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Felix Boultbee (1796-1838)

    Felix was the son of William Boultbee and Frances Ann Appleyard. He was born August 13, 1796 at 78 Basinghall Street, London. At the age of thirteen, he joined the East India Company Mercantile Marine Service. In 1809 and 1812, he was a Midshipman on the Haddart, on its voyages to India. In 1815, he was 5th Mate of the Cumberland, voyaging to Bombay and China. In 1818, he was 4th Mate of the Windsor. Two of Felix's cousins were also in the Mercantile Marine Service, Edward Francis Boultbee and Edward Moore Boultbee. All three men would have left the Service when it ceased in 1833.
    Felix married Mrs. Mary Nesbitt, née Samuel, the widow of Captain William Nesbitt, at Clifford, Herefordshire on January 31, 1823. Felix and Mary had one daughter, Mary Anne, and four sons, Alfred, Francis, William and Arthur. When Mary Anne the eldest child was born, the family was living in the Parish of Clifford in Herefordshire. In 1828, the family was at Bittern Cottage near Southampton (Bitterne is a suburb at the east side of Southampton today). By 1832, the family was living in Exeter, Devon.
    After leaving the East India Company's Mercantile Marine Service in 1833, Felix and Mary elected to emigrate with their five children to Canada. The year of emigration was probably 1834, for on August 6, 1834 the local Member of Parliament, Mr. Clay, wrote a letter to the Colonial Office recommending Felix (source: National Archives of Canada), while in the following year Felix was buying land in Canada.
    Mary Nesbitt Boultbee died somewhere on the route to Canada. The event is described briefly in the book The Parish of St. John's Church, Ancaster by T.D.J. Farmer: Felix had the misfortune to lose his wife from typhus immediately after landing (page 207). This may indicate that she is buried on Grosse Ile, the quarantine island Grosse Ile, the quarantine island in the St. Lawrence River 46 km downstream from Quebec City. All incoming ships had to stop at the island, and families with typhus or cholera were not allowed to proceed until approval was given by the doctors. There are several thousand burials on the island, but very few records have survived.
    Felix and his children moved on to Ancaster Township, which is on the high land at the western end of Lake Ontario. On July 16, 1835, he bought a farmhouse and 50 acres of land in Lot 36, Concession 1 for £293/15/-. The land was partly cleared and in cultivation. The Township was first settled in the 1790s, so that by the time Felix arrived, he had neighbours within half a mile, and the village of Ancaster about three miles to the south. To assist him with the care of the children, he employed Elizabeth Templer as their nurse.
In 1836 or 1837, Felix became ill, and must have written to his father requesting assistance from some member of the family. On April 10, 1837, he made his Will instructing his executors to communicate with his father, Wm. Boultbee Esq. of Birmingham, and await his reply concerning the care of the five children. In his Will he stated: I give unto Elizabeth Templer for the sole and entire use of her child, which she has, belonging unto me, the sum of Two Hundred Pounds. In September 1837, Felix's youngest brother, Washington, arrived at Ancaster from Birmingham to assist Felix with the running of the household and the farm.
Felix died December 25, 1838, and was buried from St. John's Church, Ancaster on December 28th, according to records in the registers of the Church.
Washington was the executor of Felix's will, and probate was granted March 5, 1840 (Wentworth County Will #407). In one of Washington's petitions attached to the will, he states that Felix died the twenty fifth day of December last. This different year of death was queried with Alice Robertson, our family historian of Ancaster matters, and she replied:

    I think the discrepancy in the date of Felix's death -- where the Church register gives 1838 and Washington's petition of 1840 says "December last" which would be 1839 -- can be explained by the probability that he started the petition in 1839 and it took until 1840 to finalize all the legal proceedings and then they forgot to change the wording. Certainly the last mention of Felix in the Diary [Washington's] is November 7, 1838, "very grim" and he couldn't have lived another year and never been mentioned. So that [the Diary] agrees with the St. John's Church register.
    Washington continued to care for the children, and they lived on the farm until they were adults. Washington's sister, Rosalind, came in 1840 from England to assist in the care of the children for about five years.
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