Laburnum Terrace

Susannah & Harry Dawson Boulton

When John & Annie Ford moved out of number 10 about 1895, the house was taken over by Annie’s mother, Susannah Boulton and her son, Harry Dawson Boulton.

In the 1901 census, the details were:

Susannah had been married to John Thomas Boulton, a butler.  In 1861 John Thomas and Susannah were living next to the Apple Tree Inn, Cockmead on Kington Lane, close to where the town cemetery is now located.  The record shows that John Thomas was aged 27, was then working as a butler and was born in Thornbury.  Susannah was aged 27 born in Stanford in Berkshire.  At the time of that census they had two children, William John aged 3 and Ann Elizabeth aged 1.  Ann was the person who, as Annie Ford, had been living in number 10 before Susannah.

Other children were born soon after: Harry Dawson in 1863, Horace in 1864, John Thomas in 1866, Ralph in 1868 and Elizabeth Maud Mabel in 1871.

In the 1871 census, Susannah was living in Castle Street with her 7 children.  John Thomas was shown as a butler, living at the Vicarage.  John died 3 years later in 1874 aged 41 years.

In the 1881 census Susannah was still in Castle Street.  She was referred to as an annuitant so she presumably received a ‘pension’ from her husband’s work in the Vicarage.  Considering she was a widow with seven children she seemed to have ensured that her children did well in life.  Of her sons, Harry Dawson was working as an architect's clerk, Horace as a saddler’s apprentice and John Thomas as a solicitor’s clerk. 

 By 1891 only Harry Dawson, now a solicitor’s clerk and Elizabeth Maud Mabel, a pupil teacher, were living with her.  In 1893 Harry Boulton had completed an application for the right to vote, based on his occupation of a house in Castle Street, Thornbury.  He had to produce receipts to prove his residence there.  There were obviously different laws then about the privacy of the ballot box because there is a note that he was a Conservative voter.

By 1896 she and Harry had moved to Gloucester Road.  He is listed as living there on the 1896 Voter’s List.  The photo on the left shows Harry in 1897 as a member of the Thornbury Society of Gleemen, a well-known choral society.

Susannah died on October 14th 1907 aged 75.  Her address was given as Gloucester Road.

Harry Dawson Boulton continued to live in number 10.  He is listed in several Thornbury directories, in 1905 as an accountant; from 1906 to 1909 he was the Deputy Superintendent of Births and Deaths, and in later directories as Registrar of Births and Deaths.  From 1913 onwards, he is noted as being Assistant Clerk to Thornbury Rural District Council and the Thornbury Union in addition to being Registrar. 

We are not sure how long Harry Dawson Boulton continued to live in number 10.  Most of our sources up to 1923 show him to be in ‘Gloucester Road’, but one, the 1913 Electoral Register, showed that he was a lodger in the home of his brother in law, Frederick Henry Burchell, at Glenthorne which is now number 13 Gloucester Road. We don’t know whether this was a permanent move or whether he returned to number 10.

Harry Dawson Boulton died on 22 January 1925.  Frederick Henry Burchell was his solicitor.  His estate was valued at £5799 14s 6d.

It is interesting to note that apart from Susannah and Harry, many other members of their family were associated with this area of Thornbury.  Two of Susannah’s children, her daughter, Annie (now Annie Ford) and her son, John Thomas Boulton, had lived in number 10 before Susannah.  They were in the house in the 1891 census. Another of Susannah’s daughters, Elizabeth Maud Mabel came to live next door in number 8 with her husband, Frederick Henry Burchell after they married in 1897. 

Finally, Ralph Boulton is also shown as living in Gloucester Road in 1913 directory although we don’t know in which house.  In 1891 Ralph was living in Long Lane Lodge, Shipley in Derbyshire and working as an assistant master in an elementary school.  In 1901 he had been working as a schoolmaster in Norman Hill, Cam and living with his wife, Leah and daughter, Mary L.  When Ralph moved to Thornbury, he became a schoolmaster at the National School.  Ralph and Leah had a son, Ralph, baptised whilst they were living in Gloucester Road in 1911.

This page was last updated: 06/03/2008