Thomas Bouldin, Ancient Planter

Biography

Thomas BOULDIN married BEFORE 1610, in England, Mary UNKNOWN. Thomas died 22 Sep 1655.

US Immigration: 1610, Near or in Jamestown Colony Virginia. Arrived in 1610 aboard the "Swann".

Mary was born about 1590. She married Thomas BOULDING before 1610.

Thus far we do not know the children of Thomas and Mary Boulden. It is assumed that one was William Bouldin.

1624 Muster of Elizabeth Cittie, America

Source: Compendium of American Genealogy, Vol VII, pp 27-29.

Thomas Bouldin and his wife Mary were the first Bouldin to touch American soil. They sailed for the new land on the sailing vessel "Swan" and arrived in Virginia in 1610. He was thirty years of age. He landed some where near, or in, the Jamestown Colony. The next we hear from him, he has obtained a land grant some miles down the James River, from Jamestown. It is worthy to note that the county between Jamestown and Elizabeth City, County, where he finally settled, was named Warwick as he was from Warwick, England. [SIC]. Within ten years after his arrival, the coast of the James River in this section was well occupied by farmers. Just fourteen years after he landed, he received a land grant from the Virginia Council. It was located one and one-half miles up the Southhampton River in Elizabeth City County, Virginia. This grant was registered January 20, 1624, in Patent Bok No. 1, Part 1, page 43, in General Land Office in the Capitol, Richmond, Virginia. "Virginia Land Office (Patents and Grants) to Toby Smith, 650 acres in Warwick County, Virginia, called Hunrperstow, upon the head of Back River, called Smith's Ford, adjacent Thomas Faulkner and Thomas Boulding. Granted to said Toby Smith, 14 Feb 1640." The first settlers had come in 1607 and had built and called their settlement Jamestown. By spring of 1610 their number had shrunk to 40 men. No women at that time. They were prepared to return to England when met by these second three shiploads and persuaded to turn back.

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Disputed children

As of June 2023, William Bouldin, of Bohemia River seems to be have been the only verified child of Thomas Bouldin of the Swan in 1610.

Seen:

They had the following children:

• M i Thomas BOULDIN was born 1618 in Virginia.
• M ii William BOWLING was born 1620 and died 1703.
• F iii Elizabeth BOULDING was born about 1624.

Notes:

From the profile for Richard Boulding, of Norfolk:

Some people have claimed that Thomas Bouldin I had other children. According to The Powell Families of Virginia and the South by Rev. Fr. Silas Emmett Lucas Jr , a Richard Bouling or Boulin of Lower Norfolk made a will on 14 July 1668, naming William Ellis as his “brother.” Lucas believed that the name might be Boulding and that Richard might be a younger son of Thomas Bouldin I. He also added that Elizabeth, wife of William Ellis, was a sister of Richard and thus a possible daughter of Thomas Bouldin I.

While it is clear that Richard Bouling’s wife Elizabeth named in his will was not his first wife, she or his prior wife could have been a sister of William Ellis. Richard Bouling signed his name clearly as Boulin in his will, which showed that he was literate. The largely intact 17th-century Norfolk County records do not show any familial relationship between Elizabeth and Richard Boulin under any spelling to Thomas Bouldin I or his son William Bouldin (I?), who could only sign with an initial “W.” Nor do these two Bouldins appear in the Norfolk County records under any spelling. Moreover, Lower Norfolk County was located further south of the Corporation of Elizabeth City while Elizabeth City and Gloucester County was located further north.

No documented proof for possible siblings or half-siblings in either Kecoughtan, Elizabeth City, Newport News, or Warwick, Gloucester and Norfolk counties has come to light. To date, there is no conclusive proof of any connection between Thomas Bouldin I, his son William (I?) and these Boulin(g)s of Lower Norfolk County.

Source: Maryland Genealogy Society Bulletin, Fall 2007, Volume 48, Number 4. Published by the Maryland Genealogical Society, Inc., Baltimore, MD.

Disputed Origins

Seen as: b. 13 Aug 1579, Warwickshire, England, (son of Thomas BOULDING and Elinor ASTON) with no citations.

Evidence needed to support as child of Thomas Bouldinge, II & Eleanor Bouldinge

From David Boulding

It is frequently published that Thomas Boulding who arrived in Jamestown on The Swan came from Warwickshire. Indeed he may well have done but there is, alas, no proof of this at all - none - despite the very many people who claim this.

The story that Thomas came from Warwickshire comes from a book called "The Pedigree of the Bolding family of Warwickshire" by WB Bickley which incorrectly states "the [Bolding] name is so singularly uncommon that it is very probably that the few Boldings that there are in England at the present day are descended from the Bridgnorth family". I know this to be wrong because there are very large numbers od Boulding in Kent, in Norfolk and Bouldens in Cornwall as well as those Warwickshire Boldings. It is this same book that notes a Thomas Boulding born in 1579 "Possibly the Bolding who went to America". That's the extent of the "proof" that Thomas Boulding came from Warwickshire!

I am able to offer a plethora of Thomas Bouldings from Kent born at around this date. The Bouldings of Kent - or at least some of them - were already seperatists from the Church of England. In the 1630s William Boulding (aka Bowling) was regularly in Court for failing to go to the established church in Ashford

CCL X-6-8
f163 (1632) Were presented William Bowlin & Elizabeth his wife upon the 66: article for not koming to church for the space of 4 months or thereabouts. Were presented the said Elizabeth uppon the 73: article who after childbirth did not come to church to give God thanks

f217 (1633) To ye 2:3:4: article were William Bowling & Elizabeth his wife, & William Commings & his wife, Thomas Baker prentis, unto the aforesaid Boulinge and Alexander Sewt as separatist from the church of England.

