Major William Boarman of Boarman’s Manor 1630-1709

My 6th Great Grandfather. Speaker of the House, mariner, Indian Trader, Interpreter, Land speculator.

As I study the different lines of my mother’s family that I have put together on ancestry.com, I can see that most of the lines go back to the same few families – those who came to Maryland in the mid 1600s. The families stayed close.  Their children married each other through generations, and many made the trek to Kentucky together in the late 1700s.

One of these earliest ancestors is Major William Boarman, my 6th great grandfather. This is my direct line to William Boarman via my Queen ancestors.

Elizabeth Queen Hagan (me) => Anna Elizabeth Queen (my mother) => William Duffield Queen (my grandfather) => Joseph Queen (my great grandfather) => James Queen (my 2nd great grandfather) => Mary C. Gardiner (my 3rd great grandmother, wife of Richard Queen) => Mary Boarman (my 4th great grandmother, mother of Mary C. Gardiner) => William Boarman, Jr. (my 5th great grandfather, father of Mary Boarman => Major William Boarman (my 6th great grandfather)

Here is another line leading to Major Boarman:

Elizabeth Queen Hagan (me) => Anna Elizabeth Queen (my mother) => William Duffield Queen (my grandfather) => Anna Louisa Smith (my great grandmother, wife of Joseph Queen) => James Sidney Smith (my 2nd great grandfather) => Teresa Green (my 3rd great grandmother, mother of Sidney Smith) => James Green (my 4th great grandfather, Father of Teresa Green) => James Green (my 5th great grandfather) => James Francis Green (my 6th great grandfather, father of James Green) => Mary Ann Boarman (my 7th great grandmother, mother of James Francis Green) => Major William Boarman (my 8th great grandfather, father of Mary Ann Boarman).

More about the Green family, later. For now, let’s just say that I’m doubly sure that Major Boarman is a direct ancestor. I don’t remember knowing any Boarmans growing up in Kentucky. However a friend who grew up in Maryland says: “I went to school with a lot of Boarmans. They didn’t have to take any DNA test, you could see the Indian in them.”

That’s interesting because William Boarman was an Indian trader, interpreter, as well as involved in leading some of the battles against the Chesapeake Bay Indian tribes during the 1600s.

William Boarman was born on May 22, 1630 in Wiltshire, England. This is a photo of Whitehall Manor, the Bourman home in England. It still stands. (Click HERE for google maps view).

Whitehall Manor, Hemyok, Cullompton, Devon, England

The Coat of Arms of the Maryland Boarmans is the same as that of the Bourmans in England. You can see the 3 boars walking across the sheild. It represents the Boarmans killing off the wild boars in southern England, which were causing problems.

William Boarman was brought into the Province of Maryland at the time of the civil war in England (1645) by Captain Giles Brent when he was 15 years old. He resided with the Jesuit priests at Port Tobacco where he received a catholic education. During the 1645 Revolution he was among those captured by adherents of Richard Ingle and taken prisoner to St. Mary’s City. By 1651 he was employed by Giles Brent on Kent Island.

I imagine that William Boarman could have been present at the marriage of Giles Brent and Mary Kittamaquund in 1647.

From here on, William Boarman becomes a prominent person in the history of early Maryland. The Catholic / Protestant battles were intense – England was having a Civil War over it – and William Boarman made a public statement acknowledging that he was a Roman Catholic (“born and bred so”).

He was granted large tracts of land by Lord Baltimore and became one of the key planter / merchants of tobacco in the Maryland colony.

William Boarman married 3 times. In 1651 he married Mary Linie and they had 5 children. In 1673 he married Mary Mathews and they had 1 child. In 1686 he married Mary Jarboe, and they had 6 children.

This home, in Charles County, Maryland, is said to be the home of William Boarman and his 3rd wife, Mary Jarboe. From the book “Charles Co. Maryland, My Colonial Relations Plus Others” by Mary Louise Donnelly. Boarman`s Manor, taken from a tintype is pictured below:

This is Boarman Manor as it looks today in Bryantown, MD:

In 1707 William Boarman stated that he was 80 years old. He was getting close! He died a very wealthy man on March 22, 1709.

