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This couple are my second great grandparents. If you are realated to them in any way, I would like to share information with you; and I have a great deal of it. ralphboswell@hotmail.com
ABRAHAM SHOTWELL BUSWELL
Stephen Ralph Boswell, 5 November 2007
Abraham Shotwell Buswell was born in l80l or l802, in Massachusetts, according to his death record in New York City, in 1832. It is possible that the person who recorded his death in New York City, made an error. The record says that he was 30 years, zero months, and zero days old at the time of death. A relative of mine, now deceased, John Wallace Boswell, said that a member of his family (his Aunt Vanie) once found a piece of paper with a handwritten date of birth for Abraham Shotwell Buswell, on 5 March 1785. Wallace said that he was told that the date was in the handwriting of Abraham Boswell, the son of Abraham Shotwell Boswell; and that it may have come from a letter that Abraham Boswell received from a relative in New York after he arrived in Utah. Wallace Boswell turned in a birthdate of 5 March 1795 to the Ancestral File of the LDS Church, because it seemed like a more logical year than 1785. Brothers and sisters of Abraham Shotwell Buswell were born in 1799 (John Coffin Buswell), 1803 (Eliza Buswell), 1805 (William Boswell), 1807 (George Buswell/Boswell), 1808 (Mary Ann Buswell “Shotwell” Palmer, and 1817 (Harriet Buswell).
A birth date of 1801 or 1802 or Abraham Shotwell Buswell fits nicely with the other children in the family; however, a date in 1785 is troublesome for the following reasons:
1. His father, Caleb Buswell, Jr., was single in the 1790 census of Plymouth Town, Grafton Co., New Hampshire, living with, or near his recently married brother, Richard Buswell, so a birth date in 1785 for Abraham Shotwell Buswell is probably out of the question. Since Abraham’s father, Caleb Buswell, Jr. was born 16 December 1768, he could have been born in 1795; however, this would require that the death age of 30 years for Abraham in 1832 in the New York City Death Records was wrong.
2. The New York City death record of Sarah Crowell Boswell, the wife of Abraham Shotwell Buswell, implies that she was born on 31 January 1793. She died on 21 May 1849, and her New York City death record says that she was 56 years, 3 months, and 22 days old. If Abraham Shotwell Buswell was born in 1801 or 1802, Sarah would have been about eight years older than him. That would have been unusual at that time, but not impossible. There is always the possibility that there was an error in her death record, and that she was really 46 years, 3 months, and 22 days old; however, this date does not fit well with the birth dates of her brothers and sisters.
3. In 1797, Caleb Buswell, Jr., was living, presumably unmarried, at the Boardman Boardinghouse in New York City, so the 1795 birthdate is not probable. He probably married, in 1797 or 1798, Mercy Boardman, one of the daughters of John and Martha Boardman, owners of the Boardman Boardinghouse (covered later in this paper). Another tenant of the Boardman boardinghouse, Abraham Shotwell, had married Grace Boardman in 1793, another daughter of the proprietors. A Mary Boardman testified at a trial in New York City in October 1797, in which a man by the name of John Dorman was convicted of assault and battery, with intent to kill Caleb Buswell, Jr.
The birth date of 1801 or 1802 seems to be more logical at this point than the earlier dates; however, the fact is that, as of this date, we have no definitive birth date for Abraham Shotwell Buswell.
It is noted that the family surname for the seven previous generations was almost always spelled, Buswell. In 1849, the death record of Sarah Crowell Buswell used the spelling, Boswell. Sometime in the 1830's or 1840's, all of her descendants began to use the surname of Boswell. It is now known that before 1500, the family name was Bosville, originating in the village of Bosville, in Normandy, France, in 1066. Many of Abraham's relatives, in England, had used the Boswell spelling. Sarah Crowell Buswell/Boswell is listed in the New York City Directories in the l840's under the name, Sarah Boswell, widow of Abraham. Abraham Shotwell Buswell's entries in the NYC Directories in the l830's used the Buswell spelling. One of their children, William Boswell, died in l830; and his surname was recorded as Boswell, even though his father was going by the Buswell spelling in l830. Prior to about 1515, to 1066, the direct line of this particular family used the surname, Bosville (they were the Bosvilles of Gunthwaite, Yorkshire, England); however, the majority of the other branches of the extended family, especially the Scottish Branch, used the surname of Boswell.
