Bon-Boy: Bond through Boynton

See below for annotated biographies of American abolitionists and anti-slavery activists. Sources include: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography and Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography.


BOND, Thomas E., Dr., Maryland, physician.  Vice President and founding member of the Maryland State Colonization Society in 1831.  Founder of the University of Maryland Medical School. 

(Campbell, Penelope. Maryland in Africa: The Maryland State Colonization Society, 1831-1857. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1971, pp. 19-20)


BONDI, August, 1833-1907, Vienna, Austria, abolitionist.  Supported radical abolitionist John Brown in Bleeding Kansas war.


BOORMAN, James, 1783-1866, merchant, philanthropist.  Vice President, 1838-1841, of the American Colonization Society. 

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume I, p. 316; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume I, Pt. 2, pp. 443-444; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume I, Pt. 2, pp. 443-444:

BOORMAN, JAMES (1783-January 24, 1866), merchant, railroad president, son of John and Mary (Colgate) Boorman, was born in the county of Kent, England, of Scotch ancestry. He came with his parents to New York in 1795; was apprenticed to Divie Bethune, and entered into partnership with him in 1805. In March 1813 he joined with a fellow Scot, John Johnston, in forming the New York mercantile house of Boorman & Johnston, which became successively, Boorman, Johnston & Company, and Boorman, Johnston, Ayres & Company. Adam Norrie became a partner in 1828. A subsequent department of the business was conducted as Boorman & Clark. At first Boorman sold Scotch cloths from Dundee, and Virginia tobacco, handling virtually all of the latter that came from the Richmond market. Later the firm did an enormous business in iron from Sweden and England. From South St. the house moved to Greenwich St. The business became so large that the partners had to relinquish a part of it. They were the largest importers of Madeira wines, and they received large consignments from Italy. Their counting-room was over the Bank of the Republic. "A more remarkable man than James Boorman never lived" (Scoville, I, 157). In 1835 he received from Sweden a consignment of immense iron pillars, and the entire trade was much amused by Boorman's valiant effort to sell what no one wanted. Undaunted, he tore out the front of his store, put the pillars under the front wall, and with this increased support added several stories to the building. Aside from his own business he was made chief of every corporation with which he connected himself. He was the originator of the Hudson River Railroad, and as a director he led the board in bringing about the removal of Hon. Azariah C. Flagg as president of that road (Communications from ]. Boorman, W. C. Bryant & Company, 1849, reprinted in the Evening Post). He himself succeeded Flagg. At this time he wrote to the directors: "It will, I hope, not be deemed impertinent for me to add that any services to you as president are gratuitous .... " He was chairman of a committee of the road that awarded a contract to Peter Cooper for rails to extend his road to Albany, was a large owner in the Troy & Schenectady Railroad, and was a founder of the Bank of Commerce. He retired in 1855. No New York merchant was more liberal in benevolence. He gave with great liberality to the Institution for the Blind, the Protestant Half-Orphan Asylum, the Southern Aid Society, the Union Theological Seminary, and Trinity Church, of which latter he was long an officer. His town house was at Waverley Place and Washington Square. He also owned No. 1 Fifth Ave., the fine home that was later the residence of the Duncans, and he possessed a country estate at Hyde Park, Dutchess County, New York. He married Mary Wells Davenport on November 10, 1810, and they later adopted a daughter. He was inclined to be headstrong, he had little patience with incompetency, and none at all with shams; his integrity was of that rare sort that is never questioned.

[Boorman is mentioned prominently in J. A. Scoville, The Old Merchants of New York City (1863). The lengthy pamphlet entitled Communications from Jas. Boorman to the Stockholders of the Hudson River Railroad Co., in Reply to Mr. A. C. Flagg, late President of that Co., contains much valuable information. He gives some facts of his financial dealings in his Statement of the Administration of the Estate of Cas. R. Smith (1865). His will, made in 1862, is on file in the New York Public Library Obituaries were published in the New York Times and New York Daily Tribune, January 26, 1866. ]

R.R.R.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume I, p. 316:

BOORMAN, James, merchant, born in Kent county, England, in 1783; died  in New York city, 24 January, 1866. He accompanied his parents to the United States when about twelve years of age, was apprenticed to Divie Bethune, of New York, and entered into partnership with him in 1805. Afterward, in connection with John Johnston, he formed the firm of Boorman & Johnston, which almost entirely controlled the Dundee trade, and dealt largely in Swedish iron and Virginia tobacco. Mr. Boorman was one of the pioneers in the construction of the Hudson river railroad, and was for many years its president. He was also one of the founders of the Bank of Commerce. He retired from active business in 1855. The institution for the blind, the Protestant half-orphan asylum, the southern aid society, and the union theological seminary were among the recipients of his bounty. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume I. pp. 316.


BOOTH, Sherman M., 1812-1904, abolitionist, orator, politician, temperance activist.  Editor of anti-slavery newspaper, the Wisconsin Freeman, in Racine, Wisconsin.  Member, Free Soil Party, and helped found the Liberty Party.  Assisted runaway slave Joshua Glover.  Was arrested, tried and convicted for violation of Fugitive Slave Law.  Booth was acquitted under Wisconsin State law.

(Blue, Frederick J. No Taint of Compromise: Crusaders in Antislavery Politics. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005, pp. 6-7, 13, 117-137, 267, 268; Rodriguez, Junius P., Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2007, pp. 62, 151)


BORDEN, Nathaniel B., Fall River, Massachusetts, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-1842, Executive Committee, 1842-1843.  Vice President, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1849.


BOUDINOT, Elias, 1740-1821, New Jersey, philanthropist, lawyer, Revolutionary statesman, U.S. Congressman, opponent of slavery.  Trustee of Princeton.  Former president of the Congress of Confederation.  Secretary of Foreign Affairs.  Supported right to petition Congress against slavery. Co-founder of the New Jersey Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery in 1793.  Opposed extension of slavery to new territories.  Supported Native American rights.

