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Boulderson family of Falmouth,
Cornwall, England

1.    John Phillips Boulderson, son of Joseph Boulderson and Margaret Philips (sic), was baptised 8 Jul 1717 1 at Saint Dunstan, Stepney, Tower Hamlets, London, Middlesex, England; died 24 Dec 1797 1 "Boswarne", near Falmouth, Cornwall, England. He married 1 Jun 1746 2, 4 at Saint Katherine By The Tower, London, England, Catherine Smith, born 1724 3; died 22 Dec 1822 3 "Buscarren", Parish of Constantine, Cornwall, England, aged 98 years.


Thought to be the residence of John Phillips Boulderson when
he died - then named "Boswarren" and in 2003 "Bosvarren" 23.
       John Boulderson of Falmouth was baptised on 8 Jul 1717 at St. Dunstan and All Saints church in the parish of Stephney in Tower Hamlets with the given names of "John Philips". His 1798 probated will and, the 1848 newspaper obituary of his last surviving child Mary Millett, spelt his second given name as "Phillips" 7. By occupation his father Joseph (-1765) was a painter and he married Margaret Philips (1694-1756) on 5 Nov 1712 at St. Pauls church in adjoining Shadwell parish 5. At St. Dunstan and All Saints on 3 Jun 1713 they had a son "John" baptised who was buried there on 13 Nov 1716 - eight months before "John Philips" was baptised. The other children baptised at St. Dunstan and all Saints in Stephney were - Thomas Tanner on 23 Apr 1714 who was buried on 28th Apr 1714, William on 30 Apr 1721 who would be the William Boulderson who married Sarah Hamman on 15 Nov 1749 at Saint Katherine By The Tower and she the Sarah Boulderson of Elliot's Place in the parish of Islington St Mary, Middlesex buried on 15 July 1813 aged 93 years (thus born ca. 1720), and a daughter Mary baptised on 6 Feb 1723 who was buried on 10 Feb 1723. Whilst no baptism has been identified there was likely a second daughter named Mary who married mariner John Smith at St Dunstan and All Saints on 30 Jul 1754 6.
       The published papers of Henry Laurens of South Carolina, who after the Continental Congress issued the United States Declaration of Independance in July 1776 was its fifth President, contains a letter mentioning that he became acquainted with John Boulderson Snr., who was then living in Mulberry Court in Falmouth, after arriving there in Oct. 1771 from New York and that John Snr. had been the commander of the Earl of Halifax Packet from 1759 to 1770 and Samuel Groube, with whom Laurens later corresponded, was John Snrs. son-in-law. Laurens wrote that the Earl of Halifax on which he arrived was commanded by John Boulderson Jnr. who had succeeded his father as the commander. Writing generally of the Falmouth based packets he wrote that - "Falmouth had been the home port of the packets since 1689" 8.
       By maintaining communication between Britain and its colonies the armed packets were essential for the conduct of commerce and were especially important during warfare. The author of the 1903 published book  Old Falmouth, The Story of the Town ...  devoted a chapter to the era of the Packets and said Falmouth had led among the ports in England from which mails were received and dispatched and quote - "a few brigs, hired by the department, or provided by private individuals, and armed for defence, carried the mails to Lisbon, New York, and the West Indies. As a rule, each had a little crew of about thirty men, with a master, a mate, a surgeon, and the commander. Equipped in this fashion, they prepared to face not only the Atlantic storms, but the onslaughts of privateers of various countries, which frequently bore down on the little vessels in twos or threes and engaged them in desperate conflicts. Sometimes they were captured, and the mail-bags, heavily shotted, were consigned at the last moment to the depths of the ocean, and some-times they repulsed the enemy and came off with flying colours" 4.
       One such occasion when the Boulderson packet came off with flying colours was only six weeks after the issuing of the United States Declaration of Independence, when as recorded in a 17 Aug 1776 letter written from Staten Island, "On the passage in a Halifax packet, a privateer engaged her; but after Captain Boulderson had gallantly defended his ship three glasses, the adventurer ended the contest by a retreat. On this occasion Dr. Constable received a wound, but is likely to do well" 21.
