James Boardman (ca. 1791–1861), merchant and public official, was a native of Liverpool, England. In 1818 he declared bankruptcy as a merchant in Liverpool. Boardman operated an earthenware and china warehouse in the same city by 1821 and was active in the trade until at least 1827. He visited the United States, 1829–31, including a year’s residence in New York City, where he published a series of articles describing earlier travels in continental Europe. After his permanent return to Liverpool, Boardman published America, and the Americans (1833), a work he dedicated to “Lafayette, the companion of Washington, and the friend of mankind.” Beginning in 1838 he spent four years as Liverpool’s superintendent-registrar of births, deaths, and marriages. Removed from that post due to his adherence to the Liberal party, Boardman was assistant superintendent of the census commission in 1845 ([Boardman], “Reminiscences of Interesting Scenes and Periods; or, Scraps from the Port-folio of a Travelling Bachelor,” Euterpeiad: An Album of Music, Poetry & Prose 1 [1830–31]: esp. pp. 140, 152–3, 189; Liverpool Mercury, Or Commercial, Literary, and Political Herald, 19 June 1818, 21 Jan. 1825; Gore’s Liverpool Directory [1821]: 56; [1825]: 53; Gores’ Directory of Liverpool and its Environs [1827]: 52; Liverpool Mercury, and Lancashire General Advertiser, 6 Feb. 1835, 16 Mar. 1838, 22 Apr. 1842, 31 Jan. 1845, 22 Jan. 1861; UkNA: England census, Lancashire, 1841, 1851).

The portraits Boardman sent to TJ have not been identified.