(Basker, James G., gen. ed. Early American Abolitionists: A Collection of Anti-Slavery Writings, 1760-1820. New York: Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, 2005, pp. 128, 133, 321, 322, 348, 350-351; Drake, Thomas. Quakers and Slavery in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1950, pp. 85, 106; Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, p. 54; Locke, Mary Stoughton. Anti-Slavery in America from the Introduction of African Slaves to the Prohibition of the Slave Trade (1619-1808). Boston: Ginn & Co., 1901, pp. 92, 93, 140; Annals of Congress; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume I, p. 327; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume I, Pt. 2, pp. 477-478; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 2, p. 243)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume I, Pt. 2, pp. 477-478:

BOUDINOT, ELIAS (May 2, 1740-October 24, 1821), Revolutionary statesman, was the fourth of the same name in direct descent, and has been often confused with his younger brother, Elisha (1749-1819), and with this brother's son, Elias E. (1791-1863). Driven out of Marans, Rochelle, France, by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), Elias Boudinot the first, a prosperous merchant, elder in the Reformed Church, Seigneur de Cressy, went to London, thence to New York about 1687, joined in protest against Leisler's maladministration, bought extensive lands in Bergen County, New Jersey, and died in New York in 1702. Elias the second (1674-1719) married Marie Catherine Carree, and through their daughters was built up a remarkable matrimonial network of the Boudinot family with the Ricketts, Chetwood, Chandler, Clayton, Vergereau, Tennent, and other families noted in colonial law, church, and business affairs. Elias the third (1706-70), postmaster and silversmith of Princeton, married Catherine Williams of Antigua, British West Indies; their daughter, Annis, married Richard Stockton, signer of the Declaration of Independence, father-in-law of Benjamin Rush and grandfather of Richard Rush. Elias the fourth, born in Philadelphia, married, April 21, 1762, the signer's sister, Hannah Stockton (July 21, 1736-October 28, 1808), whom he had long courted, and urged to "press forward toward a heavenly goal." Their courting names "Eugenia" and "Narcissus" were in use thirty years later. Neither a classical academy education, baptism by George Whitefield, nor early and arduous study of law, could mar the serenity of Elias's temper or the poise of his good sense. Licensed counsellor and attorney-at-law, 1760, sergeant-at-law, 1770, he became a leader in his profession (hon. LL.D. Yale, 1790) and a trustee of Princeton (1772-1821). Two fellowships founded by him are extant there. He is described as tall, handsome, "every way prepossessing," elegant, eloquent and emotional. He could use tears to good effect but his advice to his only child, Susan Vergereau (1764-1854), married to William Bradford, attorney-general (1794-5), was: "take the world as you find it" and convert even prejudices to usefulness.

Supporting gentry rule, legal government, and property rights, he was a conservative Whig in politics but followed the liberal trend of his Colony and his connections, and entered on revolution chiefly by opposing Governor William Franklin. On June 11, 1774, he became a member of the Committee of Correspondence for Essex County, New Jersey, but felt a "firm dependence in the mother country essential." In March 1775, with William Livingston, he hurried the New Jersey Assembly into approving the proceedings of the first Continental Congress at Philadelphia (New Jersey Archives, series 1, Volume X, p. 575). In August 1775 he, then a member of the New Jersey Provincial Congress, procured from Elizabethtown eight or ten half-casks of powder for Washington's army at Cambridge, the forces there being down to eight rounds per man. In April 1776 at New Brunswick he quashed Dr. John Witherspoon's queer attempt to rush New Jersey into declaring for independence.

On June 6, 1777, by commission dated May 15, Congress appointed him commissary-general of prisoners, with the pay and rations of a colonel, five deputies, and full power even to altering the directions of the board of war. Thus he was drawn into "the boisterous noisy, fatiguing unnatural and disrelishing state of War and slaughter" (to his wife July 22, 1777). This he did, not only to "be of some service to the Prisoners" but also "to watch the Military and to preserve the Civil Rights of my Fellow Citizens" (Journal, p. 67). He organized the care of the American prisoners despite great difficulties, and put in $30,000 of his own money to do it. On William Duer's insistence he recovered most of this despite New England opposition. Washington offered to stand half the loss, corrected Boudinot's judgment as to treason and military tactics, and relied on him to reconcile Steuben to other officers and for certain secret service information. Their relations were close and, on Boudinot's part, extremely reverential. On November 20, 1777, he was elected delegate to Congress, and wrote of Philadelphia, "This City is enough to kill a horse" (to his wife July 9, 1778). He did not attend Congress until July 7, 1778, and then only on Washington's insistence that it was his only chance to be reimbursed in "hard money," i.e., out of the cash captured from Burgoyne (Journal, p. 69). Rechosen to Congress until 1784, president November 4, 1782, acting also as secretary of foreign affairs from June 16, 1783, he served on over thirty committees and usually as chairman, while his social grace and legal acumen were invaluable in dealing with representatives of other countries. He signed the treaties of peace with Great Britain and of alliance with the French king, the proclamations for cessation of hostilities, thanksgiving, discharging the army, and removing the Congress to Princeton, and presided at that session in Nassau Hall when Washington was thanked for his services "in establishing the freedom and independence of your country." His benevolent good sense went far to neutralize the acidities of our peace commissioners abroad.

As a strong Federalist he helped ratify the Constitution in New Jersey and conducted Washington into New York for the first inauguration. Elected to the House of Representatives in the first, second and third Congresses, he fathered many essential measures and took part in practically all important debates. In the great assault of February 1793 on Hamilton's conduct of the federal Treasury, Boudinot led the defense. In 1795 he succeeded David Rittenhouse as director of the United States Mint and reorganized the enterprise with "great industry as well as ability" (J. R. Snowden, A Description of the Medals of Washington, 1861, p. 185). Some of his rules are still in force. His technical skill and his care for the employees are shown by his letters to Jefferson of June 16, 1801, and April 17, 1802. He resigned July 1, 1805, to study the Bible at his home in Burlington, New Jersey. His religious works, The Age of Revelation (1801), Memoirs of the Life of the Reverend William Tennent (1807), The Second Advent (1815), A Star in the West (1816), may be read by those curious to do so. His guiding thought was "I am satisfied that the grace of God is not confined to Sector Party." He was the first counsellor named by the United States Supreme Court (February 5, 1790) and seems never to have lost either his taste for the practise of his profession or his acute and sensible interest in public affairs. Save when absent on duty, he spent his entire life in New Jersey, living successively at Princeton, Elizabethtown, and Burlington. His will, July 3, 1821, disposed of a large property, including several tracts of wild land in Pennsylvania, to innumerable dear ones and good causes. He seems to have had few quarrels, and no enemies.

