Samuel Borman emigrated from Devonshire or Somersetshire, England, in 1639, and settled in Wethersfield, Conn., in 1641, where he died in 1673. His name is identified with many official positions in the early history of the Colony.
The following is a copy of an original letter to Samuel Borman from his mother, carefully preserved by William Boardman of Wethersfield, Conn., one of her seventh generation:
“Obrydon, the 5th of February, 1641.
“Good Sonne, I have received your letter; whereby I understand you are in good health, for which I give God thanks, as we are all. Praised be God for the same. Whereas you desire to see your brother Christopher with you, he is not ready for so great a journey, nor doe I think he dare take uppon him so dangerous voige. Your five sisters are all alive and in good health and remember their love to you. Your father hath been dead almost this two years and this troubling you no farther at this time I rest praying to God to bless you and your wife unto whom we all kindly remember our loves.
“Your ever loving mother,
“Julian Borman.”
The names “Borman” and “Boreman” appear on the Wethersfield records until 1712; afterwards it appears as “Bordman,” and later on as “Boardman.”
Capt. Nathaniel Boardman, great-grandson of Samuel Borman who settled in Wethersfield, Conn., in 1641, was born there in 1734; was captain of a militia company during the French and Indian war; in 1758 married Esther Carver, a lineal descendant of Governor Carver of Plymouth Colony; in 1775 removed from Bolton, Conn., to Norwich, Vt., with his wife and eight children, the eldest fifteen and the youngest one year old, the entire journey being made on horseback. Captain Boardman died at Norwich in 1814, aged eighty-one years. His wife, Esther, died in 1833, aged ninety-seven years.
Doctor Nathaniel Boardman, eldest son of Captain Boardman, was born in Connecticut, 1759; came to Norwich in 1775; married Philomela Huntington, whose father was cousin to Samuel Huntington, first President of Congress; died 1842, aged eighty-four years. His eldest son, Rev. Elderkin J., graduated at Dartmouth about 1815, also at Andover; Congregational minister for many years in Vermont; removed to Iowa in 1858, where his son, Hon. Henry E. J. Boardman, a prominent and wealthy citizen, now resides. Another son of Doctor Boardman‘s, who died in Norwich in 1867, was the last in the line of five “Nathaniels,” father and son, extending back to Hon. Samuel Borman.
Halsey J. Boardman, son of the fifth Nathaniel, was born in Norwich in 1834; graduated at Dartmouth College in 1858; removed to Boston in 1859; commissioner of Board of Enrollment for the fourth Massachusetts district during the War of the Rebellion; member of the Boston Common Council in 1873, ’74 and 75, and president of that body in 1875; Republican candidate for mayor in 1876, being defeated by a vote of 14,000 to 12,000 by the citizens’ candidate; was elected a member of the Massachusetts Legislature for 1883, ’84 and ’85.