vital records sources

Edmund most likely was born in England and emigrated from there to Massachusetts Bay Colony. There was a vaguely formed theory in the 19th century that the name is Swedish and this gained a fairly strong foothold in subsequent publications.1 Bouker is a fairly common name in England, and the family used typically English first names for their children, leaving little doubt that Edmund, and most of the people settling in 17th century New England, came from England. There isn't enough evidence associated with him, such as his age, to connect him to any of the Edmund Bouker baptism records in England.
     Edmund's marriages have been the subject of much confusion. In his genealogical dictionary published in 1860,2 James Savage says his wife was Mary Potter. Savage being considered an authority, it gained traction as fact in many other publications, although sometimes with the caveat of "thought to be" or "said to have been." No clues have ever been found to support this statement. It's odd not to find any scrap of explanation as to why Savage would say this. He did sometimes confuse his facts, as did Farmer, on which Savage's work was based and elaborated.
     In Edmund's probate papers3 there is an inventory of things Margaret, his last wife, had brought to her marriage with him to be excluded from his estate. It was "attested" to by John "Booker" (who signed with a mark, the last name written by someone else) and Mary, who signed her name and whose last name appears to be "Potar." Someone confirming an inventory of someone's personal possessions that they brought to a marriage that would satisfy a probate court would surely have been within the family or lived in the same household since the marriage. John, a generation younger than Edmund, was undoubtedly his son. A close inspection shows the other name, written by Mary herself, could be "Bokar." John had a sister Mary, but she was a toddler at the time. She wasn't John's wife Mary How, since they married over ten years later. It was translated as "Potar" in the contemporary copy made for the court volumes. A review of available sources didn't reveal plausible circumstances for a woman named Mary Potar or Potter to have been either related to or living with the Bouker family. No one has offered an explanation for Savage's reference to Mary Potter, and this is the only one I found, however unsatisfying. She obviously wasn't Edmund's wife. It wasn't common in 17th century New England for women to be be literate enough to sign their full name. This infers an above average education and spare time within the family as a whole.
     Margaret surely was the Margaret Bouker who married Thomas Holbrook in Medfield, Massachusetts Bay Colony, on 26 January 1668/69 "before Maj. [Eleazer] Lusher."6 Thomas was an early settler in Boggestow, which is now the town of Sherborn and adjacent to Medfield. Lusher, who lived in Dedham, was one of the magistrates approved to conduct marriages in the Colony. This explains why some have called her Margaret Potter, or worse, Mary Margaret Potter. Her origins aren't known.
     Aside from Margaret, the only other spousal evidence for Edmund is the death of Ellen Bouker in Dorchester, Massachusetts Bay Colony, on 21 March 1659/60.4 Edmund lived in Dorchester at this time and there is no plausible alternate family to which she could have belonged. She could have been a child of Edmund's who died young, but parent or parent's names were normally included in those cases.
     Ellen has been connected to an Ellen Bouker who is named in the 17 October 1663 will of Thomas Smyth of London.5, but with the mistaken thought that she was his daughter. He names her as a sister, and gave her £10 if she was still alive when he died. Thomas was the father of Martha (Smyth) Wiswell, wife of John Wiswell and immigrant to Dorchester. There is nothing other than the name match and the Wiswells settling in Dorchester to connect Ellen (Smyth) Bouker with Edmund Bouker, but the name is unusual enough that it's a plausible theory that she was Edmund's wife. The will was written about seven months after Ellen died. Thomas knew that one of the Wiswell children had died when he wrote his will, but it's not unreasonable to think that the news of Ellen's death simply hadn't reached him yet. Thomas's children's births go back to at least 1615 or thereabouts, giving him a plausible birth about 1580 to 1590. If his sister was the wife of Edmund, she was likely much younger, given that Edmund had a child with his first wife. The Smiths came from Lancashire, England, and had land interests in "Smithfould" (Smithfold or Smith Fold), an area of Little Hulton parish. The availability of parish records there and nearby aren't complete and although there were Smiths in the area, including an Ellen baptized in Bolton in a plausible year (but with no recorded brother Thomas), there aren't enough other records to be able to put together a family group that fits what is known for Thomas.
     There is evidence for Edmund having six children. John has been mentioned. His death record says he was 74, older than the rest of the known Bouker siblings and the only adult among them when his father's estate was probated. Elizabeth and Edmund, Jr., have birth records in Dorchester and Mary is recorded in Sudbury, all giving Edmund as their father. Elizabeth's record says her mother was Margaret. Mary was ten when her mother remarried, so, barring unusual circumstances, she would have gone to Sherborn with her. This is made all the more obvious in that she married her stepbrother Thomas Holbrook, Jr., in Sherborn.