[Boudinot's letters and papers have not been published. His Journal (1894) deals only with selected "American Events during the Revolutionary War" but affords interesting side-lights on the man. The Life, Public Services, Addresses and Letters of Elias Boudinot (1896) by a collateral descendant, Jane J. Boudinot, includes much material but the selection and arrangement are not impressive. This is the chief source. His public activities are reflected in the Journals of the Continental Congress, the Annals of the first, second, and third Congresses, and in the published letters of leading men of the period.]

W.L.W-y.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography 1888, Volume I, p. 327:

BOUDINOT, Elias, philanthropist, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2 May, 1740; died  in Burlington, New Jersey, 24 October, 1821. His great-grandfather, Elias, was a French Huguenot, who fled to this country after the revocation of the edict of Nantes. After receiving a classical education, he studied law with Richard Stockton, and became eminent in his profession, practising in New Jersey. He was devoted to the patriot cause, in 1777 appointed commissary-general of prisoners, and in the same year elected a delegate to congress from New Jersey, serving from 1778 till 1779, and again from 1781 till 1784. He was chosen president of congress on 4 November, 1782, and in that capacity signed the treaty of peace with England. He then resumed the practice of law, but, after the adoption of the constitution, was elected to the 1st, 2d, and 3d congresses, serving from 4 March, 1789, till 3 March, 1795. He was appointed by Washington in 1795 to succeed Rittenhouse as director of the mint at Philadelphia, and held the office till July, 1805, when he resigned, and passed the rest of his life at Burlington, New Jersey, devoted to the study of biblical literature. He had an ample fortune, and gave liberally. He was a trustee of Princeton college, and in 1805 endowed it with a cabinet of natural history, valued at $3,000. In 1812 he was chosen a member of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions, to which he gave £100 in 1813. He assisted in founding the American Bible society in 1816, was its first president, and gave it $10,000. He was interested in attempts to educate the Indians, and when three Cherokee youth were brought to the foreign mission school in 1818, he allowed one of them to take his name. This boy became afterward a man of influence in his tribe, and was murdered on 10 June, 1839, by Indians west of the Mississippi. Dr. Boudinot was also interested in the instruction of deaf-mutes, the education of young men for the ministry, and efforts for the relief of the poor. He bequeathed his property to his only daughter, Mrs. Bradford, and to charitable uses. Among his bequests were one of $200 to buy spectacles for the aged poor, another of 13,000 acres of land to the mayor and corporation of Philadelphia, that the poor might be supplied with wood at low prices, and another of 3,000 acres to the Philadelphia hospital for the benefit of foreigners. Dr. Boudinot published “The Age of Revelation,” a reply to Paine (1790); an oration before the Society of the Cincinnati (1793); “Second Advent of the Messiah” (Trenton 1815); and “Star in the West or An Attempt to Discover the Long-lost Tribes of Israel” (1816), in which he concurs with James Adair in the opinion that the Indians are the lost tribes. He also wrote, in “The Evangelical Intelligencer” of 1806, an anonymous memoir of the  Reverend William Tennet, D. D. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume I. pp. 327.

Biography from National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans:

As the most tranquil and prosperous periods of a nation afford but scanty materials for the historian, so it frequently happens that men eminent for their morality and virtue, and whose lives have been past in continual acts of beneficence, leave only meagre details for the instruction and example of others. The progress of professional or literary talent contains little of interest, except it is traced by the hand of one who can follow all its windings, and give us feelings as well as facts,—and the deeds of goodness which endear a man to society are done in secret, or known but to few, so that he whose death leaves the greatest void in his immediate circle is often the most speedily forgotten.

ELIAS BOUDINOT was born in Philadelphia, in the year 1740. His family was of French extraction, his great grandfather being one of the many protestants compelled to leave their country on the revocation of the edict of Nantes. His father’s name was likewise Elias; his mother, Catharine Williams, was of Welsh descent. Young BOUDINOT received a classical education, such as was at that time common in the colonies, after which he pursued the study of the law under Richard Stockton. At the termination of his studies, entering upon the practice of his profession in New Jersey, he soon became distinguished. At the commencement of the difficulties between the colonies and the mother country, he advocated the cause of the Americans, and when hostilities had actually commenced took a decided part in favor of the colonists. In 1777, congress appointed him commissary general of prisoners, and in the same year he was elected a member of that body. In November, 1782, he was elected president of congress, and in that capacity signed the treaty of peace which was soon afterwards concluded. He now resumed the practice of the law, but in 1789, on the adoption of the Federal Constitution he was again elected a member of congress, and occupied his seat by successive reëlections for six years. In 1796, he was appointed by Washington to succeed Rittenhouse as director of the mint; in this office he continued until 1805, when resigning all public employment he retired to Burlington, New Jersey. The remainder of his life BOUDINOT passed in attending to the affairs of his estate, in the study of biblical literature, which was always one of his favorite pursuits, and in the exercise of a munificent charity, both private and public. He was a trustee of Princeton college, and in 1805, founded in it a cabinet of natural history at the cost of three thousand dollars. In 1812, he was elected a member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, to which he presented a donation of one hundred pounds sterling. He was active in promoting the formation of the American Bible Society, and in 1816, being elected its first president, he made it the munificent donation of ten thousand dollars. After a long life of usefulness Mr. BOUDINOT died on the twenty-fourth of October, 1821, in the eighty-second year of his age; a sincere and devout christian, his death bed was cheered by that religion which had guided him through life. He knew that his end approached, but he was prepared and ready to meet it, and his last prayer was, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

Mr. BOUDINOT married in early life the sister of his preceptor, Richard Stockton; by whom he had an only daughter, who survives him. Mrs. Boudinot died in 1808.