Below is some more information about Major William Boarman.

Early Colonial Records:

“The earliest appearances of William Boarman in the printed Archives of Md. is on June 13, 1649, when he witnesses the will of Thomas Hebden; however, he was in the Colony prior to that time. In a deposition made the 28th of May, 1650, he is said to be about 20 years of age. That deposition states “that about 1645 in the war raised by Richard Ingle against the Government of the Province, he, and others, were taken prisoners by an adherent of Ingle, at the taking and plundering of Mr. Copley’s House at Portoback and brought down to St. Maries”.

On Oct. 5, 1655, in the Provincial Court, William Boreman “confesseth that he is a Roman Catholic, and that he was born and bred so”. The court convicted him of compliance with Capt. William Stone in the last Rebellion, but on his submitting himself to the mercy of the Court, remitted the public offence and he had only to pay 1,000 pounds of tobacco towards the damage sustained by the rebellion.

Property:

Between 1650 and 1699 Lord Baltimore had granted 30 tracts of land totaling 17,000 acres.

He acquired 300 acres of land in 1651 and in 1658 he received 300 acres East of “Nangemy Creek” near Port Tobacco.

William’s home plantation in St. Mary’s County was known as Kitt Martins Point, which he sold in 1663 to James Jolly, an inn keeper of St. Mary’s for 15,000 pounds of tobacco. Of this sum, half was to paid in St. Mary’s County and the other half in Charles County.

In the 1660’s William’s land speculation included several large tracts in Charles County. By 1676 these holdings consisted of 3,333 acres and were consolidated into Boarman’s Manor and Boarman’sRest. The Manor extended several miles on both sides of Zachiah Swamp with the northern most part at present day Bryantown.

A Historic Marker, dedicated in 1969 by the National Society Descendants of Lords of the Maryland Manors, for Boarman’s Manor reads:

“Boarman’s Manor, 3,333 acres. Granted 1674 to William Boarman, Esq. with royal courts, perquisites, profits of courts and other privileges and immunities belonging to manors in England. By proprietary patent Lord Baltimore granted the prerogatives of Court Baron and all things belonging thereunto.”

Appointments/Government Positions:

A Commission as Captain was ordered by the Council to be issued to William Boreman on Oct. 12, 1661, but on the 24th of April Captain William Boreman had been ordered to press four men of his Company for service in Indian troubles at the head of the Bay.

He is called Captain until 1676 when he is styled Major. On Aug. 17, 1676, Major Boarman was ordered to divide his company into two equal parts; he is to retain one part and Captain Doyne to have the other.

On March 22, 1663/4, the County Court of St. Mary’s Co. requested the appointment of Capt. William Boareman and 5 others to be additional Justices of the Peace for St. Mary’s Co. Reappointed Sept. 5, 1664, sitting in County Court, March 1664/5, again appointed July 27, 1666, and one of the quorum March 2, 1675. Delegate for St. Mary’s Co. to the Lower House of Assembly, March 27, 1671, May, 1674, and Feb., 1674/5.

Appt. by Gov. and Council, Sheriff of St. Mary’s Co., on March 10, 1678/9.

He appears acting as high sheriff of St. Mary’s Co. in June, July, Aug. and Oct., 1681, and March, 1681/2. On May 2, 1682, his successor was appointed.

In 1704 when it was proposed in the Lower House of the Assembly to use his services in ascertaining and laying out the bounds of the lands of the Piscataway Indians, it was objected that he was a “deafe old man” whose recollection could not be trusted.

During his lifetime, Major William Boarman was a mariner, a captain and a major of the militia, planter, land speculator, Indian trader and interpreter, sheriff and gentleman justice and delegate to the General Assembly. He participated with the Proprietary forces at the Battle of the Severn and the Nanticoke Indian War of 1678.