       Writing of New York city in 1805, the author Old Merchants of New York City wrote that the sailing of the British Falmouth stationed packets to and from the United States was as follows:- "The mail for New York, Quebec and Halifax was made up the first Wednesday of the month, and the packet sailed the following Saturday. The sailing of the packet from New York frequently depended upon adventitious circumstances, but as often as it could be done, the mail was made up on the first Wednesday, and the packet sailed the Saturday following for Falmouth. The packets sailed for New York direct from Falmouth in November, December, January and February; the other eight months they went and returned by way of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The return of the American packets was calculated at fifteen weeks New York and back to Falmouth ... It seems incredible that twenty-four years after Independence was acknowledged that the city of New York depended upon English packets for communication. Yet it was so ... they made about two voyages a year." 22
        In March 2011 the National Maritime Museum at Falmouth listed among its current research projects - "The Falmouth Packet Ships, their captains and crews" and a pdf file was available for download at its web site titled: "Life at Sea : from a Packet Surgeon’s Journal : The Miseries of a life at Sea". The Museum's Bartlett Library holds books on the history of packets that operated from the Falmouth station and generally on the Packet Service. The Boulderson family of Falmouth has the distinction that for three successive generations, a father, his eldest, and his eldest, all named John, continuously for fifty-three years from 1759 to 1812 commanded packets based at the Falmouth station delivering mails, military and government dispatches, currency and bullion, and passengers etc. to and from far flung parts of the British Empire 9.
       The ending of the era of the family as packet commanders came about in June 1812 shortly after Declaration of the 1812-1815 war between America and the British Empire when the Prince Adolphus, that had been commanded for about twelve years by John Boulderson III, was taken by an American privateer off Philadelphia. Its capture would have been of particular delight to those Americans who had recalled a five earlier incident off New York, that whilst not intended as such was viewed by some as a hostile act, and occasioned a letter of condemation to the The American Citizen newspaper to which John Boulderson III's explantory response was published the following day 20.
       The author of Old Falmouth ... named three John and Catherine Boulderson sons and two daughters - John, William (named as 2nd son), Joseph, Catherine, and a 2nd daughter (not named but who was ca. 1754 born Mary) 4. Of those named, extracted from the same author's published transcriptions of Falmouth church parish records to 1812, at 2011 the International Genealogical Index (IGI) listed only the baptisms of Joseph and a not mentioned in Old Falmouth 4th son Thomas. The baptisms of John, Catherine, Mary and William were not then in the IGI and would have taken place before the circa 1759 move to Falmouth. The baptisms of John and William have not been identified. Catherine's in 1748 and Mary's in 1755 took place at St Anne church at Limehouse in Tower Hamlets and the record listed their father's occupation as mariner and then address as Risby's Rope Walk. In all John Phillips Boulderson and Catherine Smith had six children and at least twenty-six grandchildren.
       The role continuously for over half a century of the family as commanders in the Falmouth based packet service is of historic significance as few if any other family would have had such a continuous association. Their voyages to far distant places and the news brought home to Falmouth would have engendered a conciousness in the family of interesting places and events far beyond England's shores and in part may have been the reason that led so many John and Catherine descendants to opt for careers in the armed forces, principally in India in the army and navy operated by the greatest of England's chartered companies the 1600 chartered by Queen Elizabeth I Honourable East India Company, and later in the British regular armed services in most theatres of war where England was involved. In the 19th century at least seven achieved the rank of Colonel or Lieutenant-Colonel. In the Royal Navy a Groube grandson rose to the rank of Rear-Admiral and several were Captains and Commanders of naval vessels. Some were administrators in the East India Company's civil service in India and for the decade from 1792-1802 a son captained East Indiamen in the East India Company's Maritime Service. Subsequently he became the first Superintendant of London's second constructed dock system when it opened to receive ships in 1805, and subsequently for two decades from 1808 until his death in 1828 held one of that Company's most senior executive positions as the Master Attendant in charge of shipping at the company headquarters in East India House in London.

