The Life & Lies of St. Pete’s Founding Mother, Part II Sarah Judge

After a relatively anonymous childhood, growing up in Ontario, Canada as the eldest of five children, Sarah Craven, or rather, Sarah Judge appears for the first time in the newspaper in 1870 under the headline: “Alleged Embezzlement.” Now in Detroit, Sarah, along with her new husband, John Judge, are being accused of embezzling $1700, the equivalent of over $40,000 today, from their employer, Giles Pullman.

To understand what happened, we need to follow the path of a different name: Nellie Haywood. Or Nellie Hayward — there’s an unsurprising amount of inconsistency here.

Sometime in the early 1860s, Sarah begins to perform under this name. She is a singer, a dancer, and an actress, with various theatrical troupes. Around the same time, a comedian and “champion banjoist” named Johnny Judge starts showing up in newspapers. It’s unclear if they knew each other before performing together, but over the course of the 1860s, they have two children together, Robert and John.

They don’t stop performing, though. Going off of census records and newspaper appearances, it seems as though for part of the year, Sarah and Judge leave their kids with some friends to travel across the country, performing as a part of Giles Pullman’s theatre troupe, associated with Dr. Thayer’s Circus.

Then, in 1870, the circus is in Tarboro, North Carolina when Pullman allegedly entrusts Sarah with $1700 — again, that’s over $40,000 today. She’s supposed to take this money up to Raleigh, which is the next stop on the circuit. Only, she never shows. Instead, she heads north, back to Detroit, where she and Judge have long since set up their home base. 

Pullman reports the crime on November 1. With suspicious timing, Sarah and Judge decide to marry on November 21, 1870 – no, they were not legally married before this. And yes, even back then, spouses couldn’t be forced to testify against one another. It’s not a huge leap to say the Judges might have known that.

Within the week, both Sarah and John Judge are in court. They both plead not guilty and pay $2000 each for bail — about $94,000 in today’s money.

At examination the next day, it was determined that Judge had no knowledge of the crime, and he was released. Sarah, however, was pulled into a trial that lasted well into January. The case against her hinged on testimony from none other than the circus’s “bearded lady” Madame Rebecca Lyon, who claimed she had overheard Sarah saying she had Pullman’s money.

Ultimately, Sarah was released and the charges were dismissed — though, not for the reason you’d think. Based on the recounting of events by Sarah, Pullman, Lyon, and others, the court said that if Sarah had stolen the money, her crime would have been considered larceny, not embezzlement. 

That, it seems, is that. For whatever reason, Pullman never pursues any further charges.

Sarah and John Judge continue on as performers, now separated from Pullman’s troupe and Dr. Thayer’s Circus. They even attempt to make their own circus: the Judge & Davis Palace Pavilion Show. However, it only shows up one singular time in Wisconsin newspapers, and once in Michigan, before disappearing entirely.

Then, in 1875, at the age of 36, John Judge dies of consumption. This likely didn’t spell great things for Sarah and the boys. The local Theatre Comique for which both Sarah and Judge worked put on a benefit for the family, and in the years that follow, Sarah shows up frequently in their advertisements, still working to support her family. 

In a strange interlude, she appears to marry a man named Frank Martyn, who is well-known for being a musician, a fraud, and a swindler, not necessarily in that order. But aside from their marriage record, nothing ties the two of them together, not even a divorce record. Martyn leaves Detroit pretty soon after and for all intents and purposes, Sarah carries on her life like it never happened.

Then, around 1880, Sarah’s son Robert starts working for John C. Williams, a man who will later be known as the Father of St. Petersburg. One of them, anyways.

Stay tuned for the May edition of St. Pete in a Snap for the next installment in the life of Sarah Williams Armistead.