The Other Benjamin Boice 1775-????

The Other Benjamin Boice 1775-????

Benjamin was born sometime during the year 1774 in New York, according to information he supplied for the 1850 Illinois Will County census enumeration. New York was a colony of Great Britain when Benjamin was christened April 2, 1775 at the Poughkeepsie Dutchess Reformed Church in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess, New York.

William Buice and Elizabeth Snyder are listed in the church baptism record as his parents. The name "Benjamin" repeats in the more than several Boice families in New York for that time period; however, this Benjamin is our first direct line ancestor with that given name. Relationship of some of the other Benjamin's to our family line, while presumed isn't known. There was some intermarriage and religious event sponsorships among the families.

From christening records it is known that Benjamin had two older brothers, Peter & Johannes [John]. Placement in the family group of another brother, Abraham is uncertain because no birth or christening record exist for this Abraham.

Events of the American Revolution covered the first ten years of Benjamin Boice's life. Understandably, few vital records exist for those years of the armed conflict. The area in which the William Boice/Boyce family lived may have been a battle scene or an area evacuated due to the hostilities, i.e, "Battle of Bennington". Staying alive and out of harms way during the warfare was probably more of a worry for a family than the concerns of religious and civil legalities for a vital record event during that time.

"The Rented War" could be a sound bite to describe the Revolutionary War as both sides in this conflict were using soldiers or aid of other countries. The British sentiments regarding "the Rebel Cause" were not so much that of a surrender as deciding to cut their losses both in revenue and lives due to the several wars and military actions Great Britain was involved in. New York had a greater number of residents loyal to the British cause than did any other of the colonies. As a result the greater number of Loyalists and other settlers to Upper Canada were from New York.

The Loyalist or Tories were those people displaced by the American Revolution and exiled from the original thirteen colonies for their indifference or opposition to the rebellion of 1776-1783. Those residents who chose allegiance to the King paid a price for this choice--called traitors, their property was confiscated and these Loyalists were now homeless, so to speak and were now displaced people. Some went back to England, some to the Crown colonies in the Caribbean or to Florida, which was then under Spanish control. The greater number of these Loyalists, however, fled to Canada.

That Upper Canada was perceived as a new frontier and that the British offered the land to those who supported Great Britain in the rebel cause may be reasons why Boice family members began moving from the area of New York in which they lived. There were those settlers moving to Upper Canada who had neither served as a soldier, or assisted the British Cause in some manner.

The phrase "squatter's era" is used to define the time period of this settlement. Settlers to Upper Canada, who merely took advantage of a homesteading opportunity, were known as squatters. Most likely, the Boice family members were settlers in the Squatter's era. "Squatter" is a word with an insinuated meaning; but the definition is that of a colonizer, pioneer or homesteader. Benjamin Boice was surely any one of these when his name, as well as those of his parents, and several siblings were affixed to an application for land in Upper Canada in August 1792 and for permission to remove to Upper Canada.

Six years elapse from the time of the land grant application and permission request before another document offers details into the life of Benjamin Boice. On August 20, 1798 Benjamin Boice & Margaret Bartley Shuman wed in a Fredericksburgh Township church. Benjamin and Margaret Boice began their married life in Fredericksburgh Township, Lennox and Addington County where the first several of their eleven children were born.

In the year 1808 and while living in Fredericksburgh Twp., Benjamin was assessed taxes on 75 cultivated acres, 25 uncultivated, a round log house, 1 horse, 5 cows. For reasons unknown to us now, Benjamin decided to move his family into Loughborough Township in Frontenac County. Settlement had begun in the area as early as 1807, and note is made in township histories that "Ben Boice was among the earliest settlers to the area". The paper trail for Benjamin improved somewhat while the family lived in Loughborough Township. The least of Benjamin's literacy skills was his penmanship, and it is apparent he struggled over the attempt to write when signing an affidavit certifying the 1819 Loughborough Township Census. Benjamin's writing skills had vastly improved by 1825 when Benjamin and his neighbors signed a petition on behalf of his newly homeless father-in-law Isaiah Bartley. Still and all, when Benjamin decided to buy the land where the Boice family was living, he chose an agent to write the petition to the government on his behalf.

What happened in the intervening years from the date of the petition on behalf of Isaiah Bartley and the appearance of Benjamin's name on the 1850 Illinois Will County census is conjecture. The method, means and location of the deaths of Benjamin and his wife Margaret has yet to be proven as no primary source documentation has been found to date. It is known that Benjamin Boice was still living on October 25,1850 as that is the date the census enumerator visited the home and Benjamin reported self to be 76 years old a widower and born New York.

(Compiled by Gladys Boice Tolbert, 3rd great-grandaughter in mss "Some Of Our Grandparents Were Boice's". 2008). Sources studied & or consulted in preparation of this report: 1850 Illinois Will County Census; Records of the Reformed Dutch Church of Poughkeepsie [New York]; Assessment Roll of Fredericksburgh, Lennox and Addington County 1808; 1819 Census of Loughborough Township, Frontenac County; Petitions for Land in Upper Canada from Cambridge New York; Land Records including Loughborough Township Papers; Canada Church Records including 1800-1841 Presbyterian Register of Rev. Rob't McDowell; 1787-1814 Anglican Records of Rev. John Langhorn.