In his last will, after having suitably provided for his daughter, BOUDINOT bequeathed the bulk of his large property for the furtherance of those objects which he had so steadily pursued through life: the diffusion of religion, the promotion of literature, and the alleviation of the distresses of the poor. Four thousand acres of land were left to the Society for the Benefit of the Jews; five thousand dollars to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church; four thousand and eighty acres for theological students at Princeton; four thousand acres to the college of New Jersey for the establishment of fellowships; three thousand two hundred and seventy acres to the Hospital of Philadelphia; thirteen thousand acres to the mayor and corporation of Philadelphia for the supply of the poor with wood on low terms; besides, numerous other bequests for religious and charitable purposes. Mr. BOUDINOT is the author of several publications, the principal of which is the “Star in the West, or an attempt to discover the long lost tribes of Israel, preparatory to their return to their beloved city of Jerusalem,” 8vo., 1816; in which he endeavors to prove that the American Indians are the lost tribes. The work exhibits great benevolence of feeling towards the Indians, extensive research, and considerable acuteness, yet it is to be regretted that his time and talents were wasted upon a subject so ill calculated to reward his labor.

Source: National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, 1839, Volume 3.


BOURNE, George, 1780-1845, New York City.  Author.  Presbyterian and Dutch Reform clergyman. Pioneer abolitionist leader.  Manager (1833-1839) and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Founding member of the New York Anti-Slavery Society.  One of the first abolitionists to demand immediate emancipation.  Wrote, The Book of Slavery Irreconcilable (1816); An Address to the Presbyterian Church, Enforcing the Duty of Excluding all Slaveholders from the Communion of Saints; and Man Stealing and Slavery Denounced by the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches.

(Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, pp. 93, 175, 348; Mason, 2006, pp. 79, 100, 132-133, 231-232, 285n75; Rodriguez, Junius P., Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2007, pp. 34, 105; Abolitionist, Volume I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume I, p. 330; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume I, Pt. 2, p. 485; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 2, p. 254).

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume I, Pt. 2, p. 485:

BOURNE, GEORGE (June 13, 1780-November 20, 1845), Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed clergyman, abolitionist, was born in Westbury, England, and was educated at Homerton Seminary in London. From there he came to Virginia and Maryland. He was pastor of a Presbyterian church in South River, Virginia, in 1814. As a result of his strong reaction to his direct contact with the institution of slavery, he was one of the first in the United States to advocate immediate emancipation (The Book and Slavery Irreconcilable, 1816). He was bitterly persecuted by the advocates of slavery and called before a Presbyterian council where he was condemned on a charge of heresy for his anti-slavery views. He was finally compelled to leave the Southern states. For a while he lived in Germantown, Pennsylvania (Manual of the Reformed Church), a little later in Sing Sing, New York, where he was principal of an academy as well as pastor of a Presbyterian church. In Quebec from 1825 to 1828, he had two Presbyterian churches, and here he became a strong opponent of Catholicism. Two years later he was back in New York, but without a church. Presbyterian records list him as an editor in 1831 and in 1832 Garrison writes of him as publishing "a spirited journal, entitled, The Protestant." The following year saw him a member of the Dutch Reformed Church, which had perhaps the greatest tolerance for his extreme anti-slavery principles. He supplied the Houston Street Chapel and vacant churches, and at the same time contributed to periodicals and the press, and was the author of a number of works which expressed his views. Garrison said of him, "Bourne thunders and lightens," and he frequently recognized his courage and the vigor and strength of his mind. He was among the fifty or sixty delegates present at the Philadelphia convention for the formation of the Anti-Slavery Society in 1833 (Garrison). At an anniversary meeting in 1837, he offered a resolution censuring clergymen who during the past year had defended slavery and opposed the enlightening of their congregations "without the advice and consent of the pastors and regular ecclesiastical bodies" (Ibid.). He was opposed to "woman's rights," and felt certain that no woman would be allowed a seat in the world anti-slavery convention, although Lucretia Mott had been appointed as a delegate by the American society. Naturally belligerent, he had no patience with the policy of non-resistance. He wrote Garrison in 1838 that he anticipated no peace from his "nonresistance oppugnation" but foresaw in it only mischief to the anti-slavery cause. He lived at West Farms from 1839 to 1842, and at the time of his death in 1845 was employed on the Christian Intelligencer in New York.

His published works are: The History of Napoleon Bonaparte (1806); The Spirit of the Public Journals; or, Beauties of the American Newspapers for 1805 (1806); The Book and Slavery Irreconcilable (1816); The Picture of Quebec (1829); An Address to the Presbyterian Church, Enforcing the Duty of Excluding All Slave-holders from the "Communion of Saints" (1833); Lorette, The History of Louise, Daughter of a Canadian Nun, Exhibiting the Interior of Female Convents (1834); Man-Stealing and Slavery Denounced by the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches (1834); Picture of Slavery in the United States of America (1834); Slavery Illustrated in Its Effects upon Woman and Domestic Society (1837); A Condensed Anti-Slavery Bible Argument (1845).

[Minutes of General Assembly of the Presbyt. Church, volumes III, V, VI, VII; Manual of the Reformed Church in America (1879); Liberator, volumes I, II; Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Told by His Children (1885-89); New York Herald, November 22, 1845; New York Tribune, November 21, 1845.]

M.A.K.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume I, p. 330:

BOURNE, George, author, born in England about 1760; died  in New York city in 1845. He was educated in his native country, emigrated to the United States, and became a minister of the reformed Dutch church in 1833. He held no pastorate, but engaged in literary work in New York city. He was an ardent and learned controversialist, and wrote works on Romanism and slavery. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume I. pp. 330.


BOUTON, Nathan, New York, abolitionist leader.

(Sorin, 1971; Staudenraus, 1961, pp. 120, 202)


BOUTWELL, George Sewall, 1818-1905, statesman, lawyer. 20th Governor of Massachusetts.   Helped organize the Republican Party.  Member of Congress, 1862-1868.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senator.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Secretary of the Treasury under President Ulysses S. Grant.  Supported African American citizenship and voting rights during Reconstruction.  Important leader serving on the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, which framed the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution.  

