▶Date of birth:  22 August 1804        Place of birth: St George’s Hanover Square, London

▶Father:  Edward Boodle     Mother:  Mary Ann Clementson

▶Spouse(s):  Georgiana Frances Chilver    Date(s) of marriage:  23 April 1835     Place(s) of marriage: St Mary’s Church, Cheltenham

▶Occupation: Clergyman (Anglican)

▶Lifestory: Thomas Boodle’s second appointment as a clergyman was at St Mary’s, Cheltenham, from where he eventually became Vicar of Christ Church, Virginia Water, in Surrey for thre last thirty-six years of his life. Boodle was born in London in 1804, the third son of Edward Boodle Esq., and his wife Mary Ann, of St George’s Hanover Square, London. He trained initially as a lawyer, and was admitted at Lincoln’s Inn in 1821, at the age of seventeen, “of Brook Street, Grosvenor Square”. However, in a change of direction he matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1826, BA 1830, MA 1834, and was ordained Deacon in 1829, and Priest (both Bath and Wells) in 1831.

Boodle was licensed Curate of Compton Dando, Somerset in 1829, and became Curate of St Mary’s, Cheltenham in 1835; the Cheltenham Annuaire for 1837 (containing information collected the previous year) records that he resided, as the initial occupant, at 4 Pittville Lawn (now 25 Pittville Lawn) in Pittville, Cheltenham. While in Cheltenham he was married, by the Revd. Francis Close, to Georgiana Frances, third daughter of Samuel Chilver Esq., of New Burlington Street in London.

In late 1836 or early 1837 he moved to Barnwell, also known as St Andrew the Less, Cambridge as its as Perpetual Curate, where by 1839 he was a stout advocate of the British Society for Promoting Christianity according to the Principles of the Reformation and by 1842 was on the Board of Management of the Cambridge Female Refuge; he was also a firm proponent of local organisations supporting education (as Chaplain to the Norwood Schools), missionary work, and several other issues.

The largest part of his career was, however, spent as Vicar of Christ Church, Virginia Water, Surrey from 1847 until his death in 1883. The newspapers show that he travelled widely at the time, and his wife Georgiana died in Pisa in 1858, where one of his sons also died two weeks later.

Boodle himself died at his Vicarage in Virginia Water in 1883, at the age of seventy-eight, and was buried in the churchyard at the town. His personal estate at death was sworn at just over £1,050.

▶Moved to Pittville from:  Compton Dando, Somerset      Moved from Pittville to: Virginia Water, Surrey

▶Date of death:  3 April 1883      Place of death: Vicarage, Virginia Water, Surrey

▶Date of burial:   9 April 1883      Place of burial: Christ Church, Virginia Water

▶Notes:        ID: 3729

Contributor(s):  John Simpson/Alan Munden