Richard Boughton (?-1706)
Lower House, Charles County, 1669 (Aggrievances)
Anne Arundel County Court Clerk, 1674-1682
MSA SC 3520-118
Biography:
Immigrated: in 1666 as a free adult, possibly from
Virginia.
Resided: in Nanjemoy, Charles County.
Father: possibly either Thomas Boughton, armiger
of Bilton, Warwickshire, England, who attended Gray’s Inn in 1647/48, or
Richard Boughton, of Lewes, Sussex, England.
Uncle: William Stone (ca. l603-ca. 1659/60).
Married: first, in 1667 Verlinda (?-by 1694), widow
of Thomas Burdett; daughter of Rev. William Cotton, of Lower Accomack County,
Virginia; second, by March 1694 Honor.
Children: Samuel, Katherine, Verlinda, and Mary.
Education: literate; had clerical skills; may have
attended Gray’s Inn or Lincoln’s Inn.
Religious Affiliation: Protestant.
Social Status and Activities: may have been distantly
related to the proprietary family; early preferment seems to have come
from his education and family connections, but he failed to maintain his
position; Gent., 1666/67; accused of dishonesty and temporarily lost his
positions in 1669.
Occupation: placeman; attorney, admitted to the
following courts: Provincial Court in 1666/67 Charles County in 1670.
Public Career: Lower House, Charles County, 1669
(Aggrievances); Council, 1666-l666/67; justice, Provincial Court, 1666;
secretary and judge of Probate, 1666-1667; clerk, Upper House, 1674-1676.
Local Offices: clerk, Charles County, 1667-1669,
1682-1689/90, Anne Arundel County, 1674-1682 (commissioned 29 April 1674);
registrar, Nanjemoy Parish, Charles County, 1700; deputy commissary, Charles
County, 1704.
Stands on Public/Private Issues: opposition to
the revolution of 1689 brought his dismissal from the Charles County clerkship
and virtually terminated his political career.
Wealth: in February 1670/71 he was in debtor’s
prison. His debts included money owed for drinks consumed at his first
wedding; no evidence of land-ownership while a burgess or councilor; patented
950 acres in 1679, but he sold it in 1684; acquired 100 acres in 1684,
which he sold in 1690; took a 21-year lease on 400 acres in 1684; died
in 1706; personal property TEV, £164.4 sterling, plus 1,420 pounds
of tobacco.
Death: in 1706
Source: Papenfuse, Edward C., et al., A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1635-1789, Vol. I, A-H, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979), 149.
"Richard Boughton of Charles County, com. 29 April 1674."
Owings, Donnell MacClure. His Lordship's Patronage: Offices of Profit in Colonial Maryland. (Baltmore: Maryland Historical Society, 1953.), 147.
Return to Richard Boughton's Introductory Page
Return to list of Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Clerks
|
Tell Us What You Think About the Maryland State Archives Website!
|