p. 523 "8 July, 1685. The following convicted before Chief Justice Jeffries" at the Court of Oyer and Terminer for Dorset, Somerset and Devon for waging war against the King and sentenced to be transported to the Americas [sentence enrolled on 4 February 1691:...[then a huge list follows for several pages to p. 525]... p. 525 "....Robert Millard, Robert Stuckey, James Field Jr., ISAAC BOLSTER [or Balster], John Hussey, Andrew Staley...."

I figure that Isaac Bolster originally landed on the Americas as a convicted criminal sometime during 1691 and that he probably did several years of hard labor (as part of his sentence) before being released. After that, it probably took him several more years to set himself up financially so that he could be considered an "eligible bachelor!" I believe that Isaac was involved in the Duke of Monmouth's 1685 rebellion against King James II. Because he was sentenced to transportation for waging war against the King. I'm going to guess that his life was spared because he was very young at the time of the rebellion. Those who were old enough to feel the full weight of the law were drawn and quartered as traitors. This rebellion took place in Dorchester, Dorset County, England. Here is a brief history of it.

The town was founded by the Romans, who named the site Durnovaria shortly after capturing the Iron age hill-fort of Maiden Castle in 43 AD. Today Dorchester is essentially a Georgian town, many of its old buildings having been destroyed by a series of fires in the late seventeeth and eighteenth centuries. Judge Jefferey's lodgings in High West Street is said to be where the Judge stayed in 1685 during the Bloody Assize, and the Antelope Hotel, (Now alas a shopping arcade), has a room said to be the courtroom where the trial of 292 Rebels was held. 74 men were sentenced to be hanged, drawn & quartered and bits of them distributed around the country. James II (King James Bible) Within months of his accession, James had to crush a rebellion of Protestants who rallied around his nephew James, Duke of Monmouth and son of Charles II. The Protestants were easily defeated, and James exhibited little toleration: Monmouth was captured and beheaded. James appointed Judge Jeffries to preside over the "Bloody Assizes" which executed, tortured, or sent into slavery the Protestant rebels.

Isaac Bolster came from Great Britain and was living in Boston, Mass. in November of 1715, but was located in Brookline in February, 1716. Of the family before the emigration nothing is known except that Isaac had a brother named Sampson Bolster, an innkeeper, who remained in England. Isaac Bolster married Abigail Bullard in Medway, Mass. on the 15th of April 1717. Isaac and Abigail went for a time to Dedham, Mass., where their first child was born, then returned to Brookline, where two more children were born. Before 1727 they had removed to Mendon, Mass., probably accompanying or following the Bullard relatives. He acquired land in Mendon, both by direct purchase and by divisions from the town, as shown by the following extract from the printed propietors records of Mendon. page 714; " June 8, 1733, Laid out land for Isaac Bolster, five acres, viz: three acres eighth division, two acres ninth division, laid out joining to his other land." He became a resident of Uxebridge after 1727, possibly being located in that part of Mendon which was then set off and made into a new town.

Abigail, his wife, joined the church of Uxebridge, by profession, 13 June 1731, and died October, 1732. Isaac married second, 4 June 1735 Hepsibah Waite of Sutton, she died 20 July 1741 and he married third, 4 February 1742, Susanna Smith of Leicester, who survived him and married 16 April 1754, Joseph Benson of Mendon, Mass.,Isacc Bolster died in Uxebridge, Mass. 28 April 1753.

[SOURCES]- Tilden's History of Medfield, Mass.

[SOURCES]- Rhode Island Genealogy - Biography Vol. 2, Part 2 pages 1621-2336. Published by J.H. Beers & Co., Chicago 1908.

[SOURCES]-The Complete Book of Emigrants:1661-1699

[SOURCES]-New York Times Genealogy Section early 1900's

[SOURCES]-Sally J. (Bolster) Holcombe