William Whiting Boardman (1794-1871) was the oldest child of Elijah Boardman and Mary Ann Whiting. He attended the Colchester Academy in preparation for college and was graduated from Yale College in 1812. He studied law first in Cambridge and then at the Litchfield Law School in 1816, two years before being admitted to the bar. Boardman was a Judge of Probate in New Haven, Connecticut from 1825 to 1829. He served in the Connecticut State Senate from 1830 to 1832 and was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1836 until 1839, and then again in 1845, 1849 and 1851. In 1840, he was appointed to fill a vacancy in the United States Congress and was subsequently elected. He remained in that office for three years. Other interests included the militia. Boardman rose to the rank of major in the Governor's Foot Guard. He was a trustee of Trinity College from 1832 until 1871 and acted as the president of both the Gas Light Company of New Haven and the New Haven Water Company. In 1857, he married Lucy Hall of Poland, Ohio. He and his wife had no children. He died in his New Haven home on Hillhouse Avenue and is interred in Grove Street Cemetery.