Children of John Boulderson and Catherine Smith were:
    2.    i.     Catherine Boulderson
    3.    ii.    John Boulderson
    4.    iii.   William Boulderson
    5.    iv.   Mary Boulderson
    6.    v.    Joseph Boulderson
    7.    vi.   Thomas Boulderson
SECOND GENERATION

2.   Catherine Boulderson, b. ca. 1748, bapt. 9 Jun 1748 10 Parish of St Anne, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, Middlesex, England; d. abt. 1775 24; m. Falmouth, Cornwall, England 12 Nov 1767 6, Samuel Groube, chr. 25 Jul 1729 6 Falmouth, Cornwall; d. 1785 11 "Torpoint", Antony, Cornwall, England, son of Thomas Groube and Jane Luscombe who m. Falmouth, Cornwall 1727 12, and  grandson of Thomas Groube and Joan James who m. Falmouth 1703 12. They had four children.

3.   John Boulderson, b. ca. 1749 16, England; d. Aug. 1831 16 , at "Bareppa", Mawnan near Falmouth, Cornwall, England; m. 14 Sep 1778 6 Falmouth, Cornwall, Mary Williams 4. They had five children.

4.   William Boulderson, b. ca. 1752 13 England; d. 3 Feb 1819 13, at Falmouth, Cornwall, aged 67 years. He married Elizabeth Haydon, dau. of the Rev. Thomas Haydon 4. They had seven children.

5.   Mary Boulderson, b. 1754 England; bapt. 2 Feb 1755 10 Parish of St Anne, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, Middlesex, England; d. 28 Jan 1848 17, at Falmouth, Cornwall, England, aged 94; m. (1) 1 Jun 1775 6 in Falmouth, Cornwall, England, Lazarus James, chr. 27 Jan 1751 6 Falmouth, Cornwall, England; d. between 1781 and 1791, son of Erasmus James and Martha; m. (2) 31 July 1754 6 St. Hilary, John Millett, bap. 29 May 1759 6, Saint Hilary, Cornwall, England; d. 24 Sep 1836 18, 19 Marazion, Cornwall, England, bur. 27 Sep 1836 19 St Hilary, son of Robert Millett (1725-1809) and Anna Tresaddern (or Tresadden) 19. There were three children from the first marriage and two, and perhaps three, from the second.

6.   Joseph Boulderson, b. ca. 1764 6 Falmouth, Cornwall, England; chr. 12 May 1764 6; d. 8 Sep 1828 14 Barton upon Humber, near Hull, Yorkshire, England; likely buried private vault St. Mary Magdalene church graveyard, East Ham, Essex; m. Sarah Morley, daughter of William Morley (1740-1832) of East Ham, Essex. They had four children.

7.   Thomas Boulderson, chr. 10 Mar 1767 6. May have died when young OR been the Thomas Boulderson of Constantine whose will was probated in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury on 25 June 1828 15.

The compiler is not a Boulderson descendant or collaterally related
Contributions are welcome and will be cited to providers

