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     Will Mulock Boultbee was born May 30, 1873 in India.  He was known as Thumby (pronounced Tumby) meaning Little Brother in the Hindu language.
     He attended and boarded at Upper Canada College in Toronto where he was editor of the student paper Times. He attended the University of Toronto University of Toronto and the Osgoode Hall Law School Osgoode Hall Law School. He was articled to the legal firm of McCarthy, Osler, Hoskins and Creelman, and graduated from the Law School in 1897. While at University, he boarded at Wycliffe College, one of several institutions within the University. His parents, William & Marian Boultbee, lived at 52 St. Alban Street, just a short distance to the east from Wycliffe College.
     Upon graduation, he had hoped to join the law firm of his uncle William Mulock, but that did not work out.  Instead, he began his own firm in 1898 at 75 Yonge Street, Toronto, and in 1900 formed a partnership with Frank Denton and Herbert Dunn, to be known as Denton, Dunn & Boultbee, in the Temple Building at the northwest corner of Bay and Richmond Streets, Toronto.
     Two doors away from his parents' home was the family of George Smith Holmested, Registrar, Chancery Division, High Court of Justice, Osgoode Hall, and visiting George was his niece Margaret Amy Douglas from England.  Amy had secured a position of assistance with a missionary group from England to the United States, and the group had agreed that she would receive leave of absence to visit her relatives in Canada.  As neighbours, she and Thumby met.  Upon her return to England, they kept up a correspondence, and in due course Thumby travelled to England for their marriage on August 16, 1899. They returned to Canada, and set up home at 27 Crescent Road in Toronto. The home was one of many designed by his cousin Horatio Boultbee in the Rosedale area of Toronto. Thumby and Amy had 5 sons and 1 daughter, all of whom grew to maturity.
     Silver was discovered in 1903 by railway construction crews working near Lake Timiskaming, on the border between Ontario and Quebec. Mining prospectors followed up the discovery and found both silver and cobalt in the ores. Mining firms were formed and the Town of C Cobalt, Ontario was incorporated in 1907. Thumby moved to Cobalt at about this time. Cobalt was a bit of a shack town (see photos below), but there was plenty of legal work for Thumby, and he prospered.

     Thumby secured as clients some of the mining firms that were prospecting for minerals in northern Ontario.  One of his clients was Coniagas Mines prospecting at Cobalt, and Thumby set up a partnership with a Mr. Browning to serve this client and others in the area. Inevitably, it occurred that he was offered shares.

 Just north of Toronto, Thumby bought 135 acres of land running from Yonge Street at York Mills toward Bayview Avenue to the east, and crossing the valley of the west branch of the Don River. Thumby planned for his family a fairly large three-storey home to be some 200 feet from the east bank of the river. The construction began about 1910 and was completed about 1913. During this time, Amy and the children moved to her parents' home in England, and Thumby would visit them fairly regularly. While in Canada, he lived at a cottage just north of the home site, and would oversee the construction. However, Thumby died during the construction period, and he never lived in his dream home. Amy and the children lived in it until the children were adults. The house was sold about 1948 to Waycroft School, operated privately by a Miss M. Target. The current owner is Hillcrest Progressive Nursery and School for children up to 5 years of age.

Will Mulock Boultbee died August 17, 1912 and is buried in St. John's Church Cemetery in York Mills, north of Toronto. In his memory, Amy gave a painting La Cale de Radoub, Bordeaux by Eugene Boudin, a French artist, to the Art Gallery of Ontario Art Gallery of Ontario.