Boswell family records that have been handed down from Abraham Boswell, a son of Abraham Shotwell Buswell, say that Abraham Shotwell Buswell was born in New Hampshire; but this may not be much of a problem. The present town of Salisbury, Massachusets, where many of his ancestors were born, was originally part of the Merrimack plantation, the foundation of which was authorized by Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts on 6 September 1638. The Merrimack Plantation encompassed the present day Massachusetts towns of Salisbury, Amesbury, and Merrimac, and the New Hampshire towns of Seabrook,
South Hampton, Newton, Hampstead, Plaistow, and Kingston. Salisbury, Massachusetts, is on the New Hampshire border.
Abraham Shotwell Buswell's father was Caleb Buswell, Jr., and his mother was, probably, Mercy Boardman Buswell. At the present time, we have not positively identified his mother. See papers on Caleb Buswell, Jr., and John Boardman.
Abraham Shotwell Buswell married Sarah Crowell, in about l820 to l824. Sarah Crowell was born in, or around, Madison, New Jersey, on or about 28 January l793, according to her death record (see record below). It seems unusual that Sarah Crowell was seven or eight years older than Abraham Shotwell Buswell, according to their death records; but they were unmistakably husband and wife. Since Caleb Buswell, Jr., moved into the Boardman Boardinghouse in l797, and the birth date of John Coffin Buswell was in l799, the birth of Abraham Shotwell Buswell in l80l or l802 fits very nicely. Perhaps the age of Sarah Crowell Buswell was incorrectly entered by the person who recorded her death. We will have to wait until exact birth records are found before we will be able to solve this problem.
Sarah Crowell Boswell was the daughter of Benjamin Crowell and Mary Bond, who lived in Madison, New Jersey (see paper on Benjamin Crowell). Abraham Boswell, the first child of Abraham Shotwell Buswell and Sarah Crowell, was probably born in New York City on 2l May l823. In a short autobiography which he wrote for the Seventy’s Quorum in Nephi, Utah, he said that his birthdate was in 1825. Kate Carter also shows his birthdate as 1825 in her series of books about the Mormon Pioneers. Also, his entry in the 1850 census of Salmon Falls, Eldorado Co., California, says that he was 25 years old in 1850; however, 1823 is entered as his birth year in his Temple Record Book (in his own hand); and on his Patriarchal Blessing; and on his tombstone.
Abraham Boswell went to live with a distant relative after his father died (his father died on, or about, 1 January 1832, at the age of 30 years, in New York City, according to his death record). Abraham was either seven years old, or nine years old at the time. John Anthony Woolf and his wife, Sarah Ann DeVoe, either adopted him, or just consented to take care of him. They were newly married in 1831, just one year before Abraham Shotwell Buswell died. No one knows why Abraham Boswell did not stay with his mother, who moved to Ohio soon after her husband died. It is supposed that his mother (Sarah Crowell Boswell)was too seriously ill with Tuberculosis to take care of him. She moved to Ohio for a few years, but she was back in New York City, living with her daughter, in the 1840's. She died in New York City on 20 May 1849, at the home of her daughter and son-in-law (Martha Ann Boswell and John Henry Dawson).
Sarah Crowell Boswell had an older brother named Stephen Crowell, who was married to Elizabeth (Betsy) Woolf. Betsy Woolf Crowell had a brother named, John Anthony Woolf, who had recently (in 1831) married Sarah Ann Devoe; and that distant relative took Abraham Boswell into their home after his father died. That means that Abraham Boswell was farmed out to his mother's brother's wife's brother.