SOURCES:
1   The LDS Church International Genealogical Index (IGI) lists "John Philips: as baptised at St. Dunstan and All Saints, Stephney on 8 July 1717 and other parish register extractions have an older brother named John as dying in Nov. 1716. His baptism indicates his actual age was 80, or at the most 81 when he died on Christmas Eve 1797 and not the 82 given in his obituaries in (1) The Gentleman's Magazine Volume 82, p. 1071 reading:- DEATHS: Dec 24, 1797 at his house at Boswarne, near Falmouth, aged 82, John Boulderson, esq. sen. many years commander of one of his Majesty's packets on the Falmouth station, and (2) The Times (London) on 30 Nov 1797, pg 3. reading:- DIED - On the 24th inst. at his house, at Boswarne, near Falmouth, John Boulderson, the elder, aged 82 years, a well respected and worthy member of society, and many years Commander of one of his Majesty's Packets on the Falmouth station".
2   International Genealogical Index (IGI) date and place of the John Boulderson to Catherine Smith marriage - source microfilm title: "Parish registers for St. Katherine by the Tower's Church London 1584-1964", film #0374460, batch No. M001442.
3    Death of Catherine Boulderson - Royal Cornwall Gazette, Falmouth Packet & Plymouth Journal (Truro, England), Saturday, December 28, 1822 - DIED - On the 22nd inst., at her house, Buscarren, in the Parish of Constantine, Cornwall, in the ninety-ninth year of her age, Mrs. Catherine Boulderson, relict of the late John Boulderson, Esq. who was for many years commander of one of H. M. Packets, on the Falmouth station. A similar notice also appeared in the Trewman's Exeter Flying Post or Plymouth and Cornish Advertiser (Exeter, England) and the Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle. Her 21 Aug 1823 probated will reference #11/1674, under the name "Katherine" Boulderson, was available in 2011 for download from the UK National Archives web site.
4   Susan E Gay, Old Falmouth, : The Story of the Town from the Days of the Killigrews to the Earliest Part of the 19th Century (Headly Brothers, London, 1903), - in 2011 a 14.1 MB Internet Archive download - Chapter V. p.p. 197-198 "John Boulderson, of Falmouth, came from London, and was appointed Commander of the Packet Earl of Halifax in 1759. He married Catherine Smith, and their family consisted of three sons and two daughters. The daughter Catherine married Samuel, son of Captain Groube, R.N. Of the sons, John succeeded his father in the Packet Service (appointed as commander in 1772), and married Mary Williams. ... William (the second son) was a merchant of Falmouth, and married Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Haydon, Rector of Thurlebear, in Somerset ; Combintinhead, in Devon ; and Piran Uthnoe, in Cornwall ; descended from the ancient family of Haydon, in Cadhay, in Ottery St. Mary, Devon. Of this marriage there were two sons, Thomas and Joseph, and two daughters. Joseph, the third son of John Boulderson, and Catherine Smith, commanded an East Indiaman, and by his wife, daughter of Morley, of London, had two sons and two daughters." (Arms.). Captain Boulderson (the second), born 1741, bought — or lived at — Bareppa, Mawnan, and died in 1831."  p. 3. - Among my early memories are visits to Boslowick, nestling among orchards, with my mother and great-aunt (Miss Falck), where I remember Mrs. James Bull, nee Tippet, the widow of the lawyer, — the old lady sitting in the pretty wainscotted parlour, with white cap and a black velvet ribbon across her forehead, — and to the Cottage, where the climbing roses attracted my attention,— then tenanted by Mr. William Carne and the Bouldersons. (ED. note: the "Arms" given by the author as source of the genealogy referred to the records of the College of Arms).
5    In 2011 the IGI did not have the marriage of Joseph Boulderson and Margaret Philips listed. An Ancestry.com database titled: "London, England, Baptisms, Marriages & Burials, 1538-1812" had it listed as being on 5 Nov 1712 at St Paul church, parish of Shadwell, Tower Hamlets, Middlesex, England, with the occupation of Joseph given as painter.