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume I, pp. 331-332; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 1, Pt. 2, pp. 489-490; Congressional Globe;   (Boston, 1859); a “Manual of the United States Direct and Revenue Tax” (1863); “Decisions on the Tax Law” (New York, 1863); “Tax-Payer's Manual” (Boston, 1865); a volume of “Speeches and Papers” (1867); and “Why I am a Republican” (Hartford, Connecticut, 1884). Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 1, Pt. 2, pp. 489-490:

BOUTWELL, GEORGE SEWALL (January 28, 1818-February 27, 1905), politician, born in Brookline, Massachusetts, was the son of Sewall and Rebecca (Marshall) Boutwell, both of old Massachusetts stock. His boyhood was passed in Lunenburg, Massachusetts., where from the age of thirteen to seventeen he was employed in a small store with the privilege of attending school during the winter months. When he was seventeen he became clerk in a store in Groton, Massachusetts. He devoted much of his time to self-education in the hope of becoming a lawyer, and at an early age began to write articles for the newspapers on political topics, and to make addresses. In 1841 he was married to Sarah Adelia Thayer. He was an active Democrat, and during seven sessions between 1842 and 1850 represented Groton in the lower house of the state legislature. Through his useful work there he became one of the leaders of the younger element of the party, whose anti-slavery leanings made possible the coalition with the Free-Soilers which in 1850 defeated the Whigs. As a result of this coalition, Boutwell was elected by the legislature governor for the year 1851, and Charles Sumner, representing the Free-Soilers, was elected senator; the same political combination effected Boutwell's reelection for 1852. After the expiration of his term he pursued legal studies with th e purpose of becoming a patent lawyer; from 1855 to 1861 he was secretary of the state board of education. In January 1862 he was admitted to the Suffolk bar.

The important part of Boutwell's career lies in the field of national politics. He had  been one of the organizers of the Republican party in Massachusetts in 1855, and he consistently represented its radical wing, more, however, on the side of practical politics than in its idealistic aspect. From July 17, 1862, to March 3, 1863, he was commissioner of internal revenue, and in that short period did effective work in organizing this new branch of the government. His activities as a radical Republican were most conspicuous during his terms of service as representative in Congress from 1863 to 1869 in connection with the problems of reconstruction. As a member of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction he helped in framing the Fourteenth Amendment; his belief in the necessity of full suffrage for the negro led to his advocacy of the Fifteenth Amendment. His support of the congressional plan of Reconstruction involved persistent, vigorous, and even fanatical opposition to President Johnson and his policies. In the movement for the impeachment of the President he was among the leaders, being chosen by the House of Representatives as one of its s even managers to conduct the impeachment. His suggestion that a suitable punishment for Johnson, the "enemy of two races of men," would be his projection into a "hole in the sky" near the Southern Cross, drew the ridicule of William M. Evarts, counsel for the defense. Boutwell's efforts on behalf of the radical Republicans were rewarded by a place in Grant's cabinet as secretary of the treasury. To this position he brought qualifications chiefly of a political nature, and he was not a supporter of civil service reform; but he labored diligently in improving the organization of the department and in reducing the national debt. Before the end of his four years as secretary he had effected the redemption of 200 millions of six per cent bonds and sold an equal amount bearing interest at five per cent (Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, December 1872, iii). Early in his administration occurred the famous " Black Friday," on which day a n attempted corner in gold was broken by his release of Treasury gold.

From March 1873 to March 1877, he served a four-year term as senator from Massachusetts. On his failure to be reelected by his party he was appointed commissioner to revise the statutes of the United States. In 1880 he became counsel and agent of the United States before a board of international arbitrators for the settlement of claims of French citizens against the government of this country, and of American citizens against the government of France. In his practise as a lawyer, which he resumed after his retirement from the Senate, he handled numerous cases involving questions of international law. The independence of spirit which at various times in his career he had manifested, in marked contrast to his general disposition for party regularity- showed itself in his last years in his opposition to the policy of the Republican party on the Philippine question, and led to his withdrawal from the party; he was president of the Anti-Imperialist League from its organization in November 1898 until his death in 1905.

He was the author of Thoughts on Educational Topics and Institutions (1859); A Manual of the Direct and Excise Tax System of the United States (1863); Speeches Relating to the Rebellion and the Overthrow of Slavery (1867); The Constitution of the United States at the End of the First Century (1895); The Crisis of the Republic (1900).

[Boutwell's Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs (1902) contains interesting though guarded accounts of the public men of his time; to it is prefixed a biographical sketch which appeared in the Memoirs of the Judiciary and the Bar of New England, January 1901. For his connection with the impeachment of Johnson see D. M. DeWitt, The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson (1903); E. P. Oberholtzer, Jay Cooke (1907) has numerous references to Boutwell as secretary of the treasury.]

H. G. P.

(Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888,Volume I, pp. 331-332; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 1, Pt. 2, pp. 489-490; Congressional Globe; Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Volume 2.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872, 348)

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography 1888, Volume I, pp. 331-332:

BOUTWELL, George Sewall, statesman, born in Brookline, Massachusetts, 28 January, 1818. His early life was spent on his father's farm until, in 1835, he became a merchant's clerk in Groton, Massachusetts. He was afterward admitted to partnership, and remained in business there until 1855. In 1836 he began by himself to study law, and was admitted to the bar, but did not enter into active practice for many years. He also began a course of reading, by which he hoped to make up for his want of a college education. He entered politics as a supporter of Van Buren in 1840, and between 1842 and 1851 was seven times chosen as a democrat to the state legislature, where he soon became recognized as the leader of his party. In 1844, 1846, and 1848 he was defeated as a candidate for congress, and in 1849 and 1850 he was the democratic nominee for governor with no better success; but he was finally elected in 1851 and again in 1852 by a coalition with the free-soil party. In 1849-'50 he was state bank commissioner; in 1853 a member of the state constitutional convention. After the repeal of the Missouri compromise in 1854 he assisted in organizing the republican party, with which he has since acted. In 1860 he was a member of the Chicago convention which nominated Lincoln, and in February, 1861, was a delegate to the Washington peace conference. President Lincoln invited him to organize the new department of internal revenue in 1862, and he was its first commissioner, serving from July, 1862, till March, 1863. In 1862 he was chosen a member of congress from Massachusetts, and twice re-elected. In February, 1868, he made a speech advocating the impeachment of President Johnson, was chosen chairman of the committee appointed to report articles of impeachment, and became one of the seven managers of the trial. In March, 1869, he entered President Grant's cabinet as secretary of the treasury, where he opposed diminution of taxation and favored a large reduction of the national debt. In 1870 congress, at his recommendation, passed an act providing for the funding of the national debt and authorizing the selling of certain bonds, but not an increase of the debt. Secretary Boutwell attempted to do this by means of a syndicate, but expended more than half of one per cent., in which he was accused of violating the law. The house committee of ways and means afterward absolved him from this charge. In March, 1873, he resigned and took his seat as a U. S. senator from Massachusetts, having been chosen to fill the vacancy caused by the election of Henry Wilson to the vice-presidency. In 1877 he was appointed by President Hayes to codify and edit the statutes at large. Mr. Boutwell was for six years an overseer of Harvard, and for five years secretary of the Massachusetts state board of education, preparing the elaborate reports of that body. He afterward opened a law office in Washington, D. C. He is the author of “Educational Topics and Institutions” (Boston, 1859); a “Manual of the United States Direct and Revenue Tax” (1863); “Decisions on the Tax Law” (New York, 1863); “Tax-Payer's Manual” (Boston, 1865); a volume of “Speeches and Papers” (1867); and “Why I am a Republican” (Hartford, Connecticut, 1884). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume I. pp. 331-332.


