Author: Boucher, Barton
Biography:
BOUCHER, Barton, later BOUCHIER (1795-1866 : ODNB)
He changed his surname to Bouchier after 1822, but Boucher may have remained his legal name. Although Bouchier appears on title pages from 1834, Boucher is the spelling used in newspapers, including for his death notice. He was the second son of the Rev. Jonathan Boucher (1738-1804), vicar of Epsom in Surrey, and his third wife Elizabeth James. She was a widow at the time of her marriage to Boucher on 29 Oct. 1789 and her birth surname was Hodgson. Jonathan Boucher was an author and he had spent time in America where he was a friend of George Washington; he published A View of the Causes and Consequences of the American Revolution in 1797. Barton was born on 19 Nov. 1795 and baptised at St. Martin of Tours church, Epsom, on 4 Apr. 1796. He matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford, on 12 Dec. 1812 (BA 1822, MA 1827). He entered Lincoln’s Inn on 22 Apr. 1813 but instead of being called to the bar he was ordained a deacon in 1819 and priest in 1820. On 16 Sept. 1817 he married Mary Thornbury in Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire; they did not have children. He served as curate at Welsh Newton, Herefordshire, from 1819; Old, Northamptonshire, from 1825; and Cheam, Surrey, from before 1834. Although he was appointed rector at Fonthill Bishop in Wiltshire in 1839 they remained living at Cheam until 1856; he preached his farewell sermon there on 28 Sept. 1856. He died on 28 Dec. 1865 at Fonthill Bishop; his will was proved on 3 Mar. 1866 and left effects of under £2000. Although The Dream of Youth was his only book of verse, Boucher wrote and published prolifically, mainly sermons but also political works and moral tales. His last published work was The Country Pastor and His Flock, a collection of tales issued in 1860. (ODNB 13 June 2023; ancestry.co.uk 13 June 2023; findmypast.co.uk 13 June 2023; Alumni Oxonienses; CCEd 13 June 2023; Lincoln’s Inn Admission Register [1896])
Other Names:
- Barton Bouchier