BFH: Washington Boultbee (1806-1875)

Washington was the youngest son of William Boultbee and Frances Ann Appleyard. He was born June 24, 1806 at Clay Hill Clay Hill, Beckenham, Kent. There is little record of his early life up to 1837 with the exception of two letters written prior to his emigration to Canada. The first letter is dated June 14, 1836 and is written by a Mr. Salt, his employer.

During the residence of Mr. Washington Boultbee in Birmingham (a period of six years) I have had constant opportunity of obtaining knowledge of his character & habits, & I have great pleasure in giving my testimony to his character as a gentleman of high feeling & integrity. As Guardian of the Poor Guardian of the Poor, I can also state that in the survey & valuation of the Town of Birmingham in which he was engaged he performed his duty in a manner perfectly creditable to his judgment & Professional abilities.

There is only one other subject on which I feel anxious about you & I should feel most thankful if I could prevail on you to alter the mind you were in when you were here, I mean with respect to your intention of borrowing money of Felix when you get out to him, & I feel so sure of the discomfort it will lead to that if I had it I would gladly give you £100 to save you both from it. If you will look at our own family you will see how completely all peace & affection was destroyed by the money matters between the brothers & the same consequence will ensue between you & Felix the more surely, because you are both poorer than our Uncles were & because Felix is sure to be irritable from his illness.

In mid-July of 1837, he took passage on the ship Ships:George Washington George Washington from Liverpool and landed in New York on August 20th. He began a diary on that day, and managed to keep it up until February 13, 1841, a period of 3½ years. From the diary, we are able to record Washington's activities and opinions upon arrival, and in particular his operation of the family farm near Ancaster, Upper Canada [Ontario].

Washington had two business contacts in the States before travelling to Canada. On September 4th in Philadelphia, he rode out with Edward Jonyere, and on the 6th and 7th in New York, he dined and went to the National Theatre with Clement Scholefield, a business associate of his father. The following day, he left for Upper Canada.

The trip was by boat up the Hudson River to Albany, by train beside the Mohawk River to Utica, by a towed canal boat to Oswego, by steamer across Lake Ontario to Hamilton, by wagon to Ancaster, and finally by gig to his brother Felix's home. He recorded most of the mileages and all of the costs, for a total of approximately 530 miles for $18.00 including all expenses during the four-day trip.

First day of seeing my adopted country. Got up at 6 in the morning. A very heavy dew. The country round is beautiful, the land as far as I can judge superior to any in England. I mean, of course, taking the difference of cultivation into consideration. My brother has about 2 acres of oats to carry today. Helped in with them. He has about 2 acres more to cut. Yet all the harvest is in, in this country except the oats and buck wheat. A good deal of both are out yet. I like the look of the country very much, what I have yet seen of it.

Alice Robertson, a great-granddaughter of Felix, gave a paper on Washington's diary to The Head-of-the-Lake Historical Society on February 8, 1980, and many of the following notes are based on her address.

Washington described the people he met, the places he visited, the social activities, crops and prices, the mail, the weather, and the wild life in the woods and streams. Unfortunately, he did not record Felix's death on Christmas Day, 1838. Having lived with the knowledge of his imminent death since before he left England, and having the responsibility of notifying his friends and relations, and ordering his household affairs, it did not occur to him to write it down once again. Certainly it was not for lack of affection for his brother, or he would not have come to the rescue of the family as he did.

On July 6, 1840, he wrote Rosalind came. This was his sister who had cautioned him three years earlier not to borrow money from his brother. She had come to assist him with the care of the five orphaned children of Felix.

The mail was of intense interest to Washington, and he noted every letter he wrote and received, and the date when those he received were written. The contents were never mentioned, except in the case of his father's letters which annoyed him, as when he wrote on April 20, 1838.

Letter from my father. A copy of the six last letters. Can't read my writing. The history of the nail shop. What land is to be sold with an accurate map of each farm? I wonder what idea he had of a Canada farm. I wish he would change the subject of his letters. I know them all by heart. Date of letter March 5th.

Washington was a bit self-centred in that he mentioned only what actually happened to him. Of the five children, he listed only two, Mary Ann and Alfred, and of the other members of the household he mentioned only Felix, but not the children's nurse, or the servants living in. The 1851 census lists five servants [possibly farm help].

Washington became great friends of his neighbours, Mr. & Mrs. Charles Bourne. They later moved to the town of Christ Church, Port Stanley, Ontario, he married their daughter, Elizabeth Sophia Bourne, and she and Washington moved to his home north of Ancaster. They raised a family of five sons and five daughters. In St. John's Church, Ancaster, there is a brass tablet on the wall to the memory of Washington and Elizabeth Boultbee.

In 1875, shortly after the death of his sister Rosalind, Washington travelled to England to contest the division of her property, with her stepson Richard Boultbee. Both men claimed her house and land in Canada, but there was no will, and Richard produced a deed to the house in his father's name. It is ironic that Rosalind, who detested family quarrels over money, should be the centre of such a quarrel after her death.

On the way home to Canada on the steamship Republic, Washington was accompanied by his English cousin Frederick Croxall Boultbee. On June 14, 1875 Washington died and Frederick recorded these two entries from the ship's log:-

Monday, June 14, 1875 at 9.45 p.m. Washington Boultbee, a cabin passenger, died from disease of the heart.
Friday, June 18, 1875, 12 noon, the remains of Washington Boultbee were committed to the deep.

In closing, a quotation from the book A History of the Parish of St. John's Church, Ancaster would be appropriate. It is written by Thomas D.J. Farmer, a neighbour as a boy to the children of Washington and Eliza:-

The rugged leonine voice and head of Mr. Washington Boultbee, as he vainly ordered us all out of bed in the early mornings, the many gay young people's parties, picnics, and other adventures at Thornvale, the regular meeting and mingling of our respective families on the road to and at St. John's every Sunday morning, the sorrowful announcement of the austere-looking but kindly father's death at sea, the sadness of the death of the son Joe at twelve years of age, and his funeral at St. John's, one summer Sunday afternoon in 1876, at which for the first time the writer was a pall bearer, are all pleasant and sad in turn as these different episodes were, as vivid to-day in the writer's memory as if they had only just occurred.