During her career she repelled one attack by a French privateer, was captured on a later voyage by another before being recaptured by the Royal Navy, and then was captured on her tenth voyage by yet another privateer after Bolton had gathered her captives but before she was able to deliver them to the West Indies.

Bolton returned to British ownership, first sailing as West Indiaman, before embarking on an 11th enslaving voyage.

She blew up on the African coast in 1806 after some of the captives aboard her succeeded in taking her over and setting fire to her.

[6][b] Captain Lee sailed from Liverpool on 5 December 1794, bound to the Congo River area.

[8] Bolton, Hart, master, sailed in company with Union, a London ship with 20 guns and 40 men.

On the 27th the two were off Cape Corrientes in a dead calm when a French privateer of eighteen guns and 140 men under the command of Captain O'Brien, an Irishman, approached using 24 sweeps (long, large oars).

An exchange of gunfire between Bolton and the privateer ensued and lasted for an hour and a half.

[11][d] Bolton had left Liverpool with 34 men and had suffered five crew deaths during her voyage.

During the voyage Union started to take on water so her crew transferred to Bolton.

[e] Gironde was armed with 26 guns and had a complement of 260 men; reportedly, Bolton had 70 people (including passengers – presumably most of them the crew from Union), aboard her.

Two passengers on Bolton were killed, and six of her crew, including Captain Watson, were wounded; Gironde had no casualties.

She sailed from St Vincent on 10 January 1802 and arrived back at Liverpool on 20 February.

[15] The Lancaster Gazette and General Advertiser, for Lancashire, Westmorland, &c. reported on 14 January 1804 that a French privateer had captured Bolton, Spence, master, 50 leagues windward of Barbados.

In the two-and-a-half hour engagement that preceded her capture Spence and a seaman were killed, and four seamen were dangerously wounded.

[28] In 1803, eleven British slave ships were lost, seven of them in the Middle Passage, sailing from Africa to the West Indies.

The 1805 volume of Lloyd's Register carried that annotation "captured" beneath her name, possibly struck out.

Lloyd's List reported in July 1805 that she had reached Nevis from Liverpool and Madeira.

Captain Patrick Burleigh sailed from Liverpool on 4 July 1806, bound for West Africa.

[33] However, a source on insurrections by captives reports that 12 slaves were killed when Bolton blew up.

[37] Hugh Crow, the famous captain of slave ships, gave a detailed account of what had happened.

They took over the ship and proceeded to bring some barrels of powder that she was carrying to trade up on deck, and start pouring it around.

They were able to persuade the women and a number of the captives to leave Bolton and go onboard the other ships.

The next day Bolton caught fire and blew up, killing the men who had remained aboard.