Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/767

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BOY
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BOY

government, the French must delay making their demands till a period that could not, in the circumstances, be exactly specified. Boyer after this made desperate efforts to increase his resources, and by his measures for that purpose precipitated his ruin. An insurrection, originating in the south of the island, obliged him to take refuge in Jamaica in 1842, whence in 1848 he passed to France. He died at Paris in 1850.—J. S., G.

BOYER, John Baptist, marquis d'Aiguilles, a French noble patron of art, procurator-general of the parliament of Aix. A love of art led him to Italy with the sculptor Puget. He formed a great collection of paintings and sculptures, and published the prints in two volumes; some of them were by his own hand. He also painted and scraped mezzotints. With nothing a year he might have proved a genius—this marquis.—W. T.

BOYER, Pierre Denis, a French prelate, eminent as a controversialist, born at Caissac in 1766; died in 1842. After completing his curriculum at the college of Rodez, where he was the friend and companion of Frayssinous, he took priest's orders in 1790, and about the commencement of the Reign of Terror began preaching in a small church in the mountainous district of Rouergue. There his reputation with the better classes, as well as with the common people, whom he addressed in the patois of the district, procured him the unenviable notice of the terrorists, and he was conducted to prison, but by a stratagem of one of his friends soon after released. He went to Paris in 1800; in 1802 attracted the favourable notice of the first consul by his publication entitled "Duel jugé au tribunal de la raison et de l'honneur," and, shortly afterwards, Frayssinous having vacated the chair of dogmatic theology in the seminary of St. Sulpice, was appointed his successor. From 1818, when he published his "Examen du pouvoir legislatif de l'Eglise sur le mariage," during the twenty years in which he was employed in missionary labour, he continued also to busy himself in matters of controversy, maintaining the doctrines of the church or her rights, as either chanced to be made the subject of attack, with considerable vigour and no little warmth.—J. S., G.

BOYER DE NICE, William, an Italian troubadour, born at Nice; lived in the fourteenth century. The only one of his pieces that has come down to us, is that which he composed for Marie, the wife of Charles, duke of Calabria; but it gives us no high opinion of his powers. He was, however, much esteemed by contemporaries, who published many of their pieces under his name.—J. G.

BOYERMANS, Theodore, a Flemish painter, born at Antwerp, and pupil and imitator of the robust Rubens. He was a good medium man, a fair designer, and excellent colourist. He filled a good many churches with his good works, and then went, we hope, to heaven to learn to do better. One of his best was a picture of the good St. Xavier, the jesuit, converting the ancestors of our Sepoy friends, executed for the church of St. Xavier's order at Ypres.—W. T.

BOYLE, David, an eminent Scottish judge, was born at Irvine on 26th July, 1772. His father, the hon. Patrick Boyle, was the third son of John, second earl of Glasgow. In 1793 he was called to the Scottish bar, and in 1807 was made solicitor-general, and was returned as member of parliament for the county of Ayr. He remained in parliament, taking, however, almost no part in its proceedings, till 1811. He was then raised to be a judge in the court of session. At the close of the same year he was promoted to the office of lord-justice-clerk. Although possessed neither of brilliant talent nor of extensive learning, he had many of the qualities of an excellent judge. He had strong good sense, unwearied zeal in the discharge of his duty, and the requisite patience, courage, honesty, and self-dependence, to enable him to discharge it with thorough impartiality. A commanding figure, good voice, and an earnest, impressive, though not eloquent mode of speaking, lent dignity to his office. His decisions remain of the highest authority in nearly every department of Scottish law, as careful and sensible applications of existing principles. He was made a privy councillor in 1820. In 1841, upon the resignation of the right hon. Charles Hope, he was appointed lord-president of the court of session. This office he continued to fill with almost unabated energy and ability till 1852, when he retired. He died soon after, at his country seat of Stewarton in Ayrshire, on the 4th of February, 1853. A statue of him in white marble has been executed by Steele, and is intended to be placed in the parliament house of Edinburgh.—J. D. W.

