G. D'Arcy Boulton

Who was G. D'Arcy Boulton?

The Hon. Mr Justice D’Arcy Boulton was a lawyer, judge and political figure in Upper Canada.

The second son of Henry Boulton J.P., of Moulton, Lincolnshire, by his third wife, Mary, the daughter of D'Arcy Preston of Askham Bryan Hall, Yorkshire. He studied law at the Middle Temple. After his business in England failed in 1793, he came to the Hudson River valley of New York in 1797. Boulton later moved to Augusta Township in Upper Canada around 1802. In 1803, he was admitted to the bar. In 1804, he assumed the position of Solicitor General after the death of Robert Isaac Dey Gray on the HMS Speedy; he was also elected to Gray's former seat in the 4th Parliament of Upper Canada in a by-election. In 1807, he became a judge for the Court of King's Bench.

In 1810, while sailing to England, he was taken prisoner by a French privateer. Boulton fought vigorously in the short-lived attempt to defend the ship and for his troubles he received a sabre slash across his forehead; he was kept at Verdun and released in 1813. He was admitted to the English bar in the same year and secured the post of Attorney-General of Upper Canada in December 1814. Boulton and his family were considered to be part of the Family Compact, a clique of Upper Canada's elite who held great power in the province.