The union between Zachariah Boswell and Justina Dighton (Deighton/Dyton) resulted in a long marriage and a considerable family, and they named their first child Levi, baptising him in Essex on New Year’s day 1847, the son of a travelling brazier. The name was popular in the family and there were soon a number of grandsons called Levi, often living in the same area, and this has caused some confusion for those tracing their family history.
Levi Boswell formed a relationship with Urania Lee, and favouring the county of Kent, they, of course, had a son called Levi, baptised in 1879 and again in 1881; this Levi was to marry Misella Lee in 1901, and had a son, Zachariah, named after his grandfather, a son, Levi, and a daughter called Misella.
Zachariah and Justina also had a son called John, baptised in 1859, some 12 years after his elder brother, and he united with Johanna, and, naturally, named a son after his elder brother; this little Levi Boswell was born in Kent c1895, and registered as John Levi Boswell.
The confusion between these two Levi Boswells, sons of brothers Levi and John Boswell, both favouring the county of Kent, has led some to believe that it was the elder Levi, born in 1879, who married an Eliza Dighton in 1917, by which time he had actually been married for 16 years to Misella Lee, with whom he had three children. Nothing daunted, other researchers have suggested he was married to both women concurrently. In actual fact it was the younger Levi Boswell, who lived in Occupation Road, Belvedere, Kent, the same road where Eliza Dighton and her parents also lived, who married Eliza. They were not only more or less the same age, the younger Levi Boswell, son of John, was the boy next door.
Interesting information relating to both men can be found in the British Army records for the First World War, which confirms these details. The elder Levi, giving a birth date of 6/7/1879, stated he was a married man, working as a horse dealer, and living in Bromley, Kent, with his wife, Misella, and three children, Zachariah, named for his grandfather, Levi, of course, and a daughter named after his wife, Misella. Unsurprisingly, given his profession, he was sent to serve in the Army Veterinary Corps.
The younger Levi was recorded as living in Occupation Road, Belvedere, Kent, with his widowed father, John, a single man, aged about 20 years, who was working as a plasterer’s labourer. (John’s wife, Johanna, had died in 1913, at the age of 54, recorded as having been living in a caravan in Occupation Road.) Of course this Levi would already have known his future wife, Eliza Dighton, the daughter of Andrew and Caroline. She had been baptised at East Wickham, in Kent, in June 1897, so just a year or two younger than her husband, unlike the 18 year gap there would have been if the elder Levi Boswell had been her husband. The marriage of Eliza and Levi/John Boswell took place at St. Michael’s Church, East Wickham, on 25th February 1817, and their first child, Eliza, was born that year.
Levi and Eliza Boswell then baptised another Levi, of course, who was born in 1920; the following year the couple used the name Beatrice, in tribute to a sister of Levi’s, and in 1922 little Emily Isabelle, named for Eliza’s sister, was born. Family names continued to be used when their son, Percy, named after a brother of Levi’s, was baptised on 4th January 1925, son of a hawker, but died the following year,; it was the same year that a daughter, Mary, was born, and she was followed in 1928 by Caroline, named for Eliza’s mother. Another daughter, Kate, after Levi’s eldest sister, was born in 1930, followed by John, a name belonging to both Levi, his father and a brother of Eliza’s, who was born in 1931.
The same name used for cousins Levi Boswell has proved problematic for researchers, but the records of their births, marriages, army records and also the births of their children prove, beyond doubt, their separate identities: both grandsons of Zachariah and Justina, the elder Levi, born in 1879, son of Levi and Urania, who would marry Misella Lee in 1901; the younger Levi, born c1895, son of John and Johanna, who would wed Eliza Dighton in 1917.