Boswell Help Please!!

[richarde1979]

There is some info here on the English Boswell circus family of the late 19th century. They might be related to the South African Boswell circus family. I don't believe there is any connection of either to the Romany Boswell family though:


Boswell's Circus

The first Boswell's Circus was founded in 1882 by James Clements Boswell, the son of the clown and artist James Boswell (1826-1859). It closed in 1898. J. C. Boswell had five sons who were all artists, and the circus was revived in 1912 as Boswell's Royal Hippodrome and Circus Company. It later became known as Boswell Brother's Circus and Menagerie, and later again as just Boswell's Circus. The artist family of Boswell are not closely, if at all, related to the biographer James Boswell (1740-1795).

[richarde1979]

James C    Boswell    Head    Married    Male    50    1851    Artist    London, Middlesex,
Louisa    Boswell    Wife    Married    Female    43    1858    Scotland    
Rebecca    Boswell    Daughter    -    Female    21    1880    Theatricals On Stage    Germany    
James    Boswell    Son    -    Male    20    1881    Theatricals On Stage    London, Middlesex, England    
Dora    Boswell    Daughter    -    Female    19    1882    Theatricals On Stage    Tynemouth, Northumberland, England    
Walter    Boswell    Son    -    Male    18    1883    Theatricals On Stage    Blackpool, Lancashire, England    
Alfred    Boswell    Son    -    Male    16    1885    Theatricals On Stage    Wigan, Lancashire, England    
Sydney O    Boswell    Son    -    Male    11    1890    Theatricals On Stage    Oxford, Oxfordshire, England



The family on the 1901 census at at Rowley Regis, Dudley, Staffordshire. Sydney O Boswell leaves U.K by ship for Pretoria in 1922 as a 'Circus Proprietor'

[Patricia Blacklaws]

I just found it fascinating that the surname is so connecting to the "traveller" way of life ~ even as far afield as here in South Africa!! Good luck with the research and the book!

Kind regards
Patricia

[cathayb]

NOW TO LOOK AT THE WIVES:

JANE NASH S FATHER WAS WILLIAM NASH

ELIZABETH SMITH 1848 S FATHER WAS HERCULES(ARKLESS)SMITH

SOPHIA BOSWELL S FATHER WAS LEWIS BOSWELL BORN 1788 AND HER MOTHER WAS CLEOPATRA BOSWELL BORN 1790.
LEWIS BOSWELLS FATHER WAS BARTHOLMEW BOSWELL BORN 1767 AND LEWIS MOTHER WAS COLBERRY BUCKLAND BORN 1767. BARTHOLMEW DID MARRY AGAIN AFTER THE DEATH OF COLBERRY TO MARY BUCKLAND IN 1798.

[cathayb]

LEWIS IS THE SMUGGLER.ITS SO LONG SINCE I DID THIS TREE FOR A FRIEND I AM HAVING TROUBLE LOCATING WHERE I HAVE IT.I WILL KEEP SEARCH

[cathayb]

well i just cant find it at the moment.my web site was hacked awhile back and i lost some of my pages.but it was definately lewis boswell that was involved in the smuggling.i know he was in trouble for other things aswell and appears in newspapers of the time.i cant even find them at the moment.i think they had brought the smuggled goods to wiltshire and were trying to hide them in a lake when they were found.this family lewis boswell stayed around wiltshire quite a bit.as soon as i find what i am looking for i will post it but i have a seriously disabled daughter ill with pnemonia at the moment so havent a lot of time to look.cathayb

[richarde1979]

Thanks Cathayb, I appreciate that. Best wishes to you and your daughter, hope she feels better soon. I do have  a chapter on Bartholomew in the book, around 4 pages. I have his wife down as Colly Smith, married in Bletchingdon, Oxfordshire on 6th June 1779, and Lewis Boswell, baptised 18th May 1788 in Bromham, Wiltshire.   I have no info at all on Lewis and smuggling.

[cathayb]

they were definately smiths and boswell marrying in to one another but came down eventuaslly to black lizzie.they were around the wiltshire area.i will put all i have about the family on here now and then continue my hunt for the smuggling article
SOME OF THE OTHER CHILDREN BORN TO THE SMITH FAMILIES:

REUBEN AND SOPHIA HAD
LEWIS 1843 ELMSTONE SOMERSET
URIAH 1845 HENDRED BERKSHIRE
SILVESTER 1847 PANGBOURN BERKSHIRE
CONSTANCE 1849 YEOVIL SOMERSET
JARINIA 1851 WALLINGFORD BERKSHIRE
CONSELLETTA 1853 HHENLEY OXFORDSHIRE.

URIAH AND ELIZABETH HAF
EARNEST(OMI.ONI.AININESS) 1875 AMESBURY WILTSHIRE
PATIENCE 1877 BOWERCHALK WILTSHIRE
COMFORT 1877 EASTERTON WILTSHIRE
VASHTI 1881 WOODFORD WILTSHIRE
LEVI 1885 BISHOPS CANNING WILTSHIRE.