BOWDITCH, Henry Ingersoll, 1819-1909, Boston, lawyer, abolitionist, physician.  Influenced by William Lloyd Garrison to join the anti-slavery cause.  Aided fugitive slaves, and promoted anti-slavery actions in the North.  Counsellor, 1843-1850, and Vice president, 1850-1860, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. 

(Mabee, Carleton. Black Freedom: The Nonviolent Abolitionists from 1830 Through the Civil War. London: Macmillan, 1970, pp. 36, 94, 103, 110, 129, 336; Pease, William H., & Pease, Jane H. The Antislavery Argument. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1965, pp. 343-348; Bowditch, Slavery and the Constitution, Boston: Robert F. Walcutt, 1849, pp. 120-126; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 1, Pt. 2, pp. 492-494; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 103-104; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 2, p. 267) He has translated “Louis on Typhoid” (2 volumes, Boston, 1836); “Louis on Phthisis” (1836); and “Maunoir on Cataract” (1837). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume I. pp. 334.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 1, Pt. 2, pp. 492-494:

BOWDITCH, HENRY INGERSOLL (August 9, 1808-January 14, 1892), physician af)d abolitionist, third son of Nathaniel Bowditch [q.v.] and Mary (Ingersoll) Bowditch, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, where he resided until 1823 when his family moved to Boston. He received his early education at the Salem Private Grammar School, but when fifteen he entered the Boston Public Latin School. As a boy he exhibited no evidence of precocity, though at fourteen he won a diploma for Latin. He entered Harvard College in 1825, graduating in 1828, but did not distinguish himself as an undergraduate; his diary (Life, I, 12) at that period, however, shows a serious-minded young man, deeply religious and conscientious. With some misgiving she entered the Harvard Medical School (M.D., 1832), and went from there to the Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston) where he served during 1831-32 as a house-officer under James Jackson [q.v.]. He went to Paris in 1832, and his father's international reputation brought him at once into contact with many of the best minds of France. For two years Bowditch studied under Louis and followed him in his wards at La Pitie, from time to time in company with other young Boston physicians. He became deeply attached to Louis and looked upon him as the greatest leader of that day in medical science. When Bowditch went to England the contra st between Louis and the English physicians whom he met seemed so great that he left London in disgust (Life, I, 55) and returned to Paris for an extra year. While in England he attended and was deeply moved by the funeral of Wilberforce, whose writings had stirred him and were largely responsible for stimulating his desire for freedom of the slaves. His letters from Europe (Life, 1, 32) are those of an alert and discerning fell ow with much tact and a broad understanding of human nature. His religious turn of mind, however, alway s showed itself in his letters, and they exhibited little humor. In 1834 he returned to Boston where he soon acquired a moderate practise. At that time William Lloyd Garrison was thundering his denunciations of slavery. Bowditch listened and became at once an ardent follower. He severed his connection with Warren Street Chapel because the " pillars" of this institution refused to listen to abolitionist sermons. In 1842 Massachusetts opinion was acutely aroused by the arrest in Boston of George Latimer, a runaway slave. William F. Channing, Frederick S. Gabot, and Bowditch formed themselves into a "Latimer Committee" and edited the Latimer Journal and North Star, a tri-weekly publication issued from November 11, 1842, until May 10, 1843. Bowditch's ardor in the cause of Latimer threatened to unbalance his mind. Later he assisted other runaway slaves, and no one did more than he to foster anti-slavery feeling in the North. Consequently this pious Christian did much to bring about the Civil War into which he entered with the spirit of a crusader of old. When his son, Nathaniel, was killed (1863) he said, "This summoned me like the notes of a bugle to a charging soldier" (Ibid., II, 16). It led him to write A Brief Plea for an Ambulance System for the Army of the United States; as drawn from the Extra sufferings of the Late Lieut. Bowditch and a Wounded Comrade (1863). The feeling created by this pamphlet eventually caused the government to establish an ambulance unit of men trained to care for the wounded,-one of the great services rendered to the Northern armies.

Bowditch's other medical contributions were numerous and important. His training with Louis had aroused his interest in the diseases of the chest, and in 1846 he published The Young Stethoscopist, a work used by medical students for fifty years. Puncturing of the chest (paracentesis thoracis) for removal of pleural effusions was advocated by Bowditch in 1851 in a paper read (October 20) to the Boston Society for Medical Observation (American Journal of Medical Science, April 1852). The use of the trocar and suction pump for this operation had been suggested by Dr. Morrill Wyman of Cambridge, Massachusetts, but the world is indebted to Bowditch for bringing the procedure to the attention of physicians and, through repeated efforts, convincing them of its value. The operation was not new, having been employed spasmodically since the time of Hippocrates, but substitution of a hollow needle for a lancet made the procedure safe and simple. As a student of tuberculosis, also, Bowditch became distinguished. In 1836 appeared (in Boston) his English editions of Louis's two monographs on Fever [typhoid] and on Phthisis. The latter work greatly amplified Laennec's classical treatise (1819) on the pathology of tuberculosis. For many years Bowditch collected evidence concerning the influence of damp soil upon the spread of tuberculosis, which was carefully tabulated case by case and analyzed after the numerical method of Louis, but he did not publish his conclusions until 1862 (Consumption in New England; or Locality One of Its Chief Causes). Tuberculosis was a subject which occupied his mind until his death, his last published work being on the open-air treatment of the disease (Transactions of the American Climatological Association, VI, reprinted, XXVIII). In this paper one finds the modern conception of tuberculosis therapy clearly enunciated.

