Frances, known as Fanny, was the eldest daughter of Washington Boultbee
and Bourne:Elizabeth Sophia Elizabeth Sophia Bourne. She was born at the
family homestead Thornvale in Ancaster Township, Canada West (now
Ontario) on October 20, 1855.
Her father died in 1875. The following year, her mother
Eliza began to sell the farm properties in Lots 35 and 36 in
the First Concession of Ancaster Township. The sales were
completed by 1880, and by early 1882, Eliza moved with her unmarried children,
except
Frances, to Portage la Prairie, Manitoba Portage la Prairie,
Manitoba, where her eldest son Boultbee:John (b1851) John had settled
the previous year. Two of Eliza's adult children, Boultbee:Edith
(b1857) Edith and Boultbee:Mary Anne (b1860) Minnie were godmothers at
the baptism of John and Elizabeth's daughter Boultbee:Kathleen Mary Kathleen Mary
at St. Mary's Church, Portage la Prairie St. Mary's Church, Portage la Prairie,
on June 18, 1882. Both families moved to Vancouver
by about 1886. Frances who was working in Toronto, stayed behind.
Frances was employed as Superintendent at the Infants Home &
Infirmary, Toronto Infants Home & Infirmary (see next page) 21 St. Mary Street
in Toronto. In the summer of 1889, she took a holiday to Vancouver
to visit her mother, and three years later she moved from Toronto to Vancouver
to live with her mother, and to take care of her until her mother's death
in 1926.
Boultbee:Frances Ann (b1855) Frances Ann's mother had kept the
54 old family letters dating from 1793, and upon her mother's death, Frances
kept them. Her great-nephew, Gardner Boultbee:Jack Gardner Boultbee,
was lent the letters in 1939 to transcribe and typewrite them for the family,
and we are fortunate that this project was completed. The letters
are now with the editors, and photocopies are with Paul Boultbee:Paul Gordon
Boultbee in Red Deer, Alberta Red Deer, Alberta.
Frances lived on in Vancouver. Among more recent family
letters, there are two from her written in 1939 to Gardner Boultbee:Jack
Gardner Boultbee. She was hoping to write her memories of the family
for him. She must have written them, for Gardner had prepared brief biographies
of family members who were two generations before his time. She lived
at 1050 Jervis Street, Vancouver, and wrote of moving shortly
to old St. Paul's Rectory, just around the corner.
The date of her death is unknown at present.
FRANCES ANN BOULTBEE
The Infants Home & Infirmary, Toronto Infants Home & Infirmary
was founded in 1875 by a group of Toronto area women, one of whom was a
Mrs. Mulock. The Editor believes that she was Mrs. Mary Mulock:Mary
Mulock of Newmarket, Ontario Newmarket for two of her daughters and
her grandson's wife followed her on the volunteer list and on the
Executive of the Home. Mary Mulock died in December 1886,
the year in which Frances Ann Boultbee is listed in the City Directory
as Superintendent of the Home. It seems reasonable to assume that
Mary Mulock, and her daughter Marian Boultbee, would have spoken to
Frances. In 1882, when Marian returned from her stay in India, she
joined the Home as a volunteer, and eventually became head of its managing
board. A letter written by Marian on the Home's letterhead, has survived.
It was addressed to a Mr. & Mrs. Somerset, Mr. & Mrs.
Somerset who had donated funds to furnish a ward in memory of their baby daughter.
The letter mentions that a receipt will come from the Treasurer, Mrs. Mulock:Rosamond
Rosamond Monk (née Mulock), the sister of Marian Boultbee.
The fourth member of our family to be associated with the Home was Nan
Greer:Mary Anne (Nan) Greer Boultbee, daughter-in-law of Marian, and mother
of our Canadian Editor. The ladies would meet once each week
to mend the clothing and bedding for the infants, and would also meet as
a management group to run the institution. The Home was established
to assist women with infants born out of wedlock. In the 1950s
, the Home merged with the Children's Aid Society, Toronto Children's
Aid Society of Toronto, which was serving the needs of children older than
infants.