Boswell Help Please!!

[cathayb]

now somewhere i have the info that mentions lewsi boswell in this escapade but i think there is something funny if i remeber rightly about either thomas smith or lewis boswell changing their names about.cor,got the answer to one question via you and now i am off researching something i researched years ago and have lost.dordi!!

[cathayb]

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 place for the enactment. The period tends to be "a while ago", which is sometimes acknowledged as being the 17th or 18th century

[cathayb]

SELINIA SMITH
b. 19.01.21
HIGHWORTH
SWINDON

EARNEST (ONI)
SMITH
b. 1875
BERKSHIRE
married 1914


URIAH SMITH
b. 1845
BERKSHIRE




REUBEN
HAIRES AYRES
SMITH
b. 1812 KINTON
ST MICHALE

NEPTUNE
SMITH
b. 1775
WILTSHIE
d. 1855

THOMAS SMITH
b. 1754
WILTSHIRE
m. 13.11.1781
ASHLEY ASHA
BURTON

ELIZABETH
AYRES
b. 1771 BRISTOL
d. 1855

SOPHIA
SYPHORELLA
BOSWELL
b. 1811
OXFORDSHIRE

LEWIS
BOSWELL
b. 1788
WILTSHIRE

BARTHOLMEN
BOSWELL
b. 1767

COLBERRY
BUCKLAND
b. 1767

CLEOPANTA
BOSWELL
b. 1790
WILTSHIRE

[cathayb]

In the Church-yard of Calne, Wilts, is a Tomb (generally designated by the title of The Gypsy's Tomb), erected to the memory of 'Inverto Boswell,' who is said to have been a the Prince, or (at least) the Son of 'the King of the Gypsies.' It is a handsome square Tomb, erected in a corner close to one of the entrances to the Church, enclosed with a dwarf wall and iron railing, with a covering or sort of canopy over it. It was, for many years after its erection, paid great attention to, by persons being sent as often as occasion required to keep the enclosed ground clear from weeds, and the ironwork, &c. regularly painted; but it has for some years past been quite neglected; and having seen it within these few days, I regretted much its altered appearance; on one side it has the following inscription:

Under this Tomb lieth the body of Inverto Boswell, Son of Henry and Elizabeth Boswell, who departed this life the 8th day of February 1774, aged 36.
The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the Name of the Lord.
There is an abbreviated inscription of the same import at the head of the Tomb, with four lines of poetry underneath, which I was not able to transcribe. Perhaps some of your numerous readers will be able to give intelligence of this Family, and whether they did belong to that singular race of people, which has been on tbe wane for many years, and of whom so few authors have been able to give any accurate account.

[richarde1979]

Hello Cathay, thanks for this, I have a bit on Inverto in my book and a drawing of his tomb.  Inverto and his family were definitely around Devizes at the right time as these smugglers!

[cathayb]

yes i have a drawing of the tomb aswell.i am beginning to think maybe the story that smith and boswell were the moonraker smugglers was handed down father too son and thats how i found out.if it could nt be proved i wouldnt have made it public on my website so maybe thats why i cant find it.but as i say i was hacked and so maybe it was on there and i have lost it.still searching.i will ask the chap (gracie)who i did the tree for if he has got a copy of it if i still have his email addie.it was definatly around wiltshire and included the moonraker in its comments so maybe you will be able to find something?

[cathayb]

info from the gypsy lore society.i knew there was something funny about thomas smiths name.

Sinfi,Darkis, and Tilaitha were not Mesi's grandchildren, but part of  family of her much younger sister Emma (who died in 1918 aged 90) and Tom Boswell (Tommy Lewis).
 
i can remember when i was researching him that he changed his name from boswell to lewis but cant remember why!!!

[richarde1979]

I think it was Lewis Boswell's son Tommy Boswell, who went as Tommy Lewis and was a very good fiddler. Keith Chandler at the Romany Traveller Family History Society sent me through an article all about him. I have a pal who is a great grandson of that Tommy Boswell/Lewis. I have had a look for Lewis Boswell in the Wiltshire newspapers tonight, but no luck there yet.

[cathayb]

whose your friend?not our gracie who is very good on the guitar and writes his own songs.if it is it was his tree i did for him years ago.keith chandler is a great chap aswell.i am asking around.i just cant think where i got the info.yes tommy lewis was a great fiddler. we are talking about the same family for sure.