Boylston Family Papers 1688-1979 Guide to the Collection

Table of Contents Collection Summary Biographical Sketches Collection Description Acquisition Information Organization Detailed Description of the Collection Preferred Citation Access Terms Materials Removed

Collection Summary

Biographical Sketches

Thomas Boylston (1645-1696), son of Thomas Boylston (1615-1653), who emigrated to Massachusetts in 1645 and settled in Watertown, married in 1665 Mary Gardner (1648-1722).

Zabdiel Boylston (1679-1766), son of Thomas (1645-1696) and Mary (Gardner) Boylston (1648-1722), married Jerusha Minot (1679-1764) in 1706. A Brookline physician, he introduced inoculation for smallpox in 1721.

John Boylston (1709-1795), son of Zabdiel (1679-1766) and Jerusha (Minot) Boylston (1679-1764).

Thomas Boylston (d. 1739), son of Thomas (1645-1696) and Mary (Gardner) Boylston (1648-1722). A Boston saddler and shopkeeper, he married Sarah Moorcock (d. 1774) in 1715.

Nicholas Boylston (1716-1771), son of Thomas (d. 1739) and benefactor to nephew Ward Hallowell (1749-1828) upon the condition that he change his name to Ward Nicholas Boylston.

Thomas Boylston (1721-1798), a Boston merchant, son of Thomas (d. 1739) and Sarah (Moorcock) Boylston (d. 1774).

Rebecca Boylston (1727-1798), daughter of Thomas (d. 1739) and Sarah (Moorcock) Boylston (d. 1774), lived in Boston and married in 1773 Moses Gill (1734-1800), later lieutenant governor of Massachusetts.

Mary Boylston (b. 1722), daughter of Thomas (d. 1739) and Sarah (Moorcock) Boylston (d. 1774), married in 1746 Benjamin Hallowell (1724-1799), later a commissioner of customs at Boston.

Ward Hallowell (1749-1828), son of Benjamin (1724-1799) and Mary (Boylston) Hallowell (b. 1722), changed his name to Ward Nicholas Boylston to fulfill a condition of inheritance in the will of his uncle, Nicholas Boylston (1716-1771); married first Ann Molineaux (d. 1779) and second, Alicia Darrow.

Benjamin Hallowell (1761-1834), son of Benjamin (1724-1799) and Mary (Boylston) Hallowell (b. 1722), admiral in the British navy, changed his name to Carew.

Nicholas Boylston (1771-1839), son of Ward Nicholas Boylston (born Ward Hallowell) (1749-1828) and Ann Molineaux (d. 1779), married in 1794 Elizabeth Bentham (1778-1849).

John Lane Boylston (1789-1847), son of Ward Nicholas Boylston (born Ward Hallowell) (1749-1828) and Alicia Darrow, married Sally Brooks (b. 1791).

Ward Nicholas Boylston (b. 1815), son of John Lane Boylston (1789-1847) and Sally (Brooks) Boylston (b. 1791).

Collection Description

The Boylston family papers consist of 81 boxes of loose manuscripts, 5 boxes of volumes, 49 cased volumes, and 6 oversize containers and contain primarily the eighteenth-century personal correspondence, legal and business papers of the Boylston family of Boston and Princeton, Massachusetts, and London, Bristol, and Bath, England. Foremost in quantity are the thousands of letters, bills, receipts, wills, deeds, and inventories, together with scores of wastebooks, ledgers, journals, diaries, and letterbooks which detail the lives and commercial activities of Thomas (d. 1739), John (1709-1795), Nicholas (1716-1771), Thomas II (1721-1798), and Ward Nicholas Boylston (1749-1828), the last of whom changed his name from Ward Hallowell to fulfill a condition of inheritance from his uncle, Nicholas Boylston (1716-1771).

The collection documents the activities of the Boylston family in the American, Caribbean, and European trade, where they bought and sold miscellaneous dry goods, coffee, fish, potash, rum, sugar, wine, and whale oil. Of special note are the detailed accounts, inventories, price lists, and correspondence relating to the sugar and whale oil trade. Business partners included Timothy and Eliphalet Fitch, George Folger, Belcher Noyes, Joshua Pico, Samuel Sewall, William Smith, Benjamin Petty, Samuel Vaughn, and Jacob Wendell.

Also to be found in the Boylston family papers are letters, deeds, and other documents relating to the family's interests in Massachusetts, Maine, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New York, and Nova Scotia lands. These include ventures in land speculation, as well as papers relating to Canadian land claimed in compensation for American property confiscated during the Revolution. Correspondents included John Erving, Thomas Goldthwait, James Lodge, James Swan, and Benning Wentworth.

As prominent Boston merchants, the Boylstons inevitably joined in the growing dispute over Parliamentary regulation and taxation of American commerce and goods. Both the business papers illustrating this traffic and the letters of friends and associates such as William Cooper, Harrison Gray, Benjamin Hallowell, Daniel Leonard, Daniel Lisle, and Charles Paxton, reflect the mounting opposition to British authority and policy. The correspondence contains discussions of the revenue acts of the 1760s and 1770s, the arrival of British troops in Boston, the battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill, the subsequent progress of the war, and the impact of the war on life and conditions in Massachusetts and Great Britain.

Both John and Thomas supported the Crown in the dispute and, as a result, removed to England following the outbreak of hostilities. Both re-established their trading houses--John in Bristol and Bath and Thomas in London. Ward Nicholas Boylston, who left Boston in 1773 for a tour of Europe and the Middle East, joined them in London in 1775. Their letters and careers in England provide a vivid account of the fate of the Massachusetts Loyalists: Thomas died insolvent after attempting for nearly a quarter of a century to recover his American property; John died a lonely bachelor; and Ward returned to his native Massachusetts in 1800, settled in Roxbury and Princeton, and continued to press the family claims. Among his correspondents are John Adams, Moses Gill, Charles Bulfinch, Thomas Pelham, and Sir John Wentworth.

Acquisition Information

A substantial part of the Boylston family papers was the gift of the estate of Barbara Boylston Bean of Auburn, Maine, in November 1976.

Organization of the Collection

The collection is organized into the following series:

Detailed Description of the Collection

Preferred Citation

Boylston family papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.

Access Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons, organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.

Materials Removed from the Collection

Museum Objects

Metal and glass sign bearing name of "Dr. W.N. Boylston" [Ward Nicholas Boylston (b. 1815)]
Small padlock
2 metal spirals
Brown wallet
Black wallet
Smaller red wallet with notebook
Small round wooden box, 2-inch diameter
Large wooden box, 8" x 12"

Photographs

[Ward Nicholas Boylston (b. 1815)], carte de visite, Philadelphia, Broadbent & Co.

Photographs from this collection have been removed to the Boylston family photographs. Photo. Coll. 500.22.