Thomas Boylston (1691-1739)

He modestly referred to himself as, "a saddler and shopkeeper" but in fact he ran, "a thriving importing business" and owned considerable property in Boston, Roxbury, Brimfield, and Bedford, Massachusetts. He was the brother of the celebrated Dr. Zabdiel Boylston who successfully inoculated against Smallpox, saving countless lives. He was married in 1715 and had eight children but only seven (listed above) reached adulthood. In the early 1760s, his widow purchased a mansion on School Street, Boston, and commissioned the leading portraitist in the colonies, John Singleton Copley, to paint pictures of herself and her remaining children to be displayed in her new house. Boylston himself died in 1739 and was the great-uncle of President John Adams.