Gottlieb, like his dad, was a merchant and general entrepreneur. In 1842 he applied for ‘a patent relating to gas and gas burners’, and in 1843 for ‘an arrangement and apparatus for the production and distribution of light’. (See ‘The Boccius Light’, below. This was from the first edition of The Illustrated London News, October 1842. Whether it was in the newspaper because they were trying to fill their columns, always a problem, or because it was a genuinely interesting object, we may never know).

In 1841, he published “A Treatise on the management of Fresh-Water Fish with a view to making them a source of profit to landed proprietors”. It’s only a 38 page book, but interesting to his descendants, including ‘German’ fish recipes. In 1848, he published “Fish in Rivers and Streams, A treatise on the production and management of fish in fresh waters”. I have a copy of the two treatises bound as one volume, probably 1850s (see picture of the title page).

He was commissioned by the UK government in the 1850s to attempt to transport salmon and trout fry to Tasmania, to supplement the apparently inadequate native fish stock. I have a reference to a paper he submitted to the Royal Society of Tasmania in 1854 on the problem of introducing salmon ova. Boccius's attempt failed, but the lessons he learned laid the ground for the subsequent success of transporting ova in the following decades.

He is recorded as submitting more patents to the London Patent Office in the 1850s and 60s, and died in London in 1864.

Here is a list of my immediate Boccius relations. I have deliberately concentrated here on those closer relations, leaving the cousins, second cousins, etc., to the Ancestry.co.uk family tree.

Gottlieb Boccius, m. Eleanora. both born c1740, Saxony.

their son:
Frederick Boccius, m. Charlotte, he was born c1765, Saxony.
their children:
Eleanora, 1799-c1800,
Angelica, 1801-c1875, and

Gottlieb Boccius, 1797-1864. Born St.Petersburg, died London.
his children:
Emily 1834-1917, Charlotte 1837-1921, Marion 1840-1926, Eleanora 1841-1930, Harriet b1845, Septima 1852-1944, Octavia 1853-1932, William, 1843-1873, (m. Susannah Fennel),
and

Frederic Boccius, 1838-1911, m. Ellen Babb, 1842-1905.

Their children:

Henry Alfred, 1865-1917, Mary 1866-1944, Ellen Louisa 1868-, Caroline Emily 1870-1940, Ernest 1872-, Charles Arthur 1875-1952, Percy 1878-1897.

Caroline, 1870-1940, lived with Hugh Allen, 1870-1926.
their children:

Barbara (later Thorpe), 1915-1992,
Lancelot (aka Bill) 1902-1973,
Eugenie (later Huck, m.cousin) 1898-1987,
Victor 1908-1979,
Nydia (later Lismer) 1896-1981, and

Hilda, 1905-1995, married Charles Ives, 1900-1963

Hilda was my mother.

Only two of Gottlieb's sons had sons of their own, hence only two possibilities of carrying the name Boccius down to us. One son was Frederic, the other was William Gottfried Boccius (wrongly written down as Boccins in the Saint Luke marriage to Susannah Eliza Jane Fennell of 1870). One of their children was
• Eleanora Caroline, born 1870,
Others were
• Charles Arthur.
• William Gottlieb, b 1875, d 1901, having married Alice Batten.

Boccius sometimes gets written down as Boccins, possibly by IGI workers reading copperplate ‘cius’ as ‘cins’. If you search for “* Boccins” in England on the IGI, you’ll find a reference to:

• Eliza Boccins, a widow, born 1847, living in Golborne Gardens in 1881. She is the daughter-in-law of Gottlieb. Her daughter, Eleanora b 1871, and her son William, born 1873, live with her.

Eliza Boccins is Eliza Boccius, i.e. Eliza Fennell, William's wife, now widow. She appears again in the 1901 census, as follows, along with these other household members:
Eliza Boccius, aged 55;
Eleanor Marney (nee Boccius), aged 30; (she seems to have dropped the foreign spelling of her name)
Alice Boccius, aged 25;
William Boccius, aged 2;
Gottlieb Boccius, aged 3 months;
Alice Southern, aged 59;
Edith Garney, aged 59; (could be Marney, misspelt?)


Frederick Boccius, my great-grandfather (Caroline’s dad). He was born in 1838, and appears in Tavistock in the 1861 census, working for the railway and lodging away from home. Family lore always said he 'married a west country girl', so he probably met his wife, Ellen Babb, whilst in Devon. He was described in later censuses as a 'foreman railway porter'. He seems to have lied about his age in the 1891 census, possibly because his employers would have been concerned that he was too old.