|
SAMUEL BOULTON (08 August 2008) I am interested in a Samuel Boulton who was a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) missionary in Lanark and Lambton Counties, Ontario, in the 1830s and 1840s. The following is very speculative. Nevertheless circumstantial, although undocumented, evidence would suggest two possibilities (below), and a connection between the two Boulton families in question may also be possible .............. SAMUEL BOULTON # 1 (b. 1785, Broadalbin, New York, USA) Samuel Boulton, born 1785 at Broadalbin, New York, USA, to unknown parents, married, in 1810, Rachel Persell born 24 July 1789 at Broadalbin, daughter of Jacob Persell and Rachel Knapp. (IGI) A Samuel Boulton, with wife and at least some of children, probably arrived in Bathurst Township, Lanark County, Ontario in the 1820s or 1830s. Samuel seems to have been joining relatives (brothers/cousins?) William, Benjamin, Israel, Jacob and Hugh, who had arrived in Bathurst Township between 1814 and about 1825. Hugh Boulton was married to Susannah Persell (possibly a sister to Samuel’s wife Rachel Persell). If these Boultons were all from Broadalbin, NY, they may have been UELs. These Boultons settled at or near what is now the village of Fallbrook, then known as Boulton's Mills due to a grist mill and saw mill built there by William Boulton on Boulton's Creek which joins the Fall River at this point. The following census data, land transactions, etc. confirm the presence of these Boultons in Bathurst Township in the first half of the 19th century: William Boulton – “purchased land (at Boulton Mills / Fallbrook) and built one of the first grist mills in Bathurst Township”. (A Pioneer History of the County of Lanark, Jean S. McGill) Benjamin Bolton - Bathurst Twp Conc-10/Lot-22, arrived 1814. Family of 2 “born there” and 5 “born here”, Anglican. (1842 census). Note – arrived Upper Canada 1814 but could not have been in Bathurst that early as land survey not completed until 1816. Israel Bolton - Bathurst Twp. Conc-10/Lot-22, arrived 1814. Family of 1 “born there” and 8 “born here”. Listed as O/A (other than Anglican?). (1842 census). Note – arrived Upper Canada 1814 but could not have been in Bathurst that early as land survey not completed until 1816. Jacob Bolton - Bathurst Twp. Conc-10/Lot-19, arrived 1822. Family of 1 “born there” and 5 “born here”. Listed as “other” religion (1842 census). Hugh Bolton - & J. Hoover bought Bathurst Twp. Conc-10/Lot-20(W), 19 Dec 1823. Benjamin & Hugh Boulton - bought Bathurst Twp. Conc-10/Lot-22(Pt), 07 Feb 1824. Benjamin & Samuel - bought Bathurst Twp. Conc-10/Lot-19, 17 September 1831. Benjamin & Samuel Boulton - sold Bathurst Twp. Conc-10/Lot-19 11 February 1841. Benjamin Bolton - sold Bathurst Twp. Conc-19/Lot-22(W), 8 December 1841. Samuel (b.1785) and Rachel (b.1789) Boulton may have been the parents of the following children; Samuel - baptized, Bathurst, 17 August 1823, Methodist, maybe married Jane Jackson, Perth, 15 July 1856, parents listed as Samuel and Rachel. Benjamin – Elizabeth/Eliza – maybe married George Peden 20 March 1832, Perth Presbyterian Church, witnesses Israel Bolton & Thomas Earls. Nancy - maybe married John Anderson 23 June 1832, Perth Presbyterian Church, witnesses Alexander Bain & William Anderson. Susannah/Susan - married Alexander Bain, 20 May 1836, Perth Presbyterian Church, witnesses Samuel Boulton & James Bain. Jacob - maybe married Ann Lockhead, 12 March 1832, Perth Presbyterian Church, witnesses Benjamin Boulton & Alexander Montgomery. (There may be other children and some of the above may actually be nieces and nephews) By about 1836 there is a Mormon Elder named Samuel Boulton acting as an LDS missionary in Lanark County (probably a local convert baptized by missionaries John E. Page or Azra Adams). In 1840 Elder Samuel Boulton is documented as conducting LDS baptisms in Lanark County. He may also have made a trip to the Mormon settlements in Missouri in the late 1830s. In the winter of 1844-1845 Elder Samuel Boulton appears (apparently arriving from Nauvoo, Illinois) in the Lambton County, Ontario, Townships of Warwick, Plympton, Sarnia and Inniskillen, together with one of his Lanark County converts, John Borrowman. In Lambton they are documented as converting several families, most of whom had moved to Lambton from the Lanark County Townships of Dalhousie and Lanark over the previous decade. In the early summer of 1846 Samuel Boulton is documented in the ‘Canada Company’ wagon train made up of those Lanark via Lambton County converts crossing Iowa after the evacuation of Nauvoo, Illinois earlier that year. All indications are that Samuel Boulton had not been with this group from their departure point near Sarnia, Ontario, (March 1846) but they had picked him up (along with John Borrowman) as they passed through Nauvoo in early April of 1846. Samuel Boulton had probably been living in Nauvoo over the course of previous year. With him in the 'Canada Company' is an unnamed daughter (no other family mentioned). Samuel Boulton does not appear to have reached Utah. There is no death, burial or other record of Samuel Boulton in Utah. Only one Boulton family is listed in the LDS Pioneer Overland Index; 1848 - Thomas Boulton (b.c1825) and a family of three. There are three Bolton families in the Pioneer Overland Index; 1848 – Curtis Edwin Bolton (b.c1813) travelling with a family of six (who seems to have made the trip again in 1853); William B. Bolton (b. c1825) travelling with a family of three; 1866 – Thomas Bolton (b. c1848) travelling along. No place of birth is listed