There is a book in the Los Angeles Temple Family History Center in Los Angeles, California, entitled, An Index of the Descendants of John Anthony Woolf and Sarah Ann Devoe. The book does not mention Abraham Boswell, but his being treated as a member of the Woolf family is well documented in family records. The book says
that John Anthony Woolf was born on 31 July 1805, in Westchester County, New York. He was the youngest child of Anthony Woolf and Phoebe Weeks. He was the same age as Joseph Smith, having been born in the same year (1805). When the Woolf family moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, they lived on the farm immediately adjacent to the Joseph Smith farm, and his family (and, therefore, Abraham Boswell) were very well acquainted with the Smith family.
The book says that John Anthony Woolf became a shoemaker “of great skill,” while living in Westchester County, New York, catering particularly to the trade of the well-to-do in the city of New York.
John Anthony Woolf married Sarah Ann DeVoe on 30 April 1831, at the age of 26. This means that he had been married only one year when Abraham Boswell’s father died. If Abraham Boswell went to live with the Woolfs in 1832, he was either seven or nine years old.
The short autobiography that Abraham Boswell wrote for the Seventy’s Quorum in Nephi, Utah, said that he first heard the fulness of the Gospel “from the mouth of Elder James Gibson Devine,” in 1843. This was either in Westchester County, or in New Rochelle, New York (see next paragraph). In the Spring of 1843, he moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, along with the Woolf family. He was 20 years old at the time. He arrived in Nauvoo on the 21st of May 1843, and he was baptized a month later, on the 24th of June 1843, by Elder Devine, almost exactly a year before the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, Jr.
The book, An Index of the Descendants of John Anthony Woolf and Sarah Ann Devoe, says that the Woolf family was baptized in 1841, and that John Anthony Woolf was the President of the New Rochelle, New York, Branch in 1842. It talks about their moving to Nauvoo, Illinois in the Spring of 1843. They traveled partly by Canal Boat and partly by River Boat. It says the following about their property in Nauvoo:
“John Anthony [Woolf] purchased a lovely farm two miles East of the city, thus preserving the pattern of a rural home, but near a city where its commercial and cultural advantages could be obtained. But what pleased John and Sarah even more was the fact that their farm adjoined that of the Prophet Joseph Smith, with whom they became intimately acquainted, and whose humanity, simplicity, and intelligence as a friend were wholly compatible with his profile as a Prophet.”
When the Woolf family moved to Nauvoo, they had six children of their own, plus Abraham Boswell. In 1846, they left Nauvoo for Winter Quarters; and they all went West with the "Mormon" pioneers in l847. Abraham Boswell arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on 21 September 1847 (according to his autobiography) or in October l847 (according to Kate Carter). He was in the same company as two Apostles: John Taylor (who later became the President of the Church), and Charles C. Rich.
Shortly after Abraham Boswell arrived in Salt Lake City, as a 24 year old, unmarried man, he got excited about the news coming from the gold fields of California, and he went there in search of Gold. He came back to Utah in l851, arriving in Nephi on 10 April 1851, according to his autobiography. Kate Carter says in one of her books on the Mormon Pioneers, that Abraham came back from California with $500 worth of gold (a huge sum in those days). He told Brigham Young about his money, and asked him what the Lord wanted him to do with it. Brigham Young told him to move to Nephi, Utah, where they were in need of money to buy hinges for the fort being built there against Indian attacks, and to buy machinery for a grist mill. Abraham did so, and purchased these items; and Kate Carter says in one of her books that Abraham Boswell also purchased the stained glass windows for the Nephi Tabernacle with his money. He became one of the prominent citizens of Nephi, Utah.
Other children of Abraham Shotwell Buswell and Sarah Crowell were: Stephen Crowell Buswell (birth and death dates unknown), Martha Ann Buswell Dawson, born in l827; William Boswell, born on or about 28 March l828, and died 28 April l830; and Sarah Jane Boswell, born in l832 or l834 (see discussion on this point later in this paper).
Entries From The New York City Directories
l826-27 Abraham Buswell Cabinet Maker l58 Harman
Harman Street was in the 7th Ward in the l820 Census of New York City. In l83l the name of Harman Street was changed to East Broadway.