Bowditch's greatest service lay in the public health measures which were instituted through his efforts, and with the lapse of time his work in this field assumes ever-increasing significance. In 1869 was established the first Massachusetts State Board of Health (Life, II, 217-39) on which Bowditch served until 1879 preparing reports upon general questions relating to public health. The Massachusetts Board was the second in this country. the first having been established in Louisiana (1855). Bowditch's most important contribution in the field was his book, Public Hygiene in America (1877), in which is given a history of preventive medicine and a summary of sanitary law in various parts of the world. Bowditch's influence in stimulating the public health movement in the country was probably greater than that of any other man of his time. From 1859 to 1867 he was Jackson Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. He was a Fellow of the American Academy, an active member of the Massachusetts Medical Society (in which he held secretarial offices from 1849 to 1854), and was associated with the Massachusetts General Hospital from May 6, 1838, until the end of his life. He was also instrumental in founding the Boston Medical Library. In 1838 he married Olivia Yardley, an English girl of great charm whom he had met six years before at his lodgings in Paris. She died in December 1890, and he in January 1892 at the age of eighty-three.

[The numerous letters and diaries of Bowditch have been collected by his son, Vincent Yardley Bowditch, in a two-volume work, Life and Correspondence of Henry Ingersoll Bowditch (1902). A bibliography of his scientific works is to be found in the Index Catalogue of the Surgeon General's Library, series 1, 2, and 3. See also Boston Medic. and Surgical Journal, CLXVII, 603-07. All of Bowditch's numerous case-books have been deposited in the Boston Medic. Library]

J.F.F.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume I, p. 334:

BOWDITCH, Henry Ingersoll, physician, born in Salem, Massachusetts, 9 August, 1808, was graduated at Harvard in 1828, took his medical degree there in 1832, and studied in Paris from 1833 to 1835. He was professor of clinical medicine at Harvard from 1859 till 1867, chairman of the state board of health (1869-'79), and member of the national board in the latter year, surgeon of enrollment during the civil war, president of the American medical association in 1877, and physician at the Massachusetts general hospital and the Boston city hospital, where he served from 1868 to 1872. To Dr. Bowditch is due the discovery of the law of soil moisture as a potent cause of consumption in New England. He has also proved to the medical profession of this country and Europe that thoracentesis, in pleural effusions, if performed with Wyman's fine trocars and suction-pump, is not only innocuous; but at times saves life or gives great relief. Dr. Bowditch was made an abolitionist by the mobbing of Garrison in 1835, and worked earnestly in the anti-slavery cause. “He was the first in Boston,” says Frederick Douglas, “to treat me as a man.” He is the author of “Life of Nathaniel Bowditch, for the Young” (1841); “The Young Stethoscopist” (Boston, 1846; 2d ed., New York, 1848); “Life of Lieutenant Nathaniel Bowditch” (50 copies, printed privately, 1865); “Public Hygiene in America,” a centennial address at Philadelphia in 1876, and many articles in medical journals and papers read before the State board of health (1870-'8). He has translated “Louis on Typhoid” (2 vols., Boston, 1836); “Louis on Phthisis” (1836); and “Maunoir on Cataract” (1837). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume I. pp. 334.


BOWDITCH, William I., Boston, Massachusetts, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1852-56, Treasurer, 1862-64, Executive Committee, 1863-64.


BOWEN, Ozias, anti-slavery  judge, Ohio, freed slaves in court case in 1856.

(Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, p. 317)


BOWN, Benjamin, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Cincinnati, Ohio, abolitionist.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1841-42, 1843-53, Vice-President, 1860-63.


BOWNE, Walter, New York, New York, Mayor of New York City.  Officer in the New York City auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  Strong advocate of colonization. 

(Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 130, 135)


BOXLEY, George, 1780-1865, abolitionist.  Tried to start a slave rebellion in Spotsylvania and Orange County, Virginia, 1815.

(Mason, 2006, p. 108; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 33)


BOYD, George, Reverend, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, clergyman, lawyer, Rector of St. John’s, Philadelphia.  Agent for the American Colonization Society.  Successful in founding auxiliaries and recruiting members. 

(Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 85-86)


BOYD, Sempronius Hamilton, born 1828, lawyer, soldier.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.  Colonel, 24th Missouri Volunteers. 

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume I, p. 341; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe)

 Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume I. pp. 341:

BOYD, Sempronius Hamilton, lawyer, born in Williamson county, Tennessee, 28 May, 1828. He received an academic education at Springfield, Missouri, after which he studied law. In 1855 he was admitted to the bar and practised in Springfield, where he became clerk, attorney, and twice mayor. During the civil war he was colonel of the 24th Missouri volunteers, a regiment which he raised, and which was known as the “Lyon Legion.” In 1863 he was elected as representative in congress from Missouri. Afterward, resuming his profession, he was appointed judge of the 14th judicial circuit of Missouri. He was a delegate to the Baltimore convention in 1864, and in 1868 elected to congress, serving until 3 March, 1871. Since then he has spent a quiet life in Missouri, devoting his time partly to the practice of his profession and partly to stock-raising. The Springfield wagon factory and the first national bank of Springfield were founded by him. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume I. pp. 341.


BOYES, Nathan, abolitionist, founding member, Electing Committee, Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 1787.

(Basker, James G., gen. ed. Early American Abolitionists: A Collection of Anti-Slavery Writings, 1760-1820. New York: Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, 2005, pp. 92, 102; Nathan, 1991)


BOYLE, James, Rome, Ohio, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1842-43.


BOYLE, Jeremiah Tilford, 1818-1871, lawyer, anti-slavery advocate, Union Army Brigadier General.  Called for gradual emancipation of slaves as a delegate to the Kentucky State Constitutional Convention in 1849. 