To ye 21: article were present William Commings & William Bowling for that they refuse to have his children baptised in the church & to receive holy communion at our ministers hands & doe not come to their own parish church and further were presented Alexander Sewt for not having his child baptised in our church but hee telleth us hee hath given it a name already and it should have no other name and doth not come to church nor receive the holy communion and further were presented Baker, prentis to the foresaid Bowling for not coming to church....etc etc

I have close relative Robert Boulding (1634 -1717) married Miriam Starr whose father, Joyful Starr, was brother to Dr Comfort Starr who went to America.

Then we have Thomas Boulding (1592 - 1663) father of the above Robert who mother in law was Margaret (nee Merry) Baker whose sister Joyce Baker married Nicholas Bourne who settled in Martha's Vinyard.

None of this is proof that Jamestown's Thomas Boulding came from Kent but it does point to a puritan family with close links to those who left England.

I do hope you find this of interest.

Bollyng (at least in Kent - and I'm pretty sure elsewhere) was the original name for Boulding. The "d" appears to have been added in the 1500s. I even have a single document where (my) Thomas Boulding is called Bowlden, Boulding and Bollyng!

References

• Thomas Bouldinge in < The Bolling Family Association >
• DNA results: Groups and Immigrant Ancestor or Family head: Group 2 Thomas Bouldinge 1580 Fh 665 Swan Immigrant in 1610 < The Bolling Family Association > (view file doc )
• https://www.familytreedna.com/public/Bolling?iframe=yresults (Green) Family Group 2 R-M269
• Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers, 1607-1635: A Biographical Dictionary By Martha W. McCartney. Page 147. < GoogleBooks >
• Colonial Virginians and Their Maryland Relatives: A Genealogy of the Tucker ... By Norma Tucker Page 38 GoogleBooks
• https://www.familytreedna.com/public/Bolling?iframe=ycolorized
• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bouldinge-1 cites
• http://genealogy.danahuff.net/2006/12/thomas-bouldinge/comment-page-1/
• Order of Descendants of Ancient Planters William Bouldin and Thomas Bouldinge listed.
• The Original Lists of Persons of Quality, By John Camden Hotten; a Google book, p 255
• http://www.packrat-pro.com/ships/swan.htm
• U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s, Ancestry.com
• COLDHAM, PETER WILSON. "The Complete Book of Emigrants: A Comprehensive Listing Compiled from English Public Records of Those Who Took Ship to the Americas for Political, Religious, and Economic Reasons; of Those Who Were Deported for Vagrancy, Roguery, or Non-Conformity; and of Those Who Were Sold to Labour in the New Colonies." Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co. 1607-1660. 1988. 600p.
• Boyer's Ships Passenger Lists)
• Muster
• ↑ 11.0 11.1 The Order of Descendants of Ancient Planters
• GEN-NYS-L Archives (Retrieved via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine 19 Oct 2015
• http://www.ancient-planters.org/ancestors.html
• "A history of colonial Virginia: the first permanent colony in America"
• "Cavaliers and pioneers
• abstracts of Virginia land patents and grants, 1623-1800"
• Virginia Land Office (Patents and Grants), Patent Bk No. 1, Part 1, page 43, in General Land Office in the Capitol, Richmond, Virginia.
• Cavaliers and Pioneers. Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 1623-1666, Vol. I
• A history of colonial Virginia : the first permanent colony in America
• 1624-25 Muster Thomas Bouldinge
• Patents Granted: Thomas Bouldin, Mary Bouldin
• Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots; Volume: 1; Serial: 11587; Volume: 4, Source Information:Hatcher, Patricia Law. Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999.
• https://web.archive.org/web/20151019223632/http://archiver.rootsweb... GEN-NYS-L Archives] (Retrieved via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine 19 Oct 20150
• Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Vol. I
• Seventeenth Century Colonial Ancestors, Vol. I
• The Compendium of American Genealogy, Vol. IV, Compendium of American Genealogy, Vol VII, pages 27-29
• U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s
• U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900
• Virginia Biography, Volume I-II
• Wills and Administrations of Elizabeth City County, Virginia 1688-1800
• "A history of colonial Virginia : the first permanent colony in America: to which is added the genealogy of the several shires, The Crown Colony". Edwin Sandys, Virginia's friend. Chapter XV.
• Colonial Virginians and Their Maryland Relatives
• Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Vol. I1
• Virginia Planters (Not found on 5 Sep 2021)
• Order of Descendants of Ancient Planters
• Colonial Families of the United States of America, Volume II
• Early Immigrants to Virginia from the 1500s and 1600s
• Wikipedia Ancient Planter on Wikipedia
• http://www.genealogy.com/ftm/c/a/r/Melissa-Carlisle/WEBSITE-0001/UH...
• Pedigree of the Bolding family of Warwickshire: substantiated by extracts from parish registers, wills, administrations, subsi.., Extracts from calendars of wills and administrations at Lichfield, Worcester, and Somerset House, Ancestry.com
• http://genealogy.danahuff.net/2006/12/thomas-bouldinge/comment-page-1/