1826-27 is the first year that Abraham Buswell/Boswell shows up in the New York City Directories. It is also the last year that Caleb Buswell, Jr., shows up in the directories. It is presumed that Caleb Buswell, Jr., Abraham Shotwell Buswell's father, died in l826, though we have no record of his death. The date is presumed from his disappearance from the New York City Directories, and from the fact that he had a daughter (Mary Ann “Shotwell”) who married Drake B. Palmer on 4 October 1826 (see discussion on this subject later in this paper). We know that Caleb Buswell, Jr., was not living in 1833, because he was not listed among the “next of kin” when his son, John Coffin Buswell, died in 1833.
l827-28, Abraham Buswell, Cabinet Maker, l58 Harman
Martha Ann Boswell Dawson was probably born in l827. She married John Henry Dawson in about l847.
l828-29, Abraham S. Buswell, Cabinet Maker, l60 Harman
l829-30, Abraham S. Buswell, Cabinet Maker, 160 Harman
On 8 February l829, Mercy Buswell died, at the age of 50 (born in about 1779). She lived on Beach Street. She was probably the mother of Abraham Shotwell Buswell/Boswell (see discussion in the paper on Caleb Buswell, Jr.).
William Boswell, probably the son of Abraham Shotwell Buswell/Boswell and Sarah Crowell, was born on or about 28 March l829. See death record after the next entry in the New York City Directory of l830-3l.
l830-3l, Abraham S. Buswell, Cabinet Maker, l60 Harman
In the New York City Public Health Records, there is a death record on 28 April l830, for a William Boswell, First Street, l year, l month, Born, New York City, Died Hydrocephily, Buried Methodist Allen Street Cemetery, J. Chandler, Sexton. Abraham Shotwell Buswell lived on First Street in the l83l-32 New York City Directory, so this must be his son.
l83l-32, Abraham S. Buswell, Cabinet Maker, 7l First
This address was in the llth Ward in the l830 Census of New York City.
Notes
Abraham Shotwell Buswell died l January l832, at the age of 30, according to his death record.
John Coffin Buswell, the older brother of Abraham Shotwell Buswell, died, unmarried, on 2l February l833, at the home of Abraham Shotwell and Grace Boardman Shotwell (his aunt and uncle). He left a will, and his only next of kin were: Harriet Boswell (under 2l in l833), Mary Ann “Shotwell” Palmer (wife of Drake B. Palmer, who is called a brother-in-law of John Coffin Buswell in John’s obituary–making Mary Ann “Shotwell” John Coffin Buswell’s sister), William Buswell, George Buswell, and Eliza Hopping. No one in the family had heard of George Buswell before this will was found, and no one knew how Eliza Hopping fit into this family, until the year 2000. Eliza Hopping is listed among the “next of kin” in the will folder of John Coffin Buswell. In the year 2000, S. Ralph Boswell came in contact with the wife of a direct descendant of Eliza Hopping, and it became obvious that she was a married sister of John Coffin Buswell. She married Buckley Carl Hopping in New York City on 1 December 1825, and had four children. One of them was, Abraham Shotwell Hopping, born 28 November 1835, in New York City. Eliza Buswell had been married for more than seven years when John Coffin Buswell died, 21 February 1833.
It was stated in the newspaper account of her marriage in the New York City newspapers that Mary Ann “Shotwell,” who married Drake B. Palmer, was an adopted daughter of Abraham Shotwell. It is certain that this was Mary Ann Buswell before her adoption, and that she was a sister of John Coffin Buswell. Several members of Caleb Buswell Jr.’s family lived at the home of Abraham Shotwell and Grace Boardman Shotwell for several years (including
John Coffin Buswell); and Mary Ann may have been one of them. If so, the relationship may have been legalized by an adoption. The fact that Mary Ann “Shotwell” was a Buswell before her adoption, is very logical, because her father almost certainly died earlier in the year (1826) that she was married. The fact that the husband of Mary Ann Shotwell, Drake B. Palmer, is identified as a brother-in-law of John Coffin Buswell in John’s death announcement, is almost conclusive proof that Mary Ann “Shotwell” Palmer was a sister of John Coffin Buswell. I have been unable to find her adoption records in New York City, in spite of several diligent searches. My only clue about the adoption is from the newspaper accounts of her marriage.
