Thomas Boxwell (1846-1939)

Thomas Boxell & Co.

Thomas Boxell was born in Brighton, three of his uncles became photographers. It is suggested that Thomas learnt his photographic art from one of these uncles, Charles Combs (1830-1872) whose studio was at 32 Preston Street in Brighton. An advert for Thomas’s studio in Pickering from 1877 states that he had been a practical photographer for 18 years, which would suggest that he started working in the studio at the age of 13. Thomas opened his first studio at the age of 20 in 1867. Following his marriage in 1868 he seems to have spent sometime in Maldon in Essex before moving to Halifax, Yorkshire. In Halifax, on the 1871 census, he was working as a photographic assistant. He and his family moved frequently between 1872 and 1879. He set up studios in Driffield, Bridlington and Pickering (where he was also advertising as a picture framer and guilder), before coming to Scarborough in about 1880. It is reported that he was ‘liquidated by arrangement’ in August 1880. The 1881 census lists his profession as photographer. From at least 1897 Boxell & Co was being used on carte de visite and cabinet cards (1905 in directories), and we can only speculate as to whether this included his partner, children or other people also operating the photographic studios.

In 1868 Thomas Boxell married Ann Drake (1848-1914) in Ailsworth, Northamptonshire (now Cambridgeshire). Their first children were born in Maldon, Minnie in 1869 and Harry in 1870 (died 1871). While living at 7 Grove Street in Halifax another child was born Edith Mary (m. Raper)(1871-1944). Other children include Maud (m. Normanton) (1873, Driffield, d.1923), Eva Elizabeth (m. Howe) (1874, Bridlington, d.1966), Harold Tom (1876, Pickering, d.1966), Augustus George (1877, Pickering, 1947), Alice (m. Dixon) (1879, Pickering, d.1949), Matilda Ann (m. Middleton) (1880, Scarborough, d.1933), Ellen Dorothy (m. Fitzpatrick) (1882, Scarborough, d.1963), Emily (1884-1885, Scarborough), Frederick William (1885, Scarborough, d.1931) and Albert Edward (1887-1887).

In the 1901 census three of Thomas’s sons, Harold, Augustus and Frederick were recorded as photographers, Probably at Boxell and Co. Minnie married Edwin Avison who was also a photographer with a studio in Valley Bridge Parade. In 1911 he and his wife Ann were recorded with Edwin and Minnie at the White Horse Hotel, Church Street, Whitby. When Thomas died in 1939 in Darlington he left his entire estate of £120 13s 10d to Edwin Avison.