Samuel Boddington

London merchant and slave-owner, with a recent ODNB entry as 'West India merchant, slave owner and collector'.

1. According to the History of Parliament, Samuel Boddington was left a fortune by his father, a West India merchant and director of the South Sea Company. Son of Benjamin Boddington (1730-1791) and nephew of Thomas Boddington (c. 1735-June 28 1821, who left £120,000), both West Indian merchants of 17 Mark Lane, London. In 1797 Boddington & Co. had turn­over of about £0.5m a year, and Samuel Boddington received five-ninths of the profits and his partner and cousin Benjamin the rest. That year Samuel Boddington's wife eloped with his partner and cousin. Samuel Boddington was awarded £10,000 damages, divorced his wife and ruined her lover. In his will dated 14 Feb. 1838, he stated: 'I have been for many years past concerned in the trade or business of a merchant in co-partnership under several different firms, and I am now carrying on the same trade . . . with my . . . nephew and Richard Davis of St. Helen's Place'. For many years from 1802 [in fact 1799] his partner was Richard Sharp, and from 1812 he was also associated with George Philips. Boddington died 19 April 1843, having personalty valued at £350,000 [note: Rubinstein has £150,000]. His will mentioned West Indian estates of which he was proprietor or mortgagee.

2. Draper notes (pp. 250-1) that Boddington was one of ten slave-compensation recipients among the 60 merchants, bankers and traders petitioning the Lord Mayor to convene a meeting in favour of the Reform Bill of 1831.

3. Married Grace Ashburner 24/02/1792 at Bloomsbury St George, divorced 1797. The couple's daughter Grace married Henry Vassall Webster, younger son of Lady Holland, at St George's Hanover, 23/10/1824.

4. Boddington's father Benjamin Boddington (1730-91), who was also a director of the South Sea Co., and of the Million Bank, treasurer and governor, City of London lying-in hospital, City Road, and a  Dissenting Deputy, and Boddington's uncle Thomas Boddington (1736-1821), who was a West India merchant, a director of the Bank of England 1782-1809, of the London Dock Co., and of the Royal Exchange, and treasurer of the Dissenting Deputies 1793-1805, were both London members of the 1786-1790 Committee for the Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts.

Draper, Nicholas. "Boddington, Samuel (1766–1843), West India merchant, slave owner, and collector." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 6 Oct. 2016; Accessed 17 Jan. 2020. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-107427; T71/877 Antigua claim nos. 35 (Mackinnon's Estate), 56 (Catherine Mount), 75 (Hope estate) and 95 (Bendals); T71/892 St Vincent claim nos. 485 (North Union) and 486 (South Union); T71/882 Nevis claim no. 297 (Willets Estate); T71/879 St Kitts claim no. 219 (Penteny (?)); T71/873 St James claim no. 564; T71/872 Hanover claim nos. 66 and 508 (Rhode Hall Estate); T71/858 Vere claim nos. 29 (Greenwich) and 30 (Greenwich).

1. R. G. Thorne (ed.), The House of Commons, 1790-1820 (5 vols., London, Secker & Warburg for the History of Parliament Trust, 1986), vol. 3, p. 224. Nicholas Draper, The Price of Emancipation (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 143, 159 and 250. A. C. Howe, ‘Philips, Sir George, first baronet (1766–1847)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2004); online edn, Sept 2010, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/38689 [accessed 26/09/2012]. William D. Rubinstein, Who were the rich? A biographical dictionary of British wealth-holders Volume Two 1840-1859 (MS) reference 1821/18. William D. Rubinstein, Who were the rich? A biographical dictionary of British wealth-holders Volume Two 1840-1859 MS, reference 1843/23.

2. Draper, op. cit. pp. 250-251.

3. Ancestry.com, London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921 [database online]; http://www.boddington-family.org.uk/ps03/ps03_282.htm [accessed 19/12/2011]. Further [partly unsourced] information about Boddington's marriage and divorce at http://www.boddington-family.org.uk.

4. 'Biographical Appendix: 1786-90 Committee', Committees for Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts: Minutes 1786-90 and 1827-8, ed.  Thomas W. Davis (London Record Society, 1978), pp. 107-110. Available at http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=38783