Will:

His will was dated May 16, 1708, with a codicil Jan. 17, 1708/9; it was Probated June 17, 1709 and is recorded in the Land Office in Liber No. 2, f. 108.

He devises lands “Boarman’s Rest” to wife Mary

son Benedict “Lanterman”

son John Baptist “St. George’s Rest”

son Francis Ignatius

dau Mary

dau Clara 400 acres of “Manor Quarter“;

dau Ann Brooks 500 acres.

Mary, the widow of Major William Boarman m John Sanders.

Her will made March 12, 1739, was probated Dec. 17, 1739. It names:

son Benedict

son John Baptist

son Francis Boarman executors

dau Mary Sly,

dau Elizabeth Hamozly and

dau Clare Shirbin.

In 1678 William gave to his daughter, Sarah Mudd, 450 acres of Hall’s Place, which adjoined her brother-in-law Robert Greene’s, on the north side of Green’s Run into Zachiah Swamp.

In 1679 William gave to his daughter, Mary Green, Green’s Rest which may be the same as George’s Rest. Robert Green’s land is listed as a reference in William Boarman’s will of 1709 as being a part of George’s Rest.

In 1755 Thomas Jameson requested boundaries on Hall’s Rest and George’s Rest be proved. Joseph Jameson referred to a dividing tree between the land of Mrs. Mudd and Mrs. Green, the two sisters and daughters of Major William Boarman.

He was the ancestor of Francis Scott Key, the author of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’, our national anthem. Philip Key was twice married. His first wife was Susanna, daughter of John Gardiner and his wife Mary, daughter of Major William Boarman.

The only reference to William’s death occurs in a petition of resurvey of Boarman’s Reserve. In 1755, Henry Mudd requested a resurvey of his land called Boarman’s Reserve, originally.

His life is well documented in the early colonial records and the Provincial Court records of Maryland. There were several men in early Maryland with the name of William Boarman, including his son and grandsons. But the early records must be attributed to Major William Boarman of Boarman’s Manor.

by marriage the Boarmans became related
to the Gardiners, just as the Edelins, the Thompsons, the Queens,
the Dyers and the Neales — all honorable and respected families of
Charles County, Md.

https://archive.org/stream/genealogyofboarm00thom/genealogyofboarm00thom_djvu.txt

Here is an interesting story about a slave of William Boarman:

Archives of Md.

Eleanor Butler, also called “Irish Nell”, immigrated to Md. as an indentured servant to Charles Calvert, 3rd Lord Baltimore.  She married Charles Butler, a slave of Maj. William Boarman, around 1681.  A 1664 Maryland law required that when a “free born woman shall intermarry with any slave, she shall serve the master of such slave during the life of her husband.”  Her children would also  be slaves.  Lord Baltimore warned Nell that “she would enslave herself and her property”  but Nell insisted that she would “rather have Charles than have your Lordship.”  Charles and Nell were married in a catholic ceremony in Maj. Boarman`s home in Charles Co.  They had 7 or 8 children all born after the repeal of the 1664 law. Nell`s children included Jack, her oldest son and her daughters Abigail (Abby), Kate, Moll, Nan and Jenny.  One of the Butlers neighbors , Mrs. Elizabeth Warren, recounted that  Jack later escaped from his enslavement fleeing to southern Va. and later purchased his freedom from one of the Boarman family.  The Butlers lived near the farm of the late Thomas Notley on the Wicomico River in the Zechiah Swamp.   Notley`s farm appeared on the 1670 map of Va. and Md. As a slave of the Boarmans, Nell took in spinning and acted as a midwife.

In Oct. 1770, William and Mary Butler filed freedom suits.  The slaves of Richard Boarman, the Butlers sought their freedom on the basis that their ancestor, Irish Nell, was a white woman.  Other alleged descendents filed suit in 1786-1787.  In 1786, Maryland law accepted the testimony of African Americans, in freedom suits.  Mary Butler`s daughter, also called Mary, won her freedom the following year.  Incidentally in 1793, the testimony of blacks in freedom suits was again prohibited.