Men of Kent and Kentishmen/Thomas Boys
Thomas Boys,
THEOLOGIAN AND ANTIQUARY,
Another member of this distinguished Kentish family, was born at Sandwich in 1792. He was educated at Tonbridge, and Trinity College, Cambridge. On leaving the University he entered the Army, and served in the Peninsula; but, after the Peace, he entered the Church, and was ordained in 1816. In 1848 he became incumbent of Holy Trinity, Hoxton, a living which he held till his death, September 2nd, 1880.
Whilst in the Peninsula, Mr. Boys translated the Bible into Portuguese so satisfactorily that his version has been accepted both by Catholics and Protestants of that nationality. His proficiency as a Hebrew scholar obtained for him the appointment, which he held from 1830 to 1832, of Hebrew Professor at the Jews' College, Hackney, and subsequently at the Missionary College, Islington, in 1836. Whilst holding this post he revised Deodati's Italian Bible, and also the Arabic Bible. His knowledge of Hebrew Literature and Antiquities is displayed in a number of works of which the principal are the following:—"Tactica Sacra, an attempt to develop and exhibit to the eye by tabular arrangement, a general rule of Composition prevailing in the Holy Scriptures," London, 1825.—"Suppressed Evidence on Miracles," 1832; "A Word for the Bible," 1832; "A Help to Hebrew," 1834.
In addition, he published a number of sermons, and contributed to Blackwood's Magazine many sketches and papers descriptive of his Peninsular experiences, the most important of which appeared in 1849 and 1850, under the title of "My Peninsular Medal," but not the least valuable of his literary productions are to be found in the pages of "Notes and Queries," to which periodical, sometimes in his own name and sometimes under the signature of "Vedette," he contributed many learned papers, amongst which are twelve articles on Chaucer, forming altogether a very valuable study on the difficulties of Early English Literature.
[See Annual Register, and Times Obituary Notices, 1880, the latter reproduced in Notes and Queries, 5th Ser. Vol, ii; also Allibone's Dictionary of Authors.]