EARNEST WITH A POSSIBLE LAISON WITH SUSAN BARNEY HAD ELIZABETH COOPER KNOWN AS BLACK LIZZIE.

BLACK LIZZIE MARRIED OLIVER COOPER.


EARNEST AND JANE HAD
SELINIA 1921
ROSE
THERTE ARE QUITE PROABLY MORE CHILDREN TO THIS COUPLE NOT YET PROVEN.

BRIAN GRACES FATHER WAS ERIC REGINALD GRACE BORN SWINDON 1918 MARRIED SELINIA IN 1941 AND DIED IN 1977.ICLUDING GRACIE THEIR WERE 3 OFFSPRING TO THE MARRIAG
THERE ARE SOME STORIES AND LEGENDS RELATING TO THE FAMILY THAT I WILL ADD AS I HAVE TIME.ANY MISTAKES I TAKE FULL RESPOSIBILITY FOR AS NO ONE IS PERFECT(LEAST OF ALL ME),
NOW TO LOOK AT THE WIVES:

JANE NASH S FATHER WAS WILLIAM NASH

ELIZABETH SMITH 1848 S FATHER WAS HERCULES(ARKLESS)SMITH

SOPHIA BOSWELL S FATHER WAS LEWIS BOSWELL BORN 1788 AND HER MOTHER WAS CLEOPATRA BOSWELL BORN 1790.
LEWIS BOSWELLS FATHER WAS BARTHOLMEW BOSWELL BORN 1767 AND LEWIS MOTHER WAS COLBERRY BUCKLAND BORN 1767. BARTHOLMEW DID MARRY AGAIN AFTER THE DEATH OF COLBERRY TO MARY BUCKLAND IN 1798.

SOME OF THE OTHER CHILDREN BORN TO THE SMITH FAMILIES:

REUBEN AND SOPHIA HAD
LEWIS 1843 ELMSTONE SOMERSET
URIAH 1845 HENDRED BERKSHIRE
SILVESTER 1847 PANGBOURN BERKSHIRE
CONSTANCE 1849 YEOVIL SOMERSET
JARINIA 1851 WALLINGFORD BERKSHIRE
CONSELLETTA 1853 HHENLEY OXFORDSHIRE.

URIAH AND ELIZABETH HAF
EARNEST(OMI.ONI.AININESS) 1875 AMESBURY WILTSHIRE
PATIENCE 1877 BOWERCHALK WILTSHIRE
COMFORT 1877 EASTERTON WILTSHIRE
VASHTI 1881 WOODFORD WILTSHIRE
LEVI 1885 BISHOPS CANNING WILTSHIRE.

EARNEST WITH A POSSIBLE LAISON WITH SUSAN BARNEY HAD ELIZABETH COOPER KNOWN AS BLACK LIZZIE.

BLACK LIZZIE MARRIED OLIVER COOPER.


EARNEST AND JANE HAD
SELINIA 1921
ROSE
THERTE ARE QUITE PROABLY MORE CHILDREN TO THIS COUPLE NOT YET PROVEN.

BRIAN GRACES FATHER WAS ERIC REGINALD GRACE BORN SWINDON 1918 MARRIED SELINIA IN 1941 AND DIED IN 1977.ICLUDING GRACIE THEIR WERE 3 OFFSPRING TO THE MARRIAG
THERE ARE SOME STORIES AND LEGENDS RELATING TO THE FAMILY THAT I WILL ADD AS I HAVE TIME.ANY MISTAKES I TAKE FULL RESPOSIBILITY FOR AS NO ONE IS PERFECT(LEAST OF ALL ME),

[cathayb]

thomas lewis was thought to have been one of the smugglers!!!
Why Moonrakers?
The Moonrakers Legend

There are variations on the legend of Moonrakers and the location of the legend is claimed by many locales within Wiltshire and a couple outside.

The form told by Wiltshire's detractors is that a traveller came upon some drunken Wiltshire men one moonlit night. They were trying to rake a round glowing object from a pool. The rakers claimed it was a large cheese they were trying to retrieve; the traveller declared it was obviously a reflection of the moon. No imagination, travellers.

Wiltshire's own variant on this is that smugglers detected an approaching Exciseman (revenue agent) on a bright moonlit night. In order to waylay suspicion the smugglers dumped the contraband (usually barrels or kegs of French brandy) into a nearby pond. When the Exciseman had gone they began to fish out the barrels with hay rakes. However, the Exciseman came back and asked them what they were doing. They told him it was surely obvious, they were raking out the cheese they could see in the water. The Exciseman laughed at them for being so stupid and rode off. The "moonrakers" left off raking the moon, laughed at the Exciseman's naivety and continued to recover their kegs.

Variations on the second version include the smugglers coming from Bristol, Bishops Canning and elsewhere but Devizes seems a popular