Mary Boulter is my three-times great-grandmother and was born in 1769 in Fareham, Hampshire. She had three sons and three daughters with Joshua Boulter between 1797 and 1809. She died on 19 June 1851 in Titchfield, Hampshire, at the age of 82.
In the early 19th Century, Titchfield was a small rural community shaped by agriculture and its proximity to the River Meon and the Solent coast, with fewer than 2000 people. Most villagers lived in modest cottages, many still standing today, and worked as farmers, farm labourers, or in trades supporting agriculture, such as blacksmiths, millers, carpenters, and shopkeepers. There were also a couple of breweries and a tannery.
I cannot find much information about Mary. She was born and lived in Titchfield and is buried in the graveyard of St Peter’s.
Whilst there are no references to her marriage to Joshua, their first child, Hannah, was born in 1797, and they would have been married before this. The couple had five more children: Edward (1800), Thomas (1802), Elizabeth (1803), Maria (1806), and George (1809).
Mary’s husband Joshua died in April 1840. The 1841 census records her as 70 years old, living on West Street and working as a nurse. She lived with her daughter, Elizabeth Pinnick, and her husband, Peter Pinnick, who was a baker and grocer on West Street.
The 1851 census records her as living at 31 East Street, in a household headed by Maria Ricks, Mary Boulter’s daughter. Mary’s son, George, my 2nd Great-Uncle, lives at 30 East Street and is employed as a servant. It would seem they were a very close-knit family, with some of them staying and marrying into the Titchfield community.
Mary lived her whole life in Titchfield and is buried in the graveyard of St Peter’s.
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