F. Boswell (b. 1817 - d. 1899)
MSA SC 5496-036187
Property Owner and Slaveholder, Rockville District, Montgomery County,
Maryland
Biography:
Born in 1817, Alexander Franklin Boswell was the son of John James Boswell and Elizabeth Campbell Boswell1 of Montgomery County. By 1840, A.F. Boswell was working as a farmer near Rockville. He had his retired parents living with him, both of whom the census listed as illiterate.2 On October 30, 1845, Boswell married Mary Elizabeth Beckwith (b. 1823).3 The couple had six children, four of whom lived to adulthood: John Campbell (b. 1846), Mary Elizabeth (b. 1848), Franklin Montgomery (b. 1851), and Charles Edward (b. 1852). An unnamed, three-month-old newborn appeared in the 1850 census, but she did not appear in 1860. A fourth son, James W. Boswell, was born in 1853 but died tragically at the age of two after falling into a tub of boiling water.4 Boswell's wife passed away the same year, and he never remarried.
The family lived with Boswell's father-in-law Charles Beckwith, with Boswell farming the land. Beckwith died in 1856, and his widow inherited the land with Boswell serving as trustee.5 However, Maryland's agricultural census was already listing Boswell as the owner in 1850.6 The land went to the Boswell family following Mrs. Beckwith's death.7 Charles Beckwith's will prohibited Boswell from selling any of the land for the payment of debts, ensuring that the property would pass to Boswell's children intact.
According to A.F. Boswell's own description, his farm stood "about 4 miles above Rockville, on the River Road,"8 although the road actually ran about four miles south of Rockville along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. The farm stood near the western bank of Watt's Branch, at the point where the stream branched into several smaller creeks.9 After taking over as the farm's trustee in 1856, Boswell discontinued the production of wool and oats, instead adding rye, butter, and honey as new sources of income. In 1860, Boswell's slaves were still producing common staples such as wheat, corn, potatoes, mutton, pork, and beef.10
Boswell owned a small number slaves from the mid-1840s into the 1860s. On July 16, 1845, he advertised a fifty-dollar reward in the Maryland Journal for a runaway slave named Rachael Davis.11 The census listed Boswell as owning six slaves in 1850, including one man and five children, 12 although these slaves technically belonged to his father-in-law Charles Beckwith. Following Beckwith's death in 1856, Alexander Boswell and his brother-in-law Matthew Fields followed Beckwith's will by advertising the public sale of "six likely negroes."13 Fields and Boswell stated that "the man is about forty-two or three years of age, and the boys ranging from eleven to eighteen." The advertisement ran for the entire the month of January in 1857, with the sale taking place on January 22nd. The slaves were sold along with Beckwith's remaining livestock, agricultural produce, and household goods. The county's 1853 slave assessment records identified the slaves as George, age seven; Frank, age eight; Bill, age twelve; Nathan and Isaac, both fourteen; and Thomas, age forty.14
Although he did not own any slaves in 1855, Boswell purchased Frank from Beckwith's estate sale in 1857. By 1860, Boswell had also hired a white farm laborer named James Gray to share the work load.15 Farm hands like Grey who also received board earned an average of twelve dollars per month.16
On the evening of April 4, 1878, Boswell lost one of his barns to alleged arson. The Montgomery County Sentinel reported that "on Thursday evening of last week, a barn belonging to Alex F. Boswell, located about 5 miles from this town, was set afire, with substantial loss incurred. A man by the name of Leonard Harrington is suspected of the crime, and he is in jail, awaiting hearing."17 However, Harrington did not appear in any docket entries for the Montgomery County Circuit Court that year.
In 1879, Boswell helped fund G.M. Hopkins' Atlas of Fifteen Miles Around Washington Including the County of Montgomery, Maryland, 1879. His farm appeared on the map under "A. Frank Boswell."18 The following year, Boswell owned 350 acres, appearing in the census under the name Samuel Boswell.19 The census reveals that this Samuel Boswell likely A.F. Boswell, due to his location and the fact that his sons Charles and John lived with him. One daughter-in-law, Catherine, also lived in the same house, along with two grandchildren. Perhaps the census taker or a neighbor had confused him with Samuel W. Boswell, a carpenter and coffin-maker who resided nearby in Darnestown.20
On October 26, 1896, the U.S. Court of Claims dismissed a claim that
Boswell had filed with the Committee on War Claims, although no details
were specified.21
Formed in 1873, the committee oversaw claims for property seized by the
U.S. military during the Civil War from southerners loyal to the Union.
