BOARDMAN FAMII.Y ANCESTRY 7 



I Cannot Git no freight here for no plase. If nothing 

 Offers Before to Morrow Noon I must I^eave or Enter 

 my Vesell. I Rather think I Shall I^eave this port and 

 prosede for Newbury Port. Sir I now I Shall make a 

 Bad Voiage If I come home and I Shall make a Worse 

 If I Stay here and It is one half to own it Sir I have 

 Wrote to you By Capt Hollon and Capt. Yong of Port- 

 land Before Sir So have nothing New to Inform you of 

 more at Present Remember me to my Wife and the family 

 And all Inquirings friends I Remain your Dutifull Son 

 William Boardman." 



This is the last that was ever heard of Capt. William 

 Boardman, his vessel and all on board having been lost 

 at sea while on the passage from Wilmington, N. C, to 

 Newburj^port, Mass., in the spring of 1793. Mary, the 

 wife of William Boardman, died April 27, 1847. 



William, the son of William and Mary (Short) Board- 

 man, was born in Newburyport, Mass., May 30, 1789 

 and married Esther W. Toppan March 12, 1815. She 

 was born June 28, 1793 and was a daughter of Stephen 

 Toppan who descended from Abraham Toppan who 

 settled in Newburyport as early as 1637. Mr. Board- 

 man was in business in Newburyport for a few years and 

 moved to Portland in 1820. In 1824 he moved from 

 Portland to Calais where he engaged in trade, bringing 

 his family in 1828. Mr. Boardman was a Mason and 

 was treasurer of St. Croix lodge, Calais, on its organiza- 

 tion in 1844. Mr. George A. Boardman, writing in one 

 of his delightful autobiographical sketches printed in 

 the St. Croix Courier, tells of the anti-Masonic ' ' mania, ' ' 

 as he terms it, which prevailed in the early '30's and 

 says : "So intense was the feeling at one time that 



