Go to transcription of Robert Tunaley's Will.

(This document obtained and transcribed by Marcus Tunaley)

This will dated 14/2/1805, approved 17/4/1821.

Click here to go back to Thomas Senior

Samuel Slater & The

Bootts: U.S.Pioneers.

Robert Tunaley

b. Derby 1744/45.

m. Mary Needham 11-6-1770.

Second Marriage:

m. 27-1-1800 Constantia Snape.

Robert d. 11th August 1820, Derby.

Emigration to Massachusetts, U.S.A., abt. 1806.

In his book "Recollections of Francis Boott: for his grandson F.B.D.", Francis Boott Jnr. writes,"my mother was a great favourite of the famous painter Joseph Wright of Derby, who painted her as a young woman".

Kirk Boott Jnr. (1790-1837), an American industrialist and married to Ann Haden (b. 1788, Derby, England), was instrumental in the early history of Lowell, Massachusetts.

Mary Tunaley's husband Francis Boott, who set up the trading partnership Boott and Farrow on arrival in Boston, was the cousin of Kirk Boott Jnr. whose father, also Kirk Boott, had emigrated to the United States from Derby, England in 1783 and worked in Boston as a successful import merchant.

Prior to his death in 1817 , Kirk Snr. had already had dealings with Francis Cabot Lowell who, in 1813, had set up the Boston Manufacturing Company whereby investors bought shares in manufacturing stock - in itself, a pioneering movement.

With these investments and with the help of skilled engineers including the inventor Paul Moody, Lowell was able to set up the "Waltham-Lowell System" of textile manufanufacture, meaning that for the first time in America, spinning, weaving, dyeing, and cutting were completed in a single plant.

F.C. Loweell had himself been a successful import merchant and in 1815 at F.C.'s request, Kirk Boott Snrs.'s company took on Francis Cabot Lowell's son-in-law and nephew, John Amory Lowell, as an apprentice.

Given the close relationship between the Lowells and Bootts that had been forged by Kirk Snr., this would no doubt have been one factor in Kirk Boott Jnr. being given the opportunity to supervise and develop a new complex of textile mills, later known as the Boott Mills, close to the Merrimack River and city of Lowell, MA.

Indeed, it was John Amory Lowell, Kirk Boott Snr.'s former apprentice, who took over the Boston Manufaturing Company business following F.C.'s death in 1817. John Amory later became a director of the Suffolk Bank created by investors in the Boston Manufacturing Company (these people later known as the the "Boston Associates"). He later became Treasurer of both the Boston Manufaturing Company and the Merrimack Manufacturing company.

According to records, Kirk Snr., born Derby 1750, was a friend of Joseph Wright the painter.

For further information on Mary Tunaley and the Boott family click here.

N.B.: Pallott's Marriage Index (1780-1837) and the Phillimore Derbyshire Parish Register both confirm the marriage of Francis Boott and Mary Tunaley in 1805.

Miss Mary Tunaley

Portrait Painting of Mary Tunaley by Joseph Wright of Derby.

Researchgate

A portrait painting of Mary Tunaley by Joseph Wright of Derby is held by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts. In April/May 2014, following relevant information from this project having been forwarded to Boston, the painting previously entitled "Mrs.Francis Boot" was retitled "Miss Mary Tunaley" with fresh provenance. Mary Tunaley also features in the provenance for the Joseph Wright painting "Portrait of Sarah and Ann Haden" held by the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts. For further information click here.

Click here or on chart above to enlarge

(Chart created by Dr. J. Holmes)

Click here for pdf file of Mary Tunaley section of Boott family tree.

Below: Burdett's 1769 sketch of Full Street, Derby

Peter Perez Burdett's 1769 sketch of Full Street, Derby, where Mary Tunaley grew up. Click on image to enlarge.

Click here for more detailed information.

Mary Tunaley, The Hadens, Miss Jane Austen and James McNeill Whistler

The Tunaley neighbours of Full Street and Queen Street: Joseph Wright and Erasmus Darwin

Mary christened St. Alkmunds, Derby, 4th May,1775.

(by Robert Tunaley's first marriage to Mary Needham).

Mary: Marriage 1

Mary Tunaley m. Francis Boott ("merchant"), All Saints, Derby, 25th July, 1805.

Followed by emigration to America where Francis set up the Boston trading partnership Boott and Farrow.

Francis d. 1814, Azores, on journey from America to
England.

Kirk Boott "merchant" in the notice, was uncle to Francis Boott of Boott and Farrow. It was Kirk Boott, Jnr. son of Kirk Boott, and cousin of Francis, who was instumental in the setting up and operation of the Boott Mills.

Children by first marriage as follows:

Mary: Marriage 2

(M2) Mary m. Jeremiah Lee, Brattleboro, Vermont, 1825. Jeremiah, a merchant and at a later stage U.S. Consul in the Mediterranean, was the grandson of Colonel Jeremiah Lee, a person influential in the American War of Independence. Following marriage, Mary and "Jerry" set up residence in Mt. Vernon St., Boston, close to the Port of Boston. For further details click here.

Mary died 7th. February, 1846, Boston, buried Mt. Auburn, Massachusetts.

J.H: Jeremiah ("Jerry" as he was called) died February, 1852, Boston, from "bronchitis" (presumably as a result of smoke inhalation) followng a fire that broke out, Feb. 4th. 1852 at Messrs. Gould & Co., a sash and blind factory, Watertown, Boston.

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Samuel Slater & The Bootts: U.S.Pioneers click here

The Last Will and Testament of Kirk Boott Snr. and the Travails of John Wright Boott (click here)Francis Boott Jnr. an American Composer

Mary's husband Francis Boott was also the nephew of Kirk Boott (1755-1817), a botanist, horticulturalist and successful import merchant who was born Derby and emigrated to America 1783. Kirk Boott was a friend of Joseph Wright of Derby the landscape and portrait painter. Kirk married Mary Love, 1785, another emigree who was the daughter of the captain of the ship taking Kirk to America.

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Kirk Boott's second son, Kirk Boott Jnr. (1790-1837) later became an American industrialist, instrumental in the early history of Lowell, Massachusetts.

The "derbyshire.co.uk" website (click here)tells how Kirk Boott with the help of William Strutt of Belper, Derby, helped set up a cotton manufacturing business on the banks of the Merrimack River in Massachusetts.

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Kirk Boott's third son, another Francis Boott (26 September 1792– 25 December 1863) was an American physician and botanist who was resident in England from 1820. Francis, along with others including Dr. Robert Liston (1794-1847) helped pioneer the use of anaesthetics in surgery.

A letter was discovered (1982) from Robert Liston (in his own hand) to Francis Boott 135 yesrs after it was written (click here).

Francis was the son-in-law of Lucy Hardcastle (nee Swift) of Derby. Lucy wrote the book “An Introduction to the Elements of the Linnaean System of Botany : for Young Persons “(1830) (click here).

Information contained in a summary of correspondence by the famous scientist Michael Faraday (1791-1867) entitled “The Correspondence of Michael Faraday (F.R.S.), Volume 2: 1832-1840” also shows Francis to be the Secretary of the Linnean Society 1832-1839.

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P.H.Tunaley