William BOLTER (c.1794–1876)
His sister-in-law Mrs Sarah BOLTER, née Porter (1790–1881)
St Paul section: Row 24, Grave E16 [St Paul ref N21]
IN
AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE OF
WILLIAM BOLTER
WHO DIED JANUARY 31, 1876
AGED 82 YEARS
ALSO OF
SARAH WIDOW OF
JOHN BOLTER
WHO DIED AUGUST 5, 1881,
AGED 91
(1) William Bolter
William Bolter was born in Sarsden (which lies between Churchill and Lyneham, to the north of Shipton-under-Wychwood) in c.1794. He was not baptised there, but was the son of John Bolter and his wife Elizabeth, who had the following eight children baptised there: Elizabeth (1791), John (1793), George (1800), Mary Ann, Maria, Reuben and Daniel (in a batch in 1809), and Caroline (1811).
William never married. His brother John Bolter married Sarah Porter (see below) in 1814, but was dead by 1841. In the census that year William (aged about 46) was a farmer, living at Childwick Green, St Albans with his widowed sister-in-law Mrs Sarah Bolter and one female and three male servants.
In 1851 William (56) was a described as a farmer of 300 acres employing eleven labourers, and was still living at Childwick Green, St Albans with three house servants and one farm labourer. His nephew Charles Bolter (30), the son of Mrs Sarah Bolter (below), was paying a visit.
Near the end of 1851 his sister Maria Bolter married Joseph John Faulkner, and they are buried in a separate grave in the cemetery. In 1859 he was the exectuor of Joseph's will.
In 1861 William (c.66) was described as a landed proprietor, and was living at Holywell Hill, St Albans; his widowed sister-in-law Mrs Sarah Bolter (68) had come to live with him again.
At the time of the 1871 census William Bolter, now described as a retired farmer, was living at 20 Walton Street in Oxford, and his sister-in-law was still living with him.
William Bolter died in 1876:
† William Bolter died at 20 Walton Street at the age of 82 on 31 January 1876 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 4 February (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul's Church).
A brief announcement of his death was placed in Jackson's Oxford Journal. His effects came to under £4,000, and his executors were his brother Daniel Bolter, a farmer of Enstone; Robert Wyatt, a gentleman of Walton Street; and Frederick Warland, a coal merchant of Kidlington.
Sarah Porter, Mrs Bolter (wife of William's brother John)
Sarah Porter was born in Ducklington, Oxfordshire in 1790 and baptised there on 24 May. She was the daughter of Richard Porter and his wife Letitia, who had four other children baptised at that church: Anne (1784), Humphrey (1785), Letitia (1788), and Joseph (1792).
Sarah was described as being of Churchill when on 24 November 1814 at St Giles's Church in Oxford she married John Bolter, brother of William above, who was described as being of Merris Court, Lyneham (near Shipton-under-Wychwood); the marriage was announced in both Jackson's Oxford Journal and in the Monthly Magazine. William Bolter (presumably John's brother, above) was one of the witnesses.
John and Sarah Bolter had the following children:
- Maria Bolter (born at Merriscourt, Lyneham in 1816 and baptised at Sarsden church on 28 March)
- Sarah Bolter (born at Merriscourt, Lyneham in 1817 and baptised at Shipton-under-Wychwood on 25 August)
- Charles Bolter (born at Merriscourt, Lyneham in 1819 and baptised at Sarsden Church on 15 August)
- Letitia Elizabeth Bolter (born at Merriscourt, Lyneham in 1821 and baptised at Sarsden church on 30 December).
Sarah's husband was described as a yeoman or farmer at the time of the children's baptisms.
Two of Sarah's daughters were married in the 1830s:
- Around the mid-1830s (just prior to civil registration in late 1837), Sarah Bolter must have married a man with the surname Oldham;
- In 1838 in the Newport Pagnell district, Maria Bolter married Charles Faulkner, an Oxford butcher.
By the time of the 1841 census Sarah was a widow, living at St Albans with William Bolter above.
Sarah is hard to find in 1851, but her son Charles (30) was paying a visit to his uncle William Bolter above in 1851.
By the time of the 1861 census, Sarah (68), described as a fundholder, was living at Holywell Hill, St Albans with her brother-in-law William Bolter (66), who was now described as a landed proprietor.
By the time of the 1871 census Sarah had moved to Oxford with her brother-in-law William Bolter, now described as a retired farmer, and they were living at 20 Walton Street.
William Bolter died there in 1876, and by the time of the 1881 census two of Sarah's daughters, Maria (65) and Sarah (63) had moved in with her at 20 Walton Street: with their respective husbands. (Maria and her husband Charles Faulkner had already been living in Oxford (see their separate grave), and had moved in by early 1878; while Sarah and her second husband Robert Wyatt had been living in Hertfordshire (see below).)
Mrs Sarah Bolter died just four months after the 1881 census:
† Mrs Sarah Bolter née Porter died at 20 Walton Street at the age of 91 on 5 August 1881 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 8 August (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul's Church).
A brief death announcement was placed in Jackson's Oxford Journal, describing her as the “widow of John Bolter, late of Merriscourt, in this county, aged 91.” Her effects came to £455 7s. 6d., and her executors were her son-in-law Robert Wyatt, and Frederick Warland.
Children of Mrs Sarah Bolter and her husband John
- Maria Bolter, Mrs Faulkner (born 1816): see separate grave
- Sarah Bolter, Mrs Oldham, then Mrs Wyatt (born 1817) must have lost her first husband by 1850, as on 4 February 1850 at St Michael's Church, St Albans, Hertfordshire she married her second husband, Robert Wyatt (who was born in c.1814 in the hamlet of Astrop in Kings Sutton, Northamptonshire, just four miles to the south-east of Banbury). Their only child, John Robert Wyatt, was born in Aldenham, Hertfordshire in early 1851 and baptised there on 19 February. At the time of the 1851 census Sarah (33) was living at the village of Letchmore Heath near Watford with her husband Robert (36), who was a farmer of 100 acres employing two labourers, and their son John (two months). By 1861 Sarah's husband was a surveyor, and the family had moved to London and were living at 42 Burton Street, St Pancras. The Wyatt family is hard to find in 1871, but by 1881 Sarah (63) and her husband Robert (65) had moved in with her mother at 20 Walton Street. They are hard to trace after that date.
- Charles Bolter (born 1819) is hard to trace after 1851.
- Letitia Elizabeth Bolter (born 1821) is hard to trace after her baptism, and may have died in childhood.
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