6     All are as listed in the IGI extracted from the church parish registers excepting for the burials of Thomas Tanner Boulderson on 28th Apr 1714, Sarah on 15 Jul 1813 aged 93, Mary on 10 Feb 1723 and Joseph on 26 Nov 1765 and marriage of a Mary on 1854 - being as given and supported by images from the register, in 2011 at genealogy web site Ancestry.com in a database titled: "London, England, Baptisms, Marriages & Burials, 1538-1812". The burial register entry for the 1765 death of Joseph does not have an age.
7   National Archives - Will of John Phillips Boulderson, Constantine, Cornwall - PROBATE 1798 11/1301 is available for online download from the UK National Archives.
8   The Papers of Henry Laurens : October 10, 1771 to April 10, 1773, (1980, University of South Carolina Press) in 2011 viewable online at Google Books. p.1. A 10 Oct 1771 H.L. letter to William Cowles written after a 29 day passage from New York to Falmouth with four others in the Earl of Halifax Packet commanded by John Boulderson Jr. - "in order to pay Capt. Boulderson the commander of the said Packet the Passage Money for us all, I have this day drawn upon your house William Cowles & Company for One Hundred Pounds, payable in ten days sight in London.  p. 7. Falmouth, 12 Oct 1771 ... Capt. Boulderson commander of the packet introduced us early to an Acquaintance with his Father, and our Friend Samuel Groube. ... Capt. John Boulderson, Sr., who had been captain of the Earl of Halifax Packet from 1759 to 1770, lived in Mulberry Court in Falmouth. Samuel Groube was his son-in-law. p. 8. Falmouth had been the home port of the packets since 1689. ... p. 256. Please make my Compliments to Capt. Boulderson Senior, and both your families. p. 30. My best Respects and best Wishes wait on Mrs. Groube and your Dear little Girls, and I pray you present my Compliments to the elder and younger Capt. Boulderson.  p. 727 Index - Boulderson, John, Jr. (VII, 558), 1, 7, 9, 30, 183. Boulderson, John Sr. (VII, 558) 7, 30, 183, 246. Groube, Catherine (Boulderson) (III, 558n) 30, 160. Groube, Samuel of Falmouth (V, 66-2),5, 8, 7, 170,181,356; letters to 28, 181, 266, 530
9   The above cited letters of Henry Laurens establish John Sr. (1717-1797) became commander of a Falmouth stationed packet in 1759 and by 1771 his son John (1749-1831) had taken over from him as commander of the packet that was then the Earl of Halifax. As a contemporary and virtually first person record, 1770 for John IIs assumption of the command of the packet is preferred to the date of 1772 given in Susan Gay's 1903 published history of Falmouth. The date John IIs son John III (1779-1838) took over as the packet commander is thought likely to have been 1800 but the year is not precisely known. John I died in 1797 and, as a prominent Falmouth and that part of Cornwall identity, his death likely would have been reported in a local newspaper as well as a noted brief obituary in the monthly published Gentleman's Magazine and in The Times of London. Thus a four years later report in the 14 May 1801 issue of Trewman's Exeter Flying Post (Exeter, England) that "on Monday the Duke of Cumberland packet, Boulderson Jnr, is expected to arrive Falmouth from New York and Halifax" can be taken to have meant that the John Boulderson Jnr. then in the command not John II but his son John Boulderson III . Four years earlier in 1797, no doubt in order to gain a wider maritime experience than just serving on the family packet under his father, before assuming command of the packet John III was noted in 1797 as 4th Mate on an East Indiaman Marquis of Landsdowne under his uncle Captain Joseph Bouldenson. That John III had followed in his father and his grandfather's footsteps as a Packet commander is also established by an announcement in the October 27, 1837 issue of the Cornwall Royal Gazette, Falmouth Packet and Plymouth Journal of the marriage in India of John III's eldest son John Carne Boulderson that stated he was the son of Capt. Boulderson of Falmouth, and by the newspaper obituary of John IIIs youngest son George Edward who moved to Australia in the early 1840s where he was merchant until his death in 1853. His obituary in the 7 July 1853 issue of Trewman's Exeter Flying Post or Plymouth and Cornish Advertiser (Exeter) read - Deaths - March 1853, at Sydney, New South Wales, of rapid consumption, George Boulderson Esq. merchant, youngest son of the late Captain Boulderson of Falmouth, Cornwall.
