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Daniel Bolton

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Daniel Bolton
Born 1793
Died 16 May 1860(1860-05-16) (aged 67)
Place of death Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope[1]
Buried St George's cemetery, Cape Town, South Africa[2]
Allegiance  United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Service/branch Board of Ordnance
British Army
Years of service 1811–1860
Rank Major General
Service number 459
Unit Corps of Royal Engineers
Commands held CRE, Harwich, 1846–47[3][4]
CRE, New Zealand, 1847–53[5]
CRE, Cape of Good Hope, 1855–60[6]
Campaigns

Peninsular War, 1813–14

Netherlands, 1814–15[7]
France, 1815–18
Spouse(s) Ann Lawrence Hawkes (widow) (m. 1825–54)
Other work Member of the Executive Council, Province of New Ulster, New Zealand, 1851–[8]
Magistrate for the Islands of New Zealand, 1853[9]

Major General Daniel Bolton (1793 – 16 May 1860) was an English military engineer of the Corps of Royal Engineers,[1] who served in the Peninsular War (1813–1814), Netherlands Campaign (1814–1815), army of occupation in France (1815–1818), in Canada (1823–1843), particularly as superintending engineer in the construction of the Rideau Canal (1832–1843)[10] and as Commanding Royal Engineer at Harwich (1846–1847), New Zealand (1847–1853) and Cape of Good Hope (1855–1860).

He also collected fossil, plant, insect and seashell specimens, particularly for the scientific collections under Sir William Jackson Hooker and Joseph Dalton Hooker at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, William Henry Harvey at the Herbarium, Trinity College Dublin, and Francis Walker at the British Museum.

Career[]

Daniel Bolton was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the Corps of Royal Engineers, Board of Ordnance, on 14 December 1811, and promoted Lieutenant on 1 July 1812.[1]:20

Europe[]

Peninsular War[]

Bolton is said to have been "present, among other actions, at the siege and storm of St Sebastian".[11] The Commanding Royal Engineer, Sir Richard Fletcher, was killed in the final assault of the fortress on 31 August; thereafter the siege was conducted by Lieutenant Colonel John Fox Burgoyne, RE, who was severely wounded in that effort which ended on 8 September 1813.[12]:193 Elsewhere, Bolton is noted as serving at the Peninsula from October 1813 to the end of the war in 1814.[13][1]:20

Netherlands Campaign[]

In May 1815, Bolton was lodged at Ghent, where Louis XVIII resided after quitting Paris in March, but as his superior had left without passing on instructions, he and his fellow engineers had little to do. Sir George Wood, commanding artillery, who had fallen in with them there, communicated their situation to Colonel Smyth. In consequence, Lieutenant John Sperling, RE, took charge from 1 April, with the two engineer officers, an assistant engineer and 250 men, to construct two earthen redoubts to defend the bridge over the river Scheldt and reinstate part of the city's misshapen rampart. The redoubts would burden the enemy with having to build a river crossing, as well as serve as a rallying point for troops retreating from the frontier. When Sperling departed on 10 April, Bolton took charge of the works and now 2000 workmen until the arrival of Captain Harris.[14][15]:116–118 The Battle of Waterloo was fought on 18 June 1815, some 43 miles away.

Occupation of France[]

Following the Napoleonic Wars and agreements to the Treaty of Paris in November 1815, Bolton served with the army of occupation in France to 1818.[1]:20

Canada[]

Arctinurus boltoni, Middle Silurian, Rochester Shale, Niagara County, New York, USA - Houston Museum of Natural Science - DSC01577

Trilobite Arctinurus boltoni (Paradoxus boltoni)

Some five years after France, Bolton left London for Canada on 13 April 1823, landing at Quebec from the brig Susan on 23 May 1823.[16] Under Lieutenant Colonel Elias Walker Durnford, Commanding Royal Engineer, he carried on works from Quebec City to Kingston, Ontario, including Fort Wellington at Prescott.[17][18][19] In the course of the works he discovered a new species of trilobite in fossil limestone. It was described by John Jeremiah Bigsby who named it Paradoxus boltoni, "after its discoverer, Lieut. Bolton, Royal Engineers", in 1825. The specimen had been found at Lockport, New York.[20]

