Multi talent:

In 1851 he published the book "A Popular Introduction to the Study and Practice of Chess (Charles S. Skeet, London 1851)".

http://books.google.com/books?id=mz...

Painting:

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/...

I want to submit the games, but would like to have more information on the exact place (London?) and date. Does anybody have a clue?

Here is Boden's win:

Boden, Samuel Standidge - Mackenzie, George Henry
[Albion, 1866.06.09]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.0-0 Bc5 6.e5 d5 7.exf6 dxc4 8.Re1+ Kf8 9.Bg5 gxf6 10.Bh6+ Kg8 11.Nc3 Bf5 12.Ne4 Bxe4 13.Rxe4 f5 14.Nxd4 Qf6 15.Nxf5 Bxf2+ 16.Kh1 Qxf5 17.Rg4+ Qg6 18.Rxg6+ hxg6 19.Qf3 Ne5 20.Qxf2 Rxh6 21.h3 Kg7 22.Qd4 f6 23.Qc5 1-0

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Opening Explorer

Page 54:
<The melancholy duty devolves upon me this week of announcing the death of Mr. S. S. Boden, which took place at his chambers in Tavistock-street, Bedford-square, on Friday morning, 13th Jan. Mr. Boden was born on the 4th of April, 1826, and consequently was not quite fifty-six years old. His health had been for some time failing, but the immediate cause of his death was typhoid fever.>

<For the last four years Mr. Boden had abandoned the practice of Chess, but he always continued to cherish a deep interest in the Chess news of the day;>

<I would describe him, socially, in the language which Bassanio used of Antonio:->

Page 55

<The kindest man,
The best condition'd and unwearied spirit
In doing courtesies; and one in whom
The ancient Roman honour more appears
Than any that draws breath.>

<Mr. Boden first won his spurs in 1851, when he carried off the first prize in the provincial tournament. He was never a great match player, but he was, as Captain Evans phrased it, a master of all parts of the game; and in 1857, and for some years afterwards, he was acknowledged to be the best English player.>

<Chivalrous to the highest degree as a combatant, he never made idle excuses for a defeat, or depreciated the skill of an opponent.>

<Mr. Boden wrote a very valuable work, entitled 'Popular Introduction to Chess' and for thirteen years conducted the chess column in the 'Field', and was the author of the article on Chess which was published in 'Chamber's Encyclopedia.' He also wrote the introduction to the 'Westminster Papers'.>

Morphy 2817 #1

Lowenthal 2619 #7
de Rivière 2570 #9
Boden 2529 #13
Bird 2488 #17
Barnes 2429 #22

To put this in perspective in 1924 the equivalent rankings would yield a 5-person simul of:

From Boden's first <Field> column:

T Barnes vs S Boden, 1858

Both employ a variation that Boden would shortly use against Morphy:

Page 54:
<The melancholy duty devolves upon me this week of announcing the death of Mr. S. S. Boden, which took place at his chambers in Tavistock-street, Bedford-square, on Friday morning, 13th Jan. Mr. Boden was born on the 4th of April, 1826, and consequently was not quite fifty-six years old.>>

Ancestry.com has two records for <Samuel Standidge Boden>.

One is a baptismal register for the Independent chapel in East Retford, Notts.

The entries are hand-written:

<Samuel Standidge, son of James and Mary Frances Boden was born 4th of May 1826, in the parish of West Retford, and baptised July 27th in the same year. Jas. Boden>

Other surrounding entries are also signed <Jas. Boden>; one even ends with <and baptised....by James Boden (from Sheffield)>.

So it appears that Boden's father was minister of the church/parish around this period. When Boden first emerges on the chess scene in the 1840s, he lived in Hull, so the family must have returned to Yorkshire.

The other record doesn't appear in manuscript form:

<Name: Samuel Standidge Boden

Gender: Male

Birth Date: 4 May 1825

Baptism Date: 5 Feb 1826

Baptism Place: Queen St Independent OR Congregational,Sheffield,York,England

Father: James Boden
Mother: Mary Frances>

<Source Information

Ancestry.com. England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.

https://mannchess.org.uk/People/Bod...

I'm surprised Mann didn't dig a little deeper because he would surely have identified the figure of <Sir Samuel Standidge> as being the likely source given the Hull connection:

<A merchant and mariner credited with reviving the British whaling trade in the mid 18th century. After a career on the sea, he retired and made a successful business of securing government contracts to transport troops, food and equipment. This was especially lucrative in the years leading up to the war of independence in the American colonies. He also supplied troop ships and transport charters to the Russian government during the Russian Turkish War in 1789. He was awarded a Russian knighthood and other treasures for his service to the Russian government.

Standidge was the Sheriff of Hull, later an Alderman and eventually the Mayor. He lived at No.1 High Street and his house still stands in the Old Town of Hull. He entertained the British Prince, William of Gloucester, and was knighted by King George III in 1795. Sir Standidge is buried in the north aisle of the church and is commemorated by a white marble memorial wall plaque.

(Information gleaned from a biography published in Wildridge, T. Tindall,1884, "Old and New Hull", published by MC Peck & Son, Hull, p 37 to 40)>

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial...

But what's the familial connection?

Mann notes that Boden's mother was <Mary Frances Boden (née Thornton, 1800/01, Hull; only daughter of John Thornton of Hull)>.

An online family tree reveals Mary Standidge (1751-1821), a daughter of Samuel, married John Thornton in 1769:

https://www.myheritage.com/names/ma...

So was this Boden's grandfather?

Unlikely given that his mother was born, according to Mann, in 1800/1 which would make Mary Standidge, 49/50 years old at the time. Also the circumstance, that John Thornton must have died long before, because Mary, according to the family tree, was remarried in 1788 to James Thornton, presumably John's brother.

So I surrmise that one of Mary / John's children (said to number four) was another John Thornton (born in the early-mid 1770s) and it was he who fathered Mary Frances.

https://www.invaluable.com/artist/b...

stonehenge's link might be better: