[ From “The Great Migration Begins”, Vol I, pgs. 185-186)
In the 25 March 1633 Plymouth tax list "Thomas Boreman" was assessed 9s. [PCR 1:11].
In the 15 November 1633 inventory of John Thorp of Plymouth, carpenter, "Tho[mas] Boreman"
owed two pounds of beaver, valued at £1 [MD 1:159].
COMMENTS: In later years there was a Thomas Boreman of Barnstable and a Thomas
Boardman of Sandwich and Yarmouth. Was either of these the Thomas Boreman of Plymouth
in 1633? The more likely identification is with the Barnstable man [Otis 1:80-81; Stratton 247-48],
but there are enough doubts and conflicting data to make this a far from certain conclusion.
Thomas Boreman appeared in the Barnstable section of the 1643 Plymouth Colony list of men able
to bear arms [PCR 8:193], and a year or two later he married Hannah Annable, daughter of ANTHONY
ANNABLE. From that point on he is consistently associated with Barnstable, and died there testate in
1663 [MD 18:63; Otis 1:80-81].
Thomas Boardman is first seen with certainty on 7 August 1638, when the Plymouth court accused
him of "living incontinently with Luce, his now wife, and did beget her with child before they were
married together"; the court proceedings call him of Sandwich, carpenter, and make it clear that the
child born to him and Luce before marriage had been born in London and left behind when he came to
New England [PCR 1:93, 94]. Thomas Boardman was granted three acres of meadow at Sandwich on
16 April 1640 [PCR 1:150]. "Thomas Bordman" appeared in the Sandwich section of the 1643 Plymouth
Colony list of men able to bear arms [PCR 8:192], making him clearly distinct from Thomas Boreman of
Barnstable. After living in Sandwich for a few years, Thomas Boardman moved to Yarmouth, where he
died in August 1689 [PCR 12:142; MD 10:101-02]. (There are three additional records, from 1637 and
1639, which cannot be confidently allocated to either man [PCR 1:61, 110, 118].)
The most interesting record comes from the Plymouth court of 13 March 1634/5 where "Thomas Boreman"
agreed to carry out the construction of the fort for £30. From the court records for 1638 we know that
Thomas Boardman of Sandwich and later Yarmouth was a carpenter. Was Thomas Boreman of Barnstable
also a carpenter? Otis claims that he was, but does not cite any document; perhaps he was confused on
this point.
If Thomas Boreman of Barnstable was not a carpenter, then we have no certain record of him prior to
1643. Does this mean that Thomas Boardman of Sandwich was the man of the 1633 records? Further
research in London records might clarify this point, since we are told that he had a child by Luce in London
sometime before 1638 (but probably not long before).
It should be noted further that although "Thomas Boreman" was in the 1633 tax list, he was not in the list
of 27 March 1634, which may indicate that, whoever he was, he was not in Plymouth in early 1634. This
could of course be a simple defect in the tax list, but until further evidence is uncovered, we make no
determination here as to the later history of the Thomas Boreman who was in Plymouth in 1633.