England and Ireland[]

Home again in England, Daniel Bolton married Ann Lawrence Hawkes, daughter of the late Judge John Lawrance of New York, widow of the late George Wright Hawkes, and mother of Adelaide and Wootton Wright Hawkes,[21][22] at St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham, Warwickshire, on Wednesday, 23 February 1825.[23] Soon after, on 7 June 1825, he advanced to the rank of 2nd Captain. Their first child, John Lawrence Bolton, was born on 7 December 1825 at Drumcovitt House in the Parish of Banagher, County Londonderry, Ireland[24]

Legacy[]

Plant and animal species named after Daniel Bolton:

  • Arctinurus boltoni (Paradoxus boltoni), a trilobite described and named by John Jeremiah Bigsby in 1825[20]
  • Myadora boltoni, a New Zealand mollusc described and named by Edgar Albert Smith in 1880[25]
  • Leioproctus boltoni, a New Zealand bee described and named Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell in 1904[26]
  • Asplenium boltonii, an African fern collected at Grahamstown, Cape of Good Hope, named by Hooker[27]
  • Bonatea boltonii, a southern African orchid named by William Henry Harvey 1860[28]

He is remembered in Ottawa in Major's Hill Park, a prominent downtown park in Ottawa. It was the site of the former residence of Lieutenant Colonel John By, and Major Daniel Bolton and his family.

Publications[]

Bibliography[]

