Boultbee:Horatio (b1801) Horatio was the son of Boultbee:William
(b1774) William Boultbee and Frances Ann Appleyard:Frances Ann
Appleyard. He was born on August 15, 1801 when the family
was living at Norwood, in Surrey, England. There is no record
of his education or first occupation, but five letters have survived, written
between 1847 and 1849. The handwriting, spelling, and sentence structure
is that of a person who has absorbed these elements of an education.
The five letters represent all that we know of Horatio, and are the basis
of this brief biography.
The first letter is dated November 13, 1847 with an
address of Saltillo in Mexico Mexico. It is addressed to William Boultbee,
Horatio's father, at Ancaster, Upper Canada. Horatio writes:-
I have wound up all my Business here, except speculations I have been making
in Corn. As I am led to suppose that the American Army
will not remain here much longer, I have ceased to purchase some time since,
and am only realizing what I have left of the Corn I bought last year,
and which the circumstances of the Country prevented me from receiving
from some of the growers.
As well as speculating, Horatio operated a large farm named Hacienda
of San Juan de Salinas Hacienda of San Juan de Salinas near Santa Rosa,
Mexico Santa Rosa, Mexico. He explains to his father, that he
plans to hold this farm, but move to one of the southern States of
the United States, and visit the farm once each year. The last
paragraph of this letter describes the war between Mexico and the U.S.
as being in a state of stagnation, and that the Americans are in quiet
possession of all the road and Towns, from here to the Coast.
In this first letter, Horatio writes that he plans to visit his
father and family in Ancaster, arriving about May 1848.
From the remaining letters, it is evident that the visit did take place
and lasted through the summer of that year.
The second letter is dated December 1, 1848 from New Orleans
to his sister Boultbee:Frances Ann (b1797) Frances at Ancaster, Upper Canada.
Frances had emigrated from England with her father the previous year.
Horatio was sending her money to pay for the private education of their
nephews, the orphaned children of Boultbee:Felix Felix and Samuel, Mary
Mary Boultbee. He had remitted $300 to a Mr. Range in New York City,
who would send it on to Ancaster.
Horatio mentions a second sum he is willing to pay his other sister
Rosalind who had returned to England from Ancaster. While in Ancaster,
she owned a farm across the road from Washington's farm, and Washington
wished to purchase it, but had not agreed to a price. The farm was
described as the south half, 100 acres, of Lot 37 in the first
Concession of Ancaster Township. Rosalind had purchased the farm in 1842
for £675, and Horatio was willing to pay her the money on behalf of
Washington, in order to complete the sale for Rosalind. It may sound
complicated, but it indicates that Horatio, with no wife or children of
his own, was considerate of the needs of his brothers and sisters and
their children.
The third letter is dated March 15, 1849
from Hacienda of San Juan de Salinas again to his sister Frances in
Ancaster. Horatio had visited his relations in Ancaster during the
previous year, leaving his Mexican farm in the hands of agents. He
laments the poor care taken of his money, produce and sheep, and feels
that it will take him two years to recover his losses. He asks his
sister to have the four young boys for whom he is paying the costs of
their education, write letters to him.
The fourth letter is dated May 11, 1849 from
the Hacienda to his sister Frances. The most interesting two
paragraphs concern the epidemic of cholera spreading through Mexico:
The Colera Morbus entered this
Country in January but hitherto its progress has been slow, and more
mild than in the year 1833. In Matamoros, and Monterrey, the deaths
have been more than in any other places, in the former place about seven
hundred people died, among them my friend Mrs. Devine, and her only
child, a nice girl of about twelve years old, leaving poor Devine alone
in the World.
By the last mail I hear that the Colera was
within two leagues of Saltillo, and it will no doubt attack that place,
and yesterday I hear that it has appeared at Santa Rosa, and that two
cases proved fatal, but I am in hopes to escape here, as Santa Rosa lays
west of this place, and the wind allmost allways blows from the east
here, and we have strong winds allmost every day, and this place stands
on the top of a rising ground in the center of a large Plain, and
escaped the Colera, when it swept this Country in 1833, however I am
provided with the Medicines, and have given orders not to allow any
communication with Santa Rosa, and having taken these precautions I
shall abide the result, I feel no anxiety, neither did I when in the
middle of the Colera before, to which in a great measure I attribute my
escape, as I observed that those who were agitated were the first to be
attacked and generally died. I keep my men at their regular work, and
do not allow the Colera to be mentioned, my object being to keep the
People, calm, and quiet, as I am convinced that alarm, and anxiety,
acelerates the attacks of the Colera.
The place of his burial is not known, but
during the cholera epidemics that swept the world at this time, the
tendency was to bury the body as soon as possible to control the spread
of the disease, so perhaps he is buried on his own Hacienda of San Juan
de Salinas.
His sister Frances, to whom he wrote, also died in 1849 of cholera, at Ancaster.
We owe a debt of gratitude to Horatio for
the financial aid he gave his orphaned nephews. The nephews became the
grandfathers and great-grandfathers of today's Ontario Boultbees.