Nouvelles
In early 19th-century Montreal, life for the homeless was harsh indeed
![](https://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/files/newsroom/styles/fullwidth_breakpoints_theme_moriarty_small_1x/public/channels/image/the-montreal-gazette_5.png?itok=Zo-kyY7U×tamp=1415028933)
The Montreal Gazette: It was a distressing sight on the Montreal waterfront that morning in late autumn 1816. There, in a bateau drawn up on the muddy banks of the St. Lawrence, lay the body of a woman. She was identified as Elizabeth Thomson, the wife of a soldier named Hibberts. The Gazette reported that her death was caused by “intoxication and the effect of cold.” Read more.