Thomas Boteler & Elizabeth Hutchinson

Thomas Boteler was born around 1795 in Prince George’s County, Maryland to Walter Boteler and Jemima Davis. The family lived just beyond the line of the District of Columbia and in sight of the United States Capital. When he was a child, Thomas’s father moved the family to Washington D. C. where Thomas was apprenticed out to William Smalls in 1809. William was a maker of mathematical and navigational instruments at the Navy Yard.

As a young man, Thomas would have been living in Washington D. C. during the War of 1812 when British forces entered the city on August 24, 1814 and made their way to the White House where they treated themselves to a meal of leftovers before ransacking the mansion and setting it ablaze. On their approach to the city, a U.S. captain ordered a preemptive burning of the navy yard including two warships, timber, and a sawmill. In addition to the White House, the British also burned the Capitol building and most public buildings, although they left most private buildings alone. Many citizens fled in front of the invading British forces – including First Lady Dolly Madison who had retrieved the portrait of George Washington from the White House before fleeing.

In 1818, Thomas married Matilda Fagan, a young woman from Fairfax, Virginia. The young couple lived near the Navy Yard where Thomas worked as a blacksmith and armorer. Together Thomas and Matilda had eight children: Emily (1820), Elizabeth Jane (1821), Angeline (1822), Mary Anny (1825), Louisa Frances (1827), Charles W (1829), John T (1830) and Delila (1832).

The Washington Navy Yard was authorized in 1799 and is the U.S. Navy’s oldest shore establishment. Jobs in the Navy Yard were good but days were long. Like Thomas and Matilda, other Navy Yard employees lived in close proximity to the yard. The men would rise before dawn, awakened by the bell at the yard, they would then walk to the yard and work a twelve-hour day before walking home in the evening. Work days were eventually shortened to ten hours in 1840 by President Garfield. Thomas and his family generally lived in on K or L street, between 4 and 5e.

Matilda died in 1836, in her mid thirties, leaving Thomas with the surviving six children ranging in ages from 3 to 16. Most of the childrearing and housekeeping duties probably fell to their eldest daughter Emily.

Two years later, in 1838, Thomas married Elizabeth Hutchinson, a girl about the same age as his daughter Emily. Together Thomas and Elizabeth had two children: Margaret Genova (1841) and Elizabeth Ellen (1843). Elizabeth also helped raise Thomas’s children from his prior marriage.

Thomas appears to have died between 1846 – 1850. Elizabeth remained a widow for a number of years before marrying again in 1856 to Thomas Hooper, a widower with two young daughters. Elizabeth and Thomas had a daughter, August (c. 1858) before moving the family to Baltimore by 1860.

Elizabeth died in 1864.

*Although the family name was Boteler, as reflected in early family records and Bible records, on official records (census, city directories, etc.) it is documented as Butler. Interestingly, this changing of the family name applied to Thomas and not his brothers who retained Boteler in the records.