Boulter Johnston

Boulter (given as Boulston in Woodcock) Johnston was an early purchaser of land in Tobago, being granted North East division (St John parish) Lot No. 49 (200 acres) 15/05/1771, which he still held c. 1773.

1. "The humble petition of Edward Hicks, Patrick Ferguson, Robert Irving, Boulter Johnston, William Cumberland Campbell and James Sharpe, officers in his Majesty's 70th Regiment who have purchased lands in the ceded Islands", dated c. 1773, stated that during their 10 year stationing in the West Indies, due to the unhealthy and undeveloped nature of the islands, the high cost of local provisions and the "impossibility of living on their pay", the officers had purchased land on the islands in order to profit from rises in land prices. The petitioners argued that "the failures in England...have rendered it impossible to Sell the New Lands for the prices paid for them, much less for any profit" and therefore they asked for "either to be allowed further time for the payment of the Installments due to the Crown... or that they may be permitted to resign their Lands upon being reimbursed the expences they have been at for their purchase." The petitioners also argued that they had "contributed much to increase the value of the Lands, and consequently the price given at the Sales, by their Activity in quelling the frequent Insurrections of the Slaves, particularly in the Island of Tobago, where the Lands in question are mostly situated, and having gone through much fatiguing service, and having lost one sixth part of that Division of the Regiment stationed there, in different engagements with the Insurgents."

2. The will of Boulter Johnston of the Seventh Regiment of Foot, made 28/07/1773 and proved 06/06/1799, makes no reference to property in the West Indies or to enslaved people; he divided his unspecified personal and real estate between his wife Alida nee Bayard, and any child over 15.

'Tables showing the Lots in each Parish, numbered as originally granted - the original Grantee - the name of the Lot, or lots, if one has been acquired, and the present Possessor where there is one' and 'A Table, showing the Estates in cultivation in 1832, and their Owners, in 1832, copied from the list appended to Byres' map of that date, with those in cultivation in 1862', Henry Iles Woodcock, A History of Tobago (Ayr: Smith and Grant, 1867; new impression London: Frank Cass and Company Limited, 1971); John Fowler, A summary account of the present flourishing state of the respectable colony of Tobago in the British West Indies illustrated with a map of the island and a plan of its settlement, agreeably to the sales by his Majesty’s Commissioners (London: A Grant, 1774) pp. 48-49.

1. Auction listing for "Extremely rare, signature of Patrick Ferguson, famed", https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/83734932_extremely-rare-signature-of-patrick-ferguson-famed [accessed 04/01/2021].

2. PROB 11/1325/162.

We are grateful to Pamela Miller for her assistance with compiling this entry.