- Nearly everyone in and around Doddridge County who has Boyce ancestry can likely trace their pedigree back to Robert Boyce, who was born in about 1771, possibly in Pennsylvania. He was reportedly married to Mary Elizabeth Ashcraft. In the 1810 Census, they and their four children were found in Harrison County, which may or may not have been the part of Harrison County that later became Doddridge County. Ten years later, they were still in Harrison County, but now with eight children. No record of Robert Boyce was found in any census or other public record after that.
Charles S. Morgan (1799-1859) was elected to terms in the Virginia House of Delegates (1821-1824) and Virginia Senate (1824-1831) before serving a 27-year tenure as Superintendent of the Virginia Penitentiary in Richmond. Among his papers in the Charles S. Morgan Collection at the West Virginia State Archives & Library in Charleston is a ledger (catalogued as Ms 79-1, Folder 66) from the Virginia Penitentiary recording each prisoner's name, age, residence, admission date, length of sentence, crime, and date of discharge or death. This ledger was for prisoners serving a term of five or more years and admitted to the penitentiary between 1800 and 1833.
One of the entries on that 186-year-old handwritten ledger solves the mystery of Robert Boyces disappearance. It states that Robert Boyce of Harrison County, age 57, entered the prison on September 11, 1828, sentenced to ten years for the crime of horse stealing. He died of "epidemic cholera" on October 1, 1832.
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1771 - 1832 (~ 61 years)
