Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1825-1913, predominately 1875-1913 (Creation)
Level of description
Series
Extent and medium
110cm textual records
22 bound volumes
8 certificates
4 journals
2 booklets
2 bills of sale
3 indentures
2 sale grants
126 cartes de visite
45 photographic prints
5 photo albums
4 framed photographs
4 paintings
3 scrapbooks
2 etchings
1 embroidered sampler
1 lithograph
1 ribbon
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
D’Arcy Boulton, Jr. (1785–1846) and his wife, Sarah Anne (née Robinson), (1789–1863) built the Grange House in 1817 and lived there with their eight children John Andrew (1810?-1830), William Henry (1812-1874), D’Arcy Edward (1814-1885), Beverley Robert (?-1840), Mary Sayer (1816-1837), Emma Robinson (1818-1890), Sarah Ann (1824?-1906), and John (1829-1882).
Both sides of the family were members of the powerful elite in Upper Canada - Sarah Anne’s brother was Chief Justice John Beverley Robinson, the leader of the Family Compact, and Boultons and their friends enjoyed influence, favourable business dealings, and Crown appointments.
D’Arcy had trained as a lawyer but worked as a merchant with his brother-in-law, Peter Robinson. Once settled in The Grange he retired and became a landowner. He also held minor government positions.
Their eldest surviving son, William (1812–1874), continued to live in the house. He also trained and practised as a lawyer. William was also an alderman, was appointed mayor of Toronto four times and was a member of parliament.
In 1846, William married Harriet Dixon (1825–1909), a Bostonian from a wealthy family. They had no children. After William’s death, Harriet married scholar and political writer Goldwin Smith (1823–1910). Harriet left the Grange House to the Art Museum of Toronto (now the Art Gallery of Ontario) in her will.
Name of creator
Biographical history
Goldwin Smith (1823-1910) was a prominent journalist, academic and liberal reformer who spent the latter part of his life in Toronto. Born in Reading, England, he was educated at Eton College and Oxford University, and was the Regius Professor of History at Oxford from 1858 to 1866. Smith began to publish widely on history and political reform. He moved to the United States in 1868, and taught briefly at Cornell University, to which he retained a connection for the rest of his life. He moved to Toronto in 1871, and married Harriet Elizabeth Mann (née Dixon) the widow of William Henry Boulton, in 1875. Smith thus became master of the Grange house and estate in central Toronto, and became a pillar of Toronto society. His journalistic career included a brief employment at the Globe, after which he joined independent publishing ventures including the Canadian Monthly and National Review and the Evening Telegram. He then published his own journal, the Bystander, sporadically between 1879 and 1890. Smith also published widely in other local and international news journals. He took part in important civic and educational reform initiatives, including serving on the new board of the University of Toronto. The Grange remained his wife's property and was willed by her to the city of Toronto to serve as a public art gallery, later becoming the first home of the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Records in this series were acquired by staff and volunteers of the Grange in the 1970s, mostly through donations from descendants of the Boulton and Smith families including Alice Marjorie Boulton and Margery Forster Boulton. See the field “Immediate source of acquisition or transfer” for information about the source of each item, where available.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Series contains documents related to the Boulton Family and inhabitants of Grange house dating from before the Art Museum of Toronto took possession of the house in 1913, most of which were acquired in the 1970s during the operation of the Grange as a historic house. Includes correspondence (mostly to and from the Boulton family), statements of account, mortgages and indentures relating to lots on Queen St W, documents related to the management of Harriette E.M. Smith’s trust, photographs of the Boulton family, genealogical information, and ephemera.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
The original order of these documents has been lost to time. During the operation of the Grange as a historic house, records from boxes 52-69 this series were maintained as a collection called Archives of the Grange. Although there is a finding aid for “Archives of the Grange,” over time these records have been mixed up, and interfiled with other Boulton and Grange documents that seem to have been added at another time.
Series 13: Boulton-Dixon-Smith Research and Series 15: Early Art Museum of Toronto Records were also interfiled with this series.
The archivist has re-arranged the collection to distinguish between secondary research materials (series 13), primary materials originating from the Grange, Smith, and Boulton families (series 14), and materials relating to the Art Museum of Toronto (series 15), noting the original box numbers for records that were part of “Archives of the Grange,” where possible.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Open. Access to AGO Archives is by appointment. Please contact the reference desk for more information.