4 THE NATURALIST OF THE ST. CROIX 



In the Old Colony records of 1643, in a list of all the 

 males of New Plymouth Colony, "able to beare armes 

 from xvi years old to 60 years," the name of Thomas 

 Boreman also appears. He is there put down as a resi- 

 dent of Barnstable, Mass. Savage, in the Genealogical 

 Dictionary of First Settlers of New England, says he 

 was made a freeman March 4, 1635. He first appears 

 on the records of Ipswich, Mass., in 1637. He was a 

 cooper and carpenter by trade. The late Joseph B. 

 Felt, one of the most learned and accurate antiquarians 

 in New England, says he was first at Ipswich, that he 

 moved from Ipswich to Barnstable but returned to 

 Ipswich again. In his history of Ipswich Mr. Felt 

 records that he died in that town in 1673 at an advanced 

 age. His wife's name was Margaret. Some accounts 

 say she died in November, 1679 ; but Mr. Felt gives her 

 death as having taken place in 1680. Thomas Bore- 

 man's estate was valued at his death at ;^523 6s. 6d. 



It may be interesting to give here the remarks of that 

 learned antiquary, the late Rev. Eucius R. Page of 

 Cambridge, Mass., in explanation of the different ways 

 of spelling what is evidently the same name as found 

 upon early New England colonial records, as a help to 

 the understanding of the different forms of spelling the 

 name Boardman as given at the beginning of this chap- 

 ter. This author says : " It is not surprising that many 

 of these names are incorrectly spelled. They are not 

 autographs, but were written by the secretary or clerk 

 according to the sound as the names were spoken to 

 him. Moreover, it no doubt often occurred that the 

 clerk did not catch the sound accurately and therefore 

 mistook the true name." As many of the early settlers 



