Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Boreman, Robert
BOREMAN or BOURMAN, ROBERT, D.D. (d. 1675), royalist divine, was a member of a family which came originally from the Isle of Wight, and brother of Sir William Bourman, clerk of the green cloth to King Charles II. He received his education at Westminster School, whence he was elected in 1627 to a scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge. He graduated B.A. in 1631; was admitted a minor fellow of his college on 4 Oct. 1633, and a major fellow on 10 March 1634; and proceeded to the degree of M.A. in 1635. Like other Royalists, he was deprived of his fellowship, but was restored to it in 1660. He was also created D.D. by virtue of letters mandatory from King Charles II dated 9 Ang. 1660 (Kennett, Register and Chron. 226). On 15 Oct. in the same year he was admitted by the Archbishop of Canterbury-the see of Peterborough being then vacant-to the church of Blisworth, in Northamptonshire (ib. 281), and it seems that on 31 July 1062 he was formally admitted to that rectory by Dr. Lant, bishop of Peterborough (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ii. 55 n.) He was admitted on 18 Nov. 1663 to the rectory of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, on the presentation of the king, und on 19 Dec. 1667 he was installed as a prebendary of Westminster. He died a bachelor at Greenwich in the winter of 1675, and was buried at that place.
Boremnn bore the character of a pious and learned divine. It is to be regretted, however, that party feeling should have led him to make an utterly unfounded attack on the celebrated Richard Baxter, whom he charged in an anonymous work with being it ‘man of blood,’ for, addnessing him, he wrote: ‘I must tell you in your ear what I have heard, and is commonly reported, that in the late wars you slew a man with your own hand in cold blood’ (Αύτοκατάκριτος: or Hypocrisie unvail'd, 15). Baxter was highly indignant at this false charge, and began to write an answer to Boreman’s pamphlet, though he eventually abandoned this design.
Boreman's works are: 1. 'The Country-mans Catechisme, or the Churches Plea for Tithes. Wherein is plainly discovered the Duty and Dignity of Christs Ministers, and the Peoples Duty to them,' Lond. 1652, 4to. 2. ‘Παιεδεία θρίαμβος. The Trivmph of Learning over Ignorance, and of Truth over Falsehood. Being an Answer to foure Quæries. Whether there he any need of Universities? Who is to be accounted an Hæretick? ‘Whether it be 1awfull to use Cnuventicles ? Whether a Lay man may preach ? Which were lately proposed by a Zelot, in the Parish Church at Swacie [Swavesey] neere Cambridge,' Lond. 1653, 4to. Reprinted in the ‘Harleian Miscellany’ (1744), vol. i. 3. ‘The Triumph of Faith over Death. Or the Just Man's Memoriall ; compris'd in a Panegyrick and Sermon, at the Funerall of the Religions, most Learned Dr. Combar, late Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge, and Deane of Carlile. Delivered in Trinity Colledge Chappell on 29 March 1653, London, 1654, 4to. Dedicated to William, earl of Portland. 4. ‘A Mirrovr of Mercy and Iudgement. Or an Exact true Narrative of the Life and Death of Freeman Sends, Esquier, Souue to Sir George Sonds of Lees Court in Shelwich in Kent. Who being about the age of 19, for Murthering his Elder Brother on Tuesday the 7th of August, was arraigned and condemned at Maidstone. Executed there on Tuesday the 21. of the same Moueth, 1655,' London, 1655, 4to. Reprinted in ‘Authentic Memorials of Remarkable Occurrences and Affecting Calamities in the family of Sir George Sondes, Bart,' Evesham [1790?], 12mo; also in the ‘Harleian Miscellany,’ x. 23 (Loud. 1813). 5. ‘Au Antidote against Swearing. With an Appendix concerning our Academical Oaths, Lond. 1662, 8vo. 6. ‘Αύτοκατάκριτος: or Hypocrisie unvail'd, and Jesuitisme unmaskt. In a letter to Mr. R. Baxter, by one that is a lover of Unity, Pence, and Concord, and his Well-wisher,’ Lond. 1662, 4to. 7. ‘The Patern of Christianity: or the Picture of a true Christian. Presented at Northampton in a Sermon at a Visitation, May 12, 1663,’ Lond. 1663, 4t»o. 8. ‘A Mirrour of Christianity, and a Miracle of Charity; or a true and exact Narrative of the Life and Death of the most virtuous Lady Alice Dutchess Dudde1ey,’ Lond. 1669, 4to. Dedicated to Lady Katherine Leveson, re1ict of Sir Richard Leveson, hart., and only surviving daughter of the duchess.
Boreman published and dedicated to Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon, ‘The True Catholicks Tenure' (Cambridge, 1662), written by his friend Dr. Edward Hyde. Several specimens of his poetry are met with among the loyal effusions of the university nf Cambridge before the troublous times of the civil wars.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.31
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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