Boucaut was born in Mylor, Cornwall,[1] the eldest son of Captain Ray Boucaut, former commander of the East India Company's ship Mary Ann,[1][2] and his wife, Winifred, daughter of James Penn, superintendent of the Royal Navy's victualling department at Mylor, Falmouth.

Boucaut left with his parents for South Australia in 1846, and after some work as a stockman in the interior, returned to Adelaide and entered the legal profession.

In December 1861 he was returned to the South Australian House of Assembly as a representative for the City of Adelaide district, but was defeated at the general election in 1862.

Boucaut was narrowly defeated in the 1868 election for East Adelaide, but a few days later on 15 April he was returned unopposed for The Burra,[5] where his father-in-law, Alexander McCulloch, stood down in his favour.

During the following nine months some useful legislation was passed, including a crown lands consolidation bill, and provision for several railway lines and for the improvement of Victor Harbour.

In September 1878, on the death of Justice Stow, Boucaut was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia.

[6] His brother Bastin Boucaut (c. 1843 – 16 September 1864) was a member of B. T. Finniss's 1864 surveying party to the Northern Territory; he died of fever at Escape Cliffs, aged 21.

He published in London in 1905, his vigorously written The Arab, the Horse of the Future, and in the following year, Letters to My Boys, An Australian Judge and Ex-Premier on his Travels in Europe.