for any of these. Samuel Boulton may have been among the more than 1,000 who died in the refugee camps at Council Bluffs and Winter Quarters, but no record of such a death, or grave, has been located. He may also have dropped out of the ‘Canada Company’ at one of the Iowa way-stations such as Garden Grove or Mount Pisgah, and died there, but once again no record of such a death or burial has been located. Despite his age (in 1846 he was 61 years of age) he could have been sent on further missionary work and died almost anywhere. There is a Samuel Boulton, who died in 1862, buried at Keokuk, Iowa. Keokuk is located a short distance south of Nauvoo, Illinois, but on the Iowa bank of the Mississippi, just north of where the Missouri River enters the Mississippi. Keokuk had a significant Mormon population from the time of the 1839 Mormon evacuation of Missouri. In 1853 Keokuk was the jumping off place for European Mormon converts (arriving via New Orleans and coming up the Mississippi by riverboat) on their trek to Utah. However the Samuel Boulton buried there is a Civil War casualty, a Private in Company-A, 17th Iowa Infantry of the Union Army. The Samuel Boulton of Broadalbin, New York, Lanark and Lambton County, Ontario, and the ‘Canada Company’ (assuming these are the same man) would have been 77 years of age in 1862 … a bit old to have joined the Union Army. SAMUEL BOULTON # 2 (b. c 1768, Elizabeth Town, Leeds County, Ontario) The following has been gleaned from various web postings related to the Boulton family of Leeds County, Ontario. Samuel Boulton/Bolton, born c1768 at Elizabethtown, Leeds County, son of George Belton Boulton/Bolton, born c1740 County Wexford Ireland, died 1794 Elizabethtown, Leeds County, and wife (married c1761, Ireland) Nancy Bickford, also of County Wexford. The family of George and Nancy Boulton/Bolton may have been: Abraham Boulton - (1762-1859), born in County Wexford, Ireland, married Mary Elliott in 1791 and Leah Sax, c1817, died in Usborne Twp., Huron County. Elsea Alice Eleanor Boulton - (c1764-1862), born in County Wexford, Ireland, married Ephraim Curry Sr. (UEL), in 1787, died in Edwardsburgh Twp., Grenville County. Benjamin Boulton - born c1765 at Elizabethtown, Leeds County, Ontario, married Ann ???? c1804, place of death unknown. Hugh F. Boulton Sr. - born c1766 at Elizabethtown Twp., Leeds County, Ontario, married Mary Nelly c1827, place of death unknown. John Boulton - born c1767, probably at Elizabethtown Twp., Leeds County, Ontario, no marriage known, place of death unknown. Samuel Boulton - born c1768, probably at Elizabethtown Twp., Leeds County, Ontario, married Jane ????, place of death unknown. Thomas Boulton Sr. - (1774-1885), born at Elizabethtown Twp., Leeds County, Ontario, married Susan/Susannah Ann Handstock in 1832, died Elizabethtown Twp., Leeds County. William Boulton Sr. - born 1776, at Elizabethtown, Leeds County, Ontario, married Martha Elliott in 1805, died Elizabethtown Twp., Leeds County Note – The above births of Benjamin, Hugh, John, Samuel and Thomas may be too early to have occurred in Leeds County. These may have actually been born in the U.S. If their father George Belton Bolton/Boulton was indeed a UEL he would not have been in Upper Canada before the Revolutionary War began in 1775. Undocumented sources suggest George Belton Bolton/Boulton (b. c1740) may have emigrated to the U.S. (from Ireland) sometime between 1765 and 1770 and come to Upper Canada from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, or from somewhere in New York State. George Belton Boulton is named on the Old United Empire Loyalist List, so he probably arrived in Upper Canada after 1776. Some web posting suggest he reached Leeds County via Niagara area, settling first at New Dublin, near Brockville, then lived in Elizabethtown Twp., Conc-6/Lot-24 (1795). Son Samuel Boulton (b. c1768) may be the man of that name mentioned in the Boyd’s Church (Lanark County) History which notes a Samuel Boulton/Bolton was appointed 1825 as a Methodist Minister or lay preacher to the “new townships” of Lanark, Ramsay and Pakenham (Lanark County) under Rev. John Ryerson (of Perth). Oral history recounts that Samuel Boulton/Bolton, the Methodist preacher in Lanark County, was chucked out of the Methodist Church because he allowed dancing at a social function held in his home. It could be, however, that he left the Methodist Church to join the LDS. The majority of early LDS missionaries in Upper Canada were former Methodists. This Samuel Boulton # 2 (b. c1768) could also be the man of that name who gathered LDS converts in Lanark and Lambton Counties and set out across Iowa with the ‘Canada Company’ at the time of the Nauvoo, Illinois, evacuation in 1846. He is, perhaps, a less likely candidate than Samuel Boulton # 1 in that he would have been about 78 years of age when he escaped Nauvoo in the spring of 1846 … but there were others as old or older among the refugees, so he can not be discounted. The date and place of death for Samuel Boulton # 2 (b.1768) is unknown. HARRIET BOULTON (b. c1839, Bathurst Township, Lanark County, Ontario I am also interested in one Harriet Boulton (c1839-1901) who married (in 1863) Samuel Dixon (1836-1923) in Lanark County, Ontario (my g.g.grandmother). Although my interest in Samuel Boulton the LDS missionary and Harriet Boulton are parts of two separate pieces of research, they may converge as there is very likely some connection between Harriet Boulton and the William, Benjamin, Israel, Jacob, Hugh or Samuel Bolton who settled in Bathurst Township (mentioned above). |