BOYLE, Richard, first earl of Cork, and known as "the great earl of Cork," was born in the city of Canterbury on the 3d October, 1566. He was descended from a family of great antiquity and distinction, the earliest records tracing it to the time of Henry III. In the reign of Henry VI. Ludovic Boyle of Bidney in Herefordshire left two sons, the second of whom, Roger, left four sons, one of whom, Michael, was afterwards bishop of Waterford, and another, Roger, was father to the subject of this memoir. Having received his academical education at St. Bennet's college, Cambridge, and studied law in the middle temple, Richard Boyle, upon the death of his father, resolved to travel, and accordingly went to Ireland, arriving in Dublin on the 23d of June, 1588, all his wealth being, as he states in his memoirs, twenty-seven pounds three shillings. Young Boyle's address and learning procured him the hand of a rich heiress in Limerick, who died shortly after their marriage, leaving him the possession of £500 a year. He soon purchased largely in Ireland, and incurred the suspicion and jealousy, as well for his rising importance as for his abilities, of Sir Henry Wallop, the treasurer, as of other leading men in Ireland, who misrepresented him to the queen. He immediately prepared to go over to England to refute their accusations, when the rebellion broke out in Munster, and he lost all his property. He escaped, however, and arrived in London. Through the machinations of Wallop he was committed to prison; but having at last obtained an audience of the queen, he defended himself with so much ability before the council, that the queen exclaimed, with characteristic impetuosity, "By God's death! all these are but inventions against this young man, and all his sufferings are for being able to do us service, and those complaints urged to forestall him therein; but we find him to be a man fit to be employed by ourselves, and will employ him in our service." Boyle was accordingly set free, and appointed clerk of the council of Munster, and returned to Ireland. Here he was present with Sir George Carey, the lord-president, at the siege of Kinsale, and was sent by him to London with the tidings of the victory obtained over the Spaniards and Tyrone. He accomplished the journey with great expedition, and was received by Elizabeth with great marks of condescension. On his return to Ireland he found the lord-president about to besiege Beerhaven, which being taken, Boyle was again despatched to England, and his steady friend Lord Carey recommended him to Sir Walter Raleigh as a purchaser for the lands that the latter possessed in Munster and was then about to sell. These Boyle purchased, and their income, which at the time was very inconsiderable, became soon so large, that when the Irish war was ended, they were "a very noble estate." Once more returning to Ireland, he married Catherine, the daughter of Sir Jeffery Fenton, principal secretary of state and privy councillor in that kingdom, and was knighted by the lord-deputy. The origin of Boyle's attachment to his wife, as stated by Budgell, is somewhat romantic, being said to have occurred when she was but two years old, when he first jestingly and then seriously told her father he would wait till she should attain a proper age, and would many her if Sir Jeffery would give his consent, which being promised, both parties fulfilled the engagement. The story is told on hearsay; and though the main statements may be true, yet the girl could not be so young at the time of the arrangement, as Boyle's first wife did not die till 1599, and his second marriage took place in 1603. That the marriage was a happy one, we learn on the authority of Boyle himself, who says—"I never demanded any marriage-portion, neither had promise of any, it not being in my consideration; yet her father after my marriage gave me one thousand pounds in gold with her, but the gift of his daughter unto me I must ever thankfully acknowledge as the crown of all his blessings; for she was a most religious, virtuous, loving, and obedient wife unto me all the days of her life, and the happy mother of all my hopeful children whom, with their posterity, I beseech God to bless." The countess died in 1629. The reputation of Boyle as a man of ability and wisdom was daily increasing, so that he was sworn a privy-councillor in 1606, first for the province of Munster and afterwards for the whole kingdom; and after other additions to his honour and fortune, he was on 6th September, 1616, created Lord Boyle, baron of Youghal, in consideration not only of his military services, but "for the judicious erection of forts and castles, and the establishment of colonies at his own cost." Within four years after he was advanced to the dignities