     James Bouker of Scituate was undoubtedly another child. In 1680 he witnessed a deed in which John Bouker bought land in Marlborough.7 Scituate and Marlborough aren't near each other, but the deed was drawn up in Boston. James witnessed a deed in Scituate on 28 February 1670/71, showing he was probably at least 21.8 Being born before about 1649/1650 and dying in 1724 puts him in John and Edmund Bouker, Jr.'s, generation. Added to the relationship evidence is that James named a son Edmund, which was an uncommon name in New England in the 17th century. Scituate isn't near any of the places the rest of the Boukers lived, but he may have apprenticed with someone in Scituate or someone who moved to Scituate before James finished his contract.
     There is an "Ellinor Bowker" in Harvard College records who was fined for being out at night with other youths, male students among them.9 She was 22 at the time (1676), and the only plausible explanation for her being a single woman in Cambridge is that she was one of the servants mentioned in the group. She was 13 when her father died, and it seems harsh to think she was put out rather than live in the Holbrook household. As such, she may have been put out to work while a teenager. If she was 22, she was likely the daughter of Edmund and Ellen. There were no other Bouker or Bouker families on record in this area, so evidently she wasn't going out at night from her parents' home. With Elizabeth Bouker marrying in Cambridge three years later, it's plausible that she was the one caught breaking the rules, and the circumstances perhaps led her to lie about her name and age. Elizabeth was 17 at the time and old enough to be working out as a servant. As a supposed adult living in a master's household, the authorities presumably wouldn't have questioned her about her family, thus avoiding her mother and stepfather knowing what happened. Given her approximate birth year, she may have been born to Edmund's first wife and named for her.
     There isn't much about Edmund in other records. The earliest is in a history of The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company which includes him in the admissions for 1646 and says he lived in Salem and gives his death date.10 The compiler likely confused Salem with Sudbury since he knew when Edmund died. A later history of the same group confirms his admission in 1646.11 It also says he was of Dorchester, married Mary Potter of Dorchester, moved to Sudbury and died there. This is likely taken from Savage, who essentially says the same thing. This additional information about members is said by the auther to come from other sources than the Artillery Company archives. Membership into what was, in Edmund's time, "The Militia Company of Massachusetts" was a sign of distinction among those of above average social status in Boston, and maybe outlying areas, and they were mostly officers. It's purpose was to oversee the requirements and quality of the Massachusetts militia, especially officers. Edmund's estate inventory shows that he had a number of higher status home goods, so he may have come to Massachusetts with some financial means.
     Edmund, called a husbandman of Dorchester, bought land in the Boggestow from Richard Keayne on 12 April 1654.12 He had paid part of the agreed price, and after Keayne's death he paid the remainder to his widow. He appears as "Goodm. Bouker" on a list of debts due to the estate, showing he had become a freemen, but he isn't on any of the freemen lists for Massachusetts Bay Colony. He witnessed a deed between two Dorchester men on 16 October 1654.13 He was in arrears for his Dorchester minister's tax between 1658 and 1662.14 The constable was allowed to levie or take the debt "by distress or otherwise" on 24 August 1663. A bit earlier, "Edmund Bowke" is on a list of men who had defective fences there, given at the meeting on 9 January 1659/60.15 On 8 January 1657/58 he was chosen a fenceviewer for the "Twenty Acre" lots, 1691 a fenceviewer for "the field behind Mris Stoughtons" on 8 January 1658/59,17 and a fenceviewer for the common corn fields in the "Twenty Acre" lots on 12 March 1659/60.18
     Edmund's residence in Dorchester and Sudbury is evident, but there are no land records showing he bought real estate in either place. The only such purchase recorded was the land in Boggestow. His wife Margaret brought goods to her marriage to Edmund, inferring she was married before. Her perhaps third husband Thomas Holbrook had land adjacent to Edmund's. When the Bouker children grew up, some married to spouses who lived in the Sherborn area, inferring they grew up in the Holbrook household. Margaret may have been living in Boggestow when Edmund married her. Since their marriage can certainly be placed between 1661 and 1665, Edmund may have left his financial troubles behind in Dorchester and moved to Boggestown about 1664. Alternatively, he may have moved before this and then neglected his taxes in Dorchester. The only way we know he lived in Sudbury is from his estate papers, so the family may not have been there long, and Margaret and her minor children went back to Boggestow after Edmund died
     Papers relating to probating his estate start on 18 June 1667, about three months after he died.19 One is an inventory:

An inventory of the estate of Edmō Bouker deseased

1 mare 05[£]-oo[shillings]-00[pence]
1 heifere 2 yeare old 02-00?-00
4 yearlings 2 heifers 2 steares 06-10?-00
2 calves 00-16-00
5 swine 03-10-00
1 cart & wheels old wth ye irons 01-05-00
1 old harow 00-10-00
1 cops & pine 1 small cops & pine 00-03-00
2 chaynes 00-10-00
2 chares 1 bolt 00-09-00
1 brod axe 2 feleng axe 1 ades 1 00-12-00
1 pcille of od small iron things 00-01-00
1 tramill 1 spit 1 grid iron 00-06-00
2 whip saw 00-07-00
2 small saws 00-05-00
1 old kettls 1 old warming pan 01-08-00
2 sm iron pots 1 iron scillit 00-12-00
4 puter dishes 1 puter pott 1 salt 1 bottle 1 small sausers 2 cups 00-16-00
1 box iron 1 heater 00-02-00
1 old puter pott 00-01-06
1 bed tick 1 flock bed 2 bolsters 2 pillows, 2 rugs [prob. as in a heavy coverlet] 2 blankits 03-00-00
1 table cloth 6 nap kins 2 pillow beares 00-10-00
1 pr sheetes 00-07-00
2 chests 1 box 00-10-00
2 cheers old 00-02-00
3 earthen pans 2 potts 00-02-00
1 frying pan 00-02-06
1 doz trenchers 00-01-00
1 iron brand 00-01-00
2 keelers 2 tubbs 2 trays 00-09-00
2 drey caske 00-02-00
3 pales 2 siefs 2 radors 00-05-06
bacon 00-04-00
1 bush Indian Corne 00-03-00
1 bagg 00-01-06
3 wooden dishes 00-01-00
1 whele 2 pr cords 00-04-06
1 tumberill 1 old sled 00-08-00
5 peeces timber 00-10-00
1 Bible 00-03-00
---------------
33-11-00

entered with the probate at Charlestowne court June 18 1667 in the Register lib 2 p 369 as attests Thomas Danforth recorder

Thes goods are an addision to the inventarie of the state of Edmund Bouker atestes by me Daniel Pond adminestrator

Item eight pounds in the hands of Mr. Waker of Sudbrie 08-00-00
Iteme on musket and sword 00-15-00

     More papers related to this probate are in the Middlesex County, Massachusetts, court records.20 Also on 18 June 1669, Daniel Pond was appointed administrator of the estate. On 1 October 1667 Maj. Eleazer Lusher, Ens. Daniel Fisher and Daniel Pond were chosen to divide the estate to satisfy creditors. On 5 February 1667/68 a meeting of creditors was announced for 25 February at Pond's house in Dedham, and notices to be posted in Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, Sudbury and Cambridge. They wrote up their account on 4 April 1668. They asked for compensation for doing this work to be applied as a debit from the estate along with a note that one or more pigs had died, the latter valued at £1, 10 shillings. With these debits subtracted from the value of the inventory, the estate value was £30, twelve shillings and six pence. The creditors demands totalled £64, six shillings and seven pence. "The estate devided by pportion to sattisfie these debts will paye £9-6s-[0 pence?]," but there follows a list of people paid that totals more than this. They were:

Mr. Edm. Browne [minister of Sudbury] 04-01-06 1/2
Mr. Habakuk Glover [tanner, businessman of Boston] 04-03-08 1/2
Mr. Rich. Parker [businessman of Boston] 00-11-10 1/2
Samll Proctor 02-16-00
Joh Parmerton 00-17-02 1/2
Jobe Tyler [farmer living in either Roxbury or Mendon] 03-06-06
Joh Blake 00-14-09 1/2
Tho Grubbe 01-01-04 1/2
(lived in Medfield in 1655, moved by 1660 prob. to Boston)
Josep Noice 01-02-03 1/2
Joh Curtisse 02-03-09
Zach Phillips [Zachariah Phillips of Boston] 02-02-09
Rich Witherinton [Richard Withington of Dorchester] 01-05-07 1/2
Rich Baker 02-04-02 1/2
Tho Hawley 05-09-06 1/2
Mr. Joh Chickering [doctor in Charlestown] 01-08-06

     There is also an account of receipts from the creditors. John Curtis was paid in full via his "brother" William Gary on 2 April 1668. John Chickering was paid in full the same day. So to were Habakkuk Glover, John Blake and Samuel Proctor. Thomas Grubbe was paid on 3 April, Joseph Noyes and John Parmenter, his son-in-law, Thomas Hawley and Edmund Brown on 4 April. Brown's receipt was attested to by Edmund Goodenow, John Grout, Joseph Noyes, John Rutter and Thomas Stevens. Richard Parker was probably also paid on that day. Richard Withington was paid seven shillings of his total due on 23 April, and "the remainder I give the widdo."
Margaret died in Sherborn on 9 April 1690.21 As mentioned above, Margaret had belongings of her own before she married Edmund and they were itemized to separate them from his estate:

1 fether bed & bolsters 1 pillow
1 rug 1 pr curtins 1 bedsted
1 pr sheetes 6 nap kins
1 table 4 cheers 4 coushins
1 gt spinning whele
? beare barills
1 brass scilett

The pertickulers above menshioned Margeritt Booker brought to her husband Edm Booker wch weare her owne propr goods before shee maried as atests

John (his mark) Booker
Mary [probably Potar]

Children of Edmund Bouker and probably Ellen:

John, b. abt. 1647-9
James, b. say 165122
?Eleanor, b. abt. 1654, living in Cambridge 9 Jan. 167623
Elizabeth, b. 3 July 1659, Dorchester, no mother named24, m. Thomas Lund, 28 Mar. 1679, Cambridge

children of Edmund Bouker and probably Margaret:

Edmund, 13 Dec. 1661, Dorchester, no mother named25
Mary, b. 15 Apr. 1665, Sudbury, dau. of Edmund and Margaret26, m. Thomas Holbrook, Jr., 20 Feb. 1684(/5?), Sherborn

vital records sources: His death is in "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," familysearch.org database online (Salt Lake City, UT: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1972), Middlesex>County records>Births, marriages, deaths 1651-1793, image 81, FHL film 892249, "Edmund Bouker died March 1666," no day given.

1. This idea likely originated in print form in Samuel Dean, History of Scituate, Massachusetts from its first settlement to 1831 (Boston, MA: 1831), 223, who refers to James bouker as being from Sweden.
2. James Savage, A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England vol. 1 (Boston, MA: 1860), 223.
3. Middlesex Co., MA, probate case 2319.
4. A Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, "Dorchester Births, Marriages, Deaths to the end of 1825" (Boston, MA: 1891), 25, "21 (1) 1659 or 1660."
5. Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, National Archives, PROB-11-313-28. Transcribed in Henry F. Waters, Genealogical Gleanings in England, vol. 1 (Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1901), 755.
6. Vital Records of Medfield, Massachusetts, to the year 1850 (Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1903), 119.
7. Middlesex Co., MA, deed 7:234.
8. Plymouth Colony Deeds vol. 5, part 1, 250.
9. Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Volume 49: "Harvard College Records," Part 4, p. 78 https://www.colonialsociety.org/node/1354. "Ellinor" bouker, about 22, was fined for being out at night on this date. Given that Elizabeth Bouker married Thomas Lund in Cambridge 3 years later, the Harvard record may have been confused in calling her Ellinor. Also Ellen and Eleanor are sometimes used interchangeably, so she may have been named for Ellen (Smyth) Bouker. 10.Zachariah Gardner Whitman, The History of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company (Boston, MA: 1842), 153.
11. Oliver Ayer Robert, History of the Military Company of the Massachusetts Now Called the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, vol. 1 (Boston, MA: 1895), 156.
12. Suffolk Deeds, vol. 2 (Boston, MA: 1883), 304.
13. Ibid, Suffolk Deeds, vol. 3 (Boston, MA: 1885), 18.
14. Fourth Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, "Dorchester town records" (Boston: Rockwell & Churchill, 1896), 115.
15. "Dorchester town records," 100.
16. "Dorchester town records," 100.
17. "Dorchester town records," 91.
18. "Dorchester town records," 96.
19. see note 3.
20. Middlesex Co., MA, court records, folio 44, group 3 and folio 47, group 5.
21.Vital Records of Sherborn, Massachusetts, to the year 1850 (Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1911), 207.
22. Born before 28 Feb. 1649/50, given his witnessing a deed and presumably being an adult on 28 Feb. 1670/1.
23. Dorchester births, marriages, and deaths to the end of 1825 (Boston, MA: 1891), 6. She m. Thomas Lund, Cambridge, 28 Mar 1678/9, "Thomas Lun. & Elizab. Bouker. 28 1 79," "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," familysearch.org database online (Salt Lake City, UT: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1972), Middlesex County>Births, marriages, deaths 1651-1793, image 195.
24. Dorchester births, marriages, and deaths to the end of 1825, 8.
25. "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," familysearch.org database online (Salt Lake City, UT: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1972), Middlesex County>Births, marriages, deaths 1651-1793, image 52. She m. her stepbrother Thomas Holbrook, Jr., 20 February 1684/5?, Sherborn