(Warner, Ezra, Generals in Blue, 1964; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume I, p. 342; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 1, Pt. 2, p. 532)

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume I, p. 342:

BOYLE, Jeremiah Tilford, soldier, born 22 May, 1818; died  in Louisville, Kentucky, 28 July, 1871. He was graduated at Princeton in 1838, and, after qualifying himself for the law, he was admitted to the bar and began practice in Kentucky. When the slave-states seceded from the union, and Kentucky was in doubt which side to join, he declared in favor of the union, and was appointed a brigadier-general of U. S. volunteers, 9 November, 1861. After distinguished and patriotic services in organizing for defence against the confederate invasion that was threatened from the south, he was appointed military governor of Kentucky, and retained that office from 1862 till 1864, when he resigned his commission. From 1864 till 1866 he was president of the Louisville city railway company, and from 1866 till his death was president of the Evansville, Henderson, and Nashville railroad company. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888. 


BOYNTON, Charles, Cincinnati, Ohio, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1861-64.


BOYNTON, Charles Brandon, 1806-1883, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, lawyer, clergyman, anti-slavery activist.  Chaplain, U.S. House of Representatives, 39th and 49th Congress.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume I, pp. 342-343; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume I, Pt. 2, pp. 536-539). His published books are “Journey through Kansas, with Sketch of Nebraska” (Cincinnati, 1855); “The Russian Empire” (1856); “The Four Great Powers—England, France, Russia, and America; their Policy, Resources, and Probable Future” (1866); “History of the Navy during the Rebellion” (New York, 1868). He received the degree of D. D. from Marietta college in recognition of his acquirements as a biblical scholar.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume I, Pt. 2, pp. 536-539:

BOYNTON, CHARLES BRANDON (June 12, 1806-April27, 1883), Presbyterian and Congregational clergyman, author, was born in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts The Boyntons were among the early settlers of the township. The names of his parents are not recorded, but they may have been Henry and Mary (Meacham) Boynton (J. F. and C. H. Boynton, pp. 234,285; and H. Child, Gazetteer of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, 1725-1885, 1885, p. 389). After attending the Stockbridge Academy he became a member of the class of 1827 at Williams College, but on account of ill health left in the senior year without taking his degree. Thereafter he engaged in business, was president of the first railroad in Berkshire County, studied and practised law, was a justice of the Berkshire County court and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. On November 5, 1834, he married Maria Van Buskirk of Troy, New York, by whom he had seven children. Having studied theology privately with the Reverend Mr. Woodbridge of Spencertown, New York, he was ordained by the Columbia Presbytery in October 1840. He held charges at Housatonic, Massachusetts, 1840-45, and at Lansingburg, New York, 1845-46, and then went to Cincinnati to the Vine Street Church, at that time the Sixth Presbyterian, where he remained till March 1856. While in the West, Boynton became actively interested in the anti-slavery movement. In the autumn of 1854 he was one of a party sent to explore and report upon the climate, soil, productions, general resources, and promise of the territory of Kansas. His report, A Journey Through Kansas (1855), is an interesting account of the country before the trouble over slavery had grown acute. From 1856 to 1857 he was in his native Berkshires again as pastor of the South Church in Pittsfield. He then returned to the Vine Street Church in Cincinnati, only to leave it to be chaplain of the House of Representatives from 1865 to 1869. While in Washington he was pastor of several churches and a teacher in the United States Naval Academy. Meanwhile he was busy writing. In 1856 he had published anonymously The Russian Empire: its Resources, Government, and Policy. In 1864 appeared English and French Neutrality and the Anglo-French Alliance, in their Relations to the United States and Russia. Some chapters from this work were republished in 1865 as The Navies of England, France, America, and Russia, and the whole book, considerably revised, was reissued in 1866 as The Four Great Powers: England, France, Russia, and America: their Policy, Resources, and Probable Future. In these books Boynton advocated a strong navy and an alliance, formal or informal, with Russia to offset the encroachments of England and France, but his understanding of world politics was not equal to his earnestness and patriotism. In 1867-68 he brought out in two ponderous, stodgy volumes a History of the Navy during the Rebellion, a semiofficial work, for which he had access to the archives of the Navy Department. He was pastor of the Vine Street Church in Cincinnati for the third time from 1873 to 1877, and died at the home of a daughter in Cincinnati on April 27, 1883.

[Congregational Yearbook for 1884, p. 20; Cincinnati Enquirer, April 28, 1883; General Catalog of the Officers and Graduates of Williams College 1795-1910 (1910); J. F. and C. H. Boynton, The Boynton Family (1897), p. 234. Several of Boynton's sermons have been published as pamphlets.]

G. H. G.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume I, pp. 342-343:

BOYNTON, Charles Brandon, clergyman, born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 12 June, 1806; died  in Cincinnati, Ohio, 27 April, 1883. He entered Williams in the class of 1827, but, owing to illness, was obliged to leave college during his senior year. He took up the study of law, and, after filling one or two local offices, was elected to the Massachusetts legislature. While studying law he became interested in religion, qualified himself for the ministry, and was ordained pastor of the Presbyterian church at Housatonic, Connecticut, in 1840. Thence, after a stay of three years, he removed successively to Lansingburg, Pittsfield, and in 1846 to Cincinnati, and remained there until 1877, with the exception of his terms of service as chaplain of the house of representatives in the 39th and 40th congresses. For a time he was pastor of the Congregational church at Washington, D. C. He bore an important part in the anti-slavery controversy, which was fiercely waged in Cincinnati during the early years of his pastorate. His published books are “Journey through Kansas, with Sketch of Nebraska” (Cincinnati, 1855); “The Russian Empire” (1856); “The Four Great Powers—England, France, Russia, and America; their Policy, Resources, and Probable Future” (1866); “History of the Navy during the Rebellion” (New York, 1868). He received the degree of D. D. from Marietta college in recognition of his acquirements as a biblical scholar. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume I. pp. 342-343.



Sources:
Dictionary of American Biography, Volumes I-X, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volumes I-VI, Edited by James Grant Wilson & John Fiske, New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1888-1889.