The Grange (Toronto) - The Boultons

The Boultons

Sarah Anne Robinson was born in Lower Canada in 1789 to a loyalist family who has previously moved north from Virginia after the American Revolution. D’Arcy Boulton, in contrast immigrated to Canada in 1797 when he was 12 years old. The two met through Sara Anne’s older brother Peter Robinson and settled at The Grange (so named for the Boulton family estate in Lincolnshire, England) in 1817.

Sarah Anne quickly established herself as a superior hostess and the Grange became a central site for the social and political happening of early Toronto. Over the course of their lives, the Boultons had eight children. D’Arcy Boulton made his living running a dry good stores and obtaining three governments posts. He died in 1846 after a rough decade of family deaths, a cholera epidemic and financial strain. The head of the household was now his eldest son, William Henry Boulton.

Over the course of his life William was mayor of Toronto three times in 1845, 1846, 1847 and was a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada. In 1846, William married Harriette Mann Dixon from Boston yet the couple never had any children. William however, was fond of gambling and Harriette and her mother-in-law, Sarah Anne, spent much time trying to keep the Grange in Boulton hands. William died in 1874, leaving Harriette as the sole owner of The Grange.