Isaac Bolster

     Isaac Bolster It is thought the name Bolster comes from " BOLD STEER MAN " Persons bearing the name Bolster are found in the earlier part of the eightenth century in the town of Uxebridge, Massachusettes; having come it is said from England. The records of the family are meager. Fragmentary records of the family of Isaac and his wives, Abigail Bullard and Hepsibah Waite, have been preserved. Two of his sons by his second wife Hepsibah, Isaac and William, were in the Colonial service between 1755 and 1761 and later in the war of the Revolution, the former serving as Liutenant and Captain, Respectively. Isaac Bolster Jr. Later removed to Hebron, and in 1784 settled in Paris, Maine.

Isaac Bolster came to the Americas before 1715. In Peter Wilson Coldham's "The Complete Book of Emigrants:1661-1699," is found the following:

p. 523 "8 July, 1685. The following convicted before Chief
Justice Jeffries at the Court of Oyer and Terminer for
Dorset, Somerset and Devon for waging war against the
King and sentenced to be transported to the Americas
[sentence enrolled on 4 February 1691:...[then a huge list follows for several pages to p. 525]...
p. 525 "....Robert Millard, Robert Stuckey, James Field Jr.,
ISAAC BOLSTER [or Balster], John Hussey, Andrew Staley...."

Isaac Bolster originally landed on the Americas as a convicted criminal sometime during 1691 and that he probably did several years of hard labor (as part of his sentence) before being released. After that, it probably took him several more years to set himself up financially so that he could be considered an " eligible bachelor ! " He was involved in the Duke of Monmouth's 1685 rebellion against King James II. Because he was sentenced to transportation for waging war against the King. I'm going to guess that his life was spared because he was very young at the time of the rebellion. Those who were old enough to feel the full weight of the law were drawn and quartered as traitors. This rebellion took place in Dorchester, Dorset County, England. Here is a brief history of it.

The town was founded by the Romans, who named the site Durnovaria shortly after capturing the Iron age hill-fort of Maiden Castle in 43 AD. Today Dorchester is essentially a Georgian town, many of its old buildings having been destroyed by a series of fires in the late seventeeth and eighteenth centuries. Judge Jefferey's lodgings in High West Street is said to be where the Judge stayed in 1685 during the Bloody Assize, and the Antelope Hotel, (Now alas a shopping arcade), has a room said to be the courtroom where the trial
of 292 Rebels was held. 74 men were sentenced to be hanged, drawn & quartered and bits of them distributed around the country. James II (King James Bible) Within months of his accession, James had to crush a rebellion of Protestants who rallied around his nephew James, Duke of Monmouth and son of Charles II. The Protestants were easily defeated, and James exhibited little toleration: Monmouth was captured and beheaded. James appointed Judge Jeffries to preside over the "Bloody Assizes" which executed, tortured, or sent into slavery the Protestant rebels.

Isaac Bolster came from Great Britain and was living in Boston, Mass. in November of 1715, but was located in Brookline in February, 1716. Of the family before the emigration nothing is known except that Isaac had a brother named Sampson Bolster, an innkeeper, who remained in England. Isaac Bolster married Abigail Bullard in Medway, Mass. on the 15th of April 1717. Isaac and Abigail went for a time to Dedham, Mass., where their first child was born, then returned to Brookline, where two more children were born. Before 1727 they had removed to Mendon, Mass., probably accompanying or following the Bullard relatives. He acquired land in Mendon, both by direct purchase and by divisions from the town, as shown by the following extract from the printed propietors records of Mendon. page 714; " June 8, 1733, Laid out land for Isaac Bolster, five acres, viz: three acres eighth division, two acres ninth division, laid out joining to his other land." He became a resident of Uxebridge after 1727, possibly being located in that part of Mendon which was then set off and made into a new town.

Abigail, his wife, joined the church of Uxebridge, by profession, 13 June 1731, and died October, 1732. Isaac married second, 4 June 1735 Hepsibah Waite of Sutton, she died 20 July 1741 and he married third, 4 February 1742, Susanna Smith of Leicester, who survived him and married 16 April 1754, Joseph Benson of Mendon, Mass.,Isacc Bolster died in Uxebridge, Mass. 28 April 1753.

[SOURCES]- Tilden's History of Medfield, Mass.

[SOURCES]- Rhode Island Genealogy - Biography Vol. 2, Part 2 pages 1621-2336. Published by J.H. Beers & Co., Chicago 1908.

[SOURCES]-The Complete Book of Emigrants:1661-1699

[SOURCES]-New York Times Genealogy Section early 1900's.

He and Abigail Bullard were Marriage Fact at See Note Page. Isaac Bolster was born in 1667 at Otterton, Chelmsford, Essex, England. He was the son of Sampson Bolster. Isaac Bolster emigrated in 1691 from Transported to Americas for War against the King. He lived in 1715 at Boston, Brookline, Needham. He married Elizabeth Press on 3 November 1715 at Boston, MA. Isaac Bolster married Abigail Bullard, daughter of Joseph Bullard Jr and Margaret Cheney, on 15 April 1717; Medway, Norfolk Co., Massachusettes. Isaac Bolster married Abigail Bullard, daughter of Joseph Bullard Jr and Margaret Cheney, on 15 April 1717 at Medway, MA; spouse-death; [V44T1514.FTW]

Facts about this marriage:

Death of one spouse     October 1732
Medfield, Mass.

Isaac Bolster lived in 1727 at Uxbridge, MA. He married Hepzipah Waite on 4 June 1735. Isaac Bolster married Susannah Smith on 4 February 1741/42. Isaac Bolster died on 28 April 1753 at Uxebridge, Worcester Co., Massachusettes.