Boswell passed away on April 16,
189922 and was interred in Rockville at St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery, where
his wife, father-in-law, and several children were also buried.23
1. MONTGOMERY COUNTY COURT, (Marriage Licenses), 1798-1839, Film Reel: CR 8920, [MSA CM724-1]. John James Boswell and Elizabeth Campbell, January 18, 1809, Montgomery County.
2. US. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Alexander F. Boswell, 1840, Montgomery County, Rockville District, Page 19, Line 22 [MSA SM61-113, M 4722]. Continued on Page 20, Line 22.
3. William N. Hurley, Jr. The Rabbitt Families of Maryland (Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, 2001) 65.
4. "Sad Accident." Baltimore Sun 28 March 1855: 2. Baltimore Sun Historical Archive.
5. MONTGOMERY COUNTY CIRCUIT
COURT (Land Records), Liber JGH 5, Folio 174, 1855-1857, [MSA CE 63-5].
Estate of Charles Beckwith to Alexander F. Boswell. May 3, 1856.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, REGISTER
OF WILLS, (Wills), 1852-1858, Liber WTR 2, Folio 279. Film Reel: CR 11968-2,
[MSA CM756-1]. Charles Beckwith, October 25, 1853.
6. U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, (Census Record, MD), Date: 1850, Description: Agriculture, FR-TA, Location: 03/47/09/002, MdHR Number: 50,300-2, MSA Citation: MSA S1184-2. Alexander F. Boswell, Montgomery County, Fourth Rockvile Election District.
7. MONTGOMERY COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT (Land Records), Liber JGH 5, Folio 174, 1855-1857, [MSA CE 63-5]. Estate of Charles Beckwith to Alexander F. Boswell. May 3, 1856.
8. "$50 Reward." Maryland Journal. 16 July 1845: 3. MSA SC 3839, Reel M 7933. Maryland State Archives.
9. Montgomery County District 4, Simon J. Martenet, Martenet and Bond's Map of Montgomery County, 1865, Library of Congress, [MSA SC 1213-1-464]. The Huntingfield Map Collection.
10. U.S. CENSUS BUREAU (Census Record, MD), 1860, Agriculture, [MSA S1184-7]. A.F. Boswell, Montgomery County, The 4th District, Line 12.
11. "$50 Reward." Maryland Journal. 16 July 1845: 3. MSA SC 3839, Reel M 7933. Maryland State Archives.
12. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Alexr. F. Boswell, Slaves, 1850, Montgomery County, Rockville District, Page 6, Line 25 [MSA SM61-168, M 1505-5].
13. "Public Sale." Montgomery County Sentinel. 9 January 1857: 3. MSA SC 2813, Reel: M 475-02. Maryland State Archives.
14. MONTGOMERY COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, (Assessment Record, Slaves), [MSA C1112-1].
15. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for A.F. Boswell, 1860, Montgomery County, Rockville District, Page 70, Line 35 [MSA SM61-213, M 7223-1].
16. U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, (Census Record, MD), 1860, Social Statistics, [MSA S1184-10]. Montgomery County, The 4th District.
17. G. M. Hopkins. Atlas of Fifteen Miles Around Washington Including the County of Montgomery, Maryland, 1879 (Philadelphia, PA: G. M. Hopkins, C. E., 1879) 8-9, 13.
18. "House-Carpentering and Undertaking." Montgomery County Sentinel. 13 January 1860: 4. MSA SC 2813, Reel M 476-01. Maryland State Archives.
19. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Samuel Boswell, 1880, Montgomery County, Rockville District, Page 1, Line 40 [MSA SM61-324, M 4748-2].
20. Qtd. in John D. Bowman, Guide to Selections from the Montgomery County Sentinel, Maryland, Jan. 1, 1876-Dec. 31, 1881 (Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, 2005) 59.
21. United States House of Representatives. United States Congressional Serial Set: House Documents. 59th Congress: 2nd Session. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1907) Document 773.
22. Guide to the Records of the U.S. House of Representatives at the National Archives, 1789-1989 (Record Group 233)
23. “St. Mary’s Catholic Church Cemetery,
Montgomery Co., MD.” The Tombstone Transcription Project. USGenWeb Archives.
http://usgwtombstones.org/.
Researched and written by Rachel Frazier, 2010.
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