustion. One of my kids - the scientist, of course - spent a huge amount of time studying this phenomena in early high school.

Yes, I heard this explanation.

[quote="twinsrwe"]I agree, MysteryReader, there isn't very much on the death of Rebecca; especially detailed information. However, I did find several interesting things during my research:

Innocent CORNELL was Lizzie’s great, great, great, great grandmother.
Sources: http://tinyurl.com/lm8j677 and http://tinyurl.com/l2jfdso

Descendants of Richard Borden and Innocent Cornell: http://tinyurl.com/l4nn8kn

Genealogy of the Cornell family : being an account of the descendants of Thomas Cornell
(Hint: To turn the page, just left click on the page to the right).
http://tinyurl.com/pnbclka

The story of Rebecca Cornell, based on Occhi's recounts, begins on a cold night in February, 1673. Rebecca, the matriarch of the family whose husband had died years back, was 73-years-old. In the 1600s, to live to the age of 73 was quite an accomplishment, according to the Valley Inn operator. "Seventy-three back then is probably the equivalent of 100 today," Occhi said. Rebecca lived in the house she owned with her son, Thomas, and his wife, as well as their two daughters and four sons from a previous marriage. That one particular night, Rebecca "didn't feel quite right and chose to not have dinner with the family," Occhi said. She retired early to one of the bedrooms on the first floor. To this day, no one knows exactly which room she visited, Occhi said. A little while later, Thomas and his wife heard a noise. They went to check on Rebecca, who was found in her room dead on the floor. "It appears she had tripped and fell into the fireplace," Occhi said. Rebecca was found lying halfway in the fireplace, partially burned. Read more at: http://tinyurl.com/n9vhoyh

The ONLY THING is, Rebecca had a bedroom on the lower level. She didn't have dinner due to the fish they had (she didn't like it) and the family didn't hear anything. One of the grandsons was sent in to see if she was going to have her warm/boiled milk for dinner.



Thomas received a fair trial in the context of his era. What was strange was the outcome, given that "the odds" were in Thomas’s favor (49): homicide convictions were rare, the evidence against him was entirely circumstantial, and the defendant’s high status as a frequent town officeholder and former legislator made him a likely candidate for clemency, if convicted. Yet after the trial jury brought in a verdict of guilty and the judges pronounced a sentence of death, Thomas (all the while protesting his innocence) declined to petition either the legislature or the crown for clemency. Hence the forty-six-year-old swung from the gallows on May 23, watched by a crowd of a thousand.

I DON'T think that he had a fair trial- people in town were all talking about how he and his wife didn't get along with Rebecca.

And yet the legal actions did not end there. One year later, Wickopash, an Indian who had been a servant in the Cornell household in 1673, was indicted for abetting the murder. We know only the bare bones of the proceeding: He pleaded not guilty and was acquitted by a jury of nine English settlers and three Native Americans. In late 1675, one of Thomas Cornell’s brothers, suspicious that Thomas’s wife Sarah had had a hand in their mother’s death, initiated a highly unusual private prosecution against her but then failed to bring witnesses or make good the charge when the time of trial arrived. Sarah herself had already publicly declared her own verdict in her husband’s case: when she gave birth to Thomas’s posthumous daughter, Sarah named the child Innocent.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/l2del8b



Of course, she did mention suicide but she was too religious to take her own life. I know that that was one of the options presented. I know that shortly before she died, she was going to move in with one of her other sons and not leave anything to Thomas and Sarah. There isn't much about that, though. I wonder why she didn't?

Spontaneous combustion, ey! There was a case in the early 1930's of a young couple on the dancefloor, not anything overly energetic, just the fox-trot. In the middle of the dance she suddenly combusted. They weren't smoking or anything and there wasn't much of her left at the end.

It was difficult to pick out your statements in the above post, but I think I found all of them. Forgive me if I missed any.

MysteryReader wrote:… The ONLY THING is, Rebecca had a bedroom on the lower level. She didn't have dinner due to the fish they had (she didn't like it) and the family didn't hear anything. One of the grandsons was sent in to see if she was going to have her warm/boiled milk for dinner. …

Yes, I also picked up on that one.

MysteryReader wrote:… I DON'T think that he had a fair trial- people in town were all talking about how he and his wife didn't get along with Rebecca. …

I agree, not only were the people in town talking, so were the Cornell relatives; I’m sure they were also spreading their opinions of this family around. Thomas was convicted and put to death on entirely circumstantial evidence. How could the jury have come up with a verdict of guilty, when there wasn’t any evidence to prove Thomas’ guilt beyond reason doubt?

MysteryReader wrote:… Of course, she did mention suicide but she was too religious to take her own life. I know that that was one of the options presented. I know that shortly before she died, she was going to move in with one of her other sons and not leave anything to Thomas and Sarah. There isn't much about that, though. I wonder why she didn't?

You’re right, her religious beliefs prevented her from carrying through with killing herself. When I composed that post, I was listing the options that were given in the links I posted above. Although, I should have also added ‘Unhappie Accident’, since that is what a coroner’s panel had initially declared her death as. Source: http://tinyurl.com/nhs74bw

It is my understanding that Rebecca had intended to move in with her son, Samuel, in the spring of the year; unfortunately, she died in February. ( Source: http://tinyurl.com/q24zxcs and http://tinyurl.com/kgryjqd ).