Matthew Boulton (September 3, 1728 – 18 August 1809) was an English manufacturer and engineer. Boulton was born in Birmingham, England where his father, Matthew Boulton the elder, was a "toymaker" (a manufacturer of small metal articles of various kinds). In 1749 he became a partner in his father's business (and the general manager), and in 1755 the Boultons acquired Sarehole Mill, which they used for rolling sheet metal. In 1756 Boulton married Mary Robinson, a distant cousin and heir to a large fortune, she died around 1760 and they had no children. Shortly after his father's death in 1759, Boulton went into partnership with John Fothergill and in 1762 they established the Soho Manufactory, two miles north of Birmingham. Here they undertook the manufacture of artistic objects in metal, a