References[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Connolly, Thomas William John (1898). Richard Fielding Edwards. ed. Roll of Officers of the Corps of Royal Engineers from 1660 to 1898. Chatham: The Royal Engineers Institute. p. 20. https://archive.org/details/roll-of-officers-of-the-corps-of-royal-engineers-r.-f.-edwards/mode/2up. 
  2. ↑ "Obituary". Grahamstown Journal. 22 May 1860. https://www.eggsa.org/newspapers/index.php/grahamstown-journal/1627-grahamstown-journal-1860-2-april-to-june. 
  3. ↑ Hart, Henry George (1846). The New Annual Army List for 1846. 7. London: John Murray. p. 273. https://digital.nls.uk/british-military-lists/archive/105942944. 
  4. ↑ Hart, Henry George (1847). The New Annual Army List for 1847. 8. London: John Murray. p. 273. https://digital.nls.uk/british-military-lists/archive/115640814. 
  5. ↑ Hart, Henry George (1848). The New Annual Army List for 1848. 9. London: John Murray. p. 275. https://digital.nls.uk/british-military-lists/archive/115647774. 
  6. ↑ Hart, Henry George (1858). The New Annual Army List, and Militia List, for 1858. 19. London: John Murray. p. 349. https://digital.nls.uk/british-military-lists/archive/105469724. 
  7. ↑ George, Jones (1852). The Battle of Waterloo, with Those of Ligny and Quatre Bras, Described by Eye-witnesses and by the Series of Official Accounts Published by Authority; to Which are Added, Memoirs of F.M. The Duke of Wellington, F.M. Prince Blücher, The Emperor Napoleon, etc. etc.. London: L. Booth. p. 438. https://books.google.com/books?id=MCOWgFaTzK8C&pg=PA438. 
  8. ↑ "Government Gazette". The New-Zealander. 2 July 1851. p. 4. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZ18510702.2.12.3. 
  9. ↑ "New Commission of the Peace". The New-Zealander (Supplement). 6 April 1853. p. 1. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZ18530406.2.15.2. 
  10. ↑ Kunst, Harry (July 2010). Science Culture in English-speaking Montreal, 1815–1842 (PhD). Concordia University, Montreal. p. 273. https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/979513/1/NR71149.pdf?www.canadiana.org/ECO. 
  11. ↑ "Obituary". Grahamstown Journal. 22 May 1860. https://www.eggsa.org/newspapers/index.php/grahamstown-journal/1627-grahamstown-journal-1860-2-april-to-june. 
  12. ↑ "Memoirs: Obituary. Field Marshal Sir John Fox Burgoyne, Bart, GCB, 1782–1871". 1872. pp. 192–203. Digital object identifier:10.1680/imotp.1872.22894. https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi/pdf/10.1680/imotp.1872.22894. 
  13. ↑ Hart, Henry George (January 1845). The New Army List. 25. London: John Murray. p. 190. https://archive.org/details/newarmylist02unkngoog/page/n198/mode/2up. 
  14. ↑ Porter, Whitworth (1889). History of the Corps of Royal Engineers. 1. London: Longmans, Green, and Co.. pp. 377. https://www.google.co.nz/books/edition/History_of_the_Corps_of_Royal_Engineers/PJQFAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1. 
  15. ↑ Sperling, John (1872). Letters of an Officer of the Corps of Royal Engineers from the British Army in Holland, Belgium and France, to his Father from the Later End of 1813 to 1816. London: James Nissbet & Co.. https://archive.org/details/lettersanoffice00spergoog/page/n4/mode/2up. 
  16. ↑ "Susan". http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/Arrivals/1823a.shtml. 
  17. ↑ "Quebec". http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/passengerlists/1823/qjun01.htm. 
  18. ↑ "Lady Sherbrooke". http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/passengerlists/1823/lsjul03.shtml. 
  19. ↑ Burns, Robert J (1979). "Fort Wellington: A Narrative and Structural History, 1812–38". Parks Canada / Parcs Canada. http://www.parkscanadahistory.com/series/mrs/296.pdf. 
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Bigsby, John Jeremiah (1825). "Description of a New Species of Trilobite". Philadelphia: Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. pp. 365–368. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/79352#page/379/mode/1up. 
  21. ↑ "Hawkes family papers, ca. 1820-ca. 1900". https://bobcat.library.nyu.edu/permalink/f/22u4kq/nyu_aleph001722795. 
  22. ↑ Butterfield, Roger (23 February 1968). "Wellington's Long-lost Letters: How the McDougall Papers Were Saved". pp. 49–51. https://books.google.com/books?id=c0oEAAAAMBAJ&dq=Wootton+Wright+Hawkes&pg=PA49. 
  23. ↑ "Married". Aris's Birmingham Gazette. 28 February 1825. p. 3. 
  24. ↑ "WO 76/366: WO 76. Royal Artillery: Vol 7. Statement of the Services of 2nd Lt John L. Bolton of the Royal Artillery with a Record of such other Particulars as may be useful in case of his Death". The National Archives, Kew. 1842–1893. p. 192. https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C178386. 
  25. ↑ Smith, Edgar Albert (1880). "4. On the Genus Myodora of Gray: 18. Myodora boltoni, sp. nov.". London: Messrs. Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer. pp. 585–587. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/28522776#page/719/mode/1up. 
  26. ↑ Cockerell, Theodore Dru Alison (1904). "XXIX.—New and Little-known Bees in the Collection of the British Museum: Leioproctus Boltoni, sp. n." (in English). London: Taylor and Francis. pp. 203–208. Digital object identifier:10.1080/03745480409442994. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/27733930#page/221/mode/1up. 
  27. ↑ Hooker, William Jackson; Baker, John Gilbert (1868). Synopsis filicum; or, A synopsis of all known ferns, including the Osmundaceæ, Schizæsveæ, Marattiaceæ, and Ophioglossaceæ (chiefly derived from the Kew herbarium). London: Robert Hardwicke. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/73627#page/9/mode/1up. 
  28. ↑ Bolus, Harry (November 1882). "A List of published Species of Cape Orchideæ" (in English). pp. 335–347. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8339.1882.tb00378.x. 
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