10   Image of parish baptism register entry - in 2011 at Ancestry.com in a database titled: London. England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1538-1812 . Father John's occupation was given as Mariner.
11    Will of Samuel Groube Merchant Antony, Cornwall, England  - probated 1785 (# Prob 11/1136) held by and available online from the National Archives.
12   Message dated 26 Jan 2002 to Rootsweb Cornish-L mail list from Helene Hayes (helenh@nex.net.au) 
13  Royal Cornwall Gazette, Falmouth Packet & Plymouth Journal (Truro), Saturday, 6 Feb 1819 - At Falmouth, on Wednesday last, after a lingering illness, Mr. Wm. Boulderson, merchant, aged 67, a truely loved and upright man.  
14   The Morning Post (London), Friday, September 12, 1828 Died - on Monday, the 8th September, Capt. Joseph Boulderson, Master Attendant to the Hon. East India Company. Also a similar notice in - The Standard (London) of Friday,  September 12, 1828. A day earlier 11 Sept 1828 report in The Morning Post of his death, reported under the incorrect surname of Rashworth, read:- "AWFULL DEATH. - On Monday last, as - RASHWORTH, Esq, aged 64, was in the act of putting his gun to his shoulder, he fell down and expored instantaneously. Mr. Rashworth had lef this family near Hull but a short time before in excellent health, for Barton upon Humber, where he intended to enjoy the amusement of partridge shooting. The deceased, who was univerally respected, we understood held a high situation at East India House.
15   Will of Thomas Boulderson of Constantine, Cornwall, England probated 1828 (#Prob 11/1741) held by and available online from the National Archives.
16  1749 age at birth calculated from the age of 82 at August 1831 death as given in obituary in the  Royal Cornwall Gazette, Falmouth Packet & Plymouth Journal of 13 Aug 1831 worded - "Died At Berreppa, Mawnan, John Boulderson, Esq. aged 82, for many years a commander in the packet service and one of the younger brethren of the Trinity Board".
17  The Cornwall Royal Gazette, Falmouth Packet and Plymouth Journal (Truro), 11 Feb 1848 - DEATHS - At Upper Killigrew-street, Falmouth, on Friday, the 28th January, Mrs Mary Millett, daughter of the late John Phillips Boulderson, Esq. of Boswarren, in the parish of Constantine, in this counrty, aged 94. (i.e. born 1754).
18  "The Cornwall Royal Gazette, Falmouth Packet and Plymouth Journal" (Truro), 30 Sep 1836 - DIED At Marazion, after a long illness, Mr. John Millett, aged 77 years. (i.e. born 1759)
19  April 2011 advice from Tony Millett of New Zealand, author of Millett family biographical and genealogy notes at: http://tonymillett.tripod.com/biographies.html
20  A list of British Vessels captured by the Americans after the Declaration of War on 17 June 1812 stated quote - "Philadephia, Aug. 21 arrived at this port Privateer schooner Gov. McKean, Lucet, from a cruise and brought in with her the British Packet Prince Adolphus, Capt. Boulderson (this is the Gentleman who fired upon Washington Morton off the hook), taken the 9th inst. in Lat. 24.48, Long. 63.8, bound from Martinico for Falmouth, having 18 guns & 36 men. Had on board the Governor, Paymaster, & Collector of Demerara.
21  Frank Moore, Diary of the American Revolution : From Newspapers and Original Documents, VOL. I, published New York, 1859. p. 291.
22  Joseph Alfred Scoville, The old merchants of New York City : Volume I (1863) pp. 355-356.
23  The photograph appearing here is of "Busvarren" as it was named in 2003. It was taken by and provided courtesy of Sally Jeffery. While not an absolute certainty it is thought to be the house whose name was variously rendered in Boulderson obituaries and wills as - "Boswarne" in 1797, "Buscarren" in 1822, "Boswarren" in 1848, and "Buswarren" in 1827. The most accurate spelling is thought to be the "Buswarren" in the will of son Joseph Boulderson (1764-1828). His will also had "Barappa" as the spelling of name of the house of his brother John Boulderson II (1749-1831).
24  IGI - date submitted by an LDS Church member.

Researched by John Raymond, Brisbane, Australia
first posted March 2011 - last updated 6 June 2011