The papers filed with John Coffin Buswell's will say that Abraham Shotwell and Grace Boardman Shotwell consented to become the guardians of Harriet Buswell when John's will was probated; and Harriet was one of John’s sisters. Harriet (AFN CJ06-C6) married William G. Gilson (AFN CJ06-B1), on 27 June 1839, in New York City. The marriage date came from a two volume book on Early Methodist Marriages in New York City. William and Harriet Gilson are listed in the 1860 Census of Iowa, Franklin Township, Washington County, on page 294. There were five children listed in the census.
In the l850 Census of New York City, Sarah Jane Boswell, a daughter of Abraham Shotwell Buswell, was listed as l6 years old, meaning that she was born in l834. This is two years after the death of Abraham Shotwell Buswell. It is possible that this is an error in the Census Record, and that she was l8 in l850, rather than l6. If she was 18, instead of 16 in 1850, Sarah Crowell Boswell was pregnant with Sarah Jane Boswell when Abraham Shotwell Boswell died. Several of the Crowells and Bonds (families from which Sarah Crowell Boswell had descended) had moved to Ohio before l832, so Sarah may have moved to Ohio for a few years to be with family members after her husband died. If Sarah Jane Boswell was really l6 in l850, as it appears on the Census, then Sarah Jane had a different father from Abraham Shotwell Buswell/Boswell. In any case, Sarah Crowell Boswell moved back to New York City in the l840's, because she shows up in the l843-44 New York City Directory.
The l850 Census to which I referred in the preceding paragraph, has an entry for John Henry Dawson, a son-in-law of Abraham Shotwell Buswell/Boswell. John H. Dawson was a Bookbinder in the l850-5l New York City Directory, at 78 l/2 Norfolk. The Census record was taken in July l850, and John H. Dawson was listed as aged 25, Born [in] New Jersey. His wife, Martha Ann Boswell Dawson was listed as aged 22, born in New York City. They had a daughter, Margaret E. Dawson, aged 2 years, born in New York City. Living with them was Sarah Jane Boswell, aged l6, born in Ohio. This was Martha Ann Buswell Dawson's sister (or half sister).
Entries From The New York City Directories, Continued
l843-44, Sarah Boswell, Widow of Abraham, l28 Norfolk
This address was either in the l0th Ward, or the l3th Ward, in the l840 Census of New York City.
l844-45, Sarah Boswell, Widow of Abraham, l28 Norfolk
l845-46, Sarah Boswell, Widow of Abraham, 128 Norfolk
l846-47, Sarah Boswell, Widow of Abraham, l00 Suffolk
This address was in the l3th Ward in the l840 Census of New York City.
Notes
The New York City Public Health Department has a record of Abraham Shotwell Buswell's death, as follows:
"Abraham Buswell, First Street, January l, l832, Aged 30 years, 0 months, 0 days, Born Massachusetts, Died of Consumption [Tuberculosis], Buried Methodist Society Cemetery, P. Brower, Sexton."
The Methodist Society Church at this time was at 56 Chrystie Street--between Walker and Hester. The Methodist Episcopal Burial Ground was at First Street, near 2nd Avenue.
Sarah Crowell Boswell died 20 May l849. After her death, her daughter, Sarah Jane Boswell, went to live with her sister, Martha Ann Boswell Dawson, and John Henry Dawson. Sarah's death is recorded in The Sun, New York, New York, Monday 2l May l849, as follows:
"On Sunday evening, 20th instant, Mrs. Sarah Boswell, after a lingering illness, in the 56th year of her age. The friends of the family, and those of her son-in-law, John Dawson, are respectfully invited to attend her funeral this (Monday) afternoon, at 4 o'clock. from No. 40 Delancey Street, without further invitation."
The New York City Health Department Death Records recorded the death as follows:
"May 2l [should have been May 20], l849, Sarah Boswell, Aged 56 years, 3 months, 22 days, 40 Delancey Street, Born New Jersey, Died of Scrofula, Removed from the city."
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