teenth century. He was partly educated in France. When quite a boy he was presented to Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, and he subsequently witnessed the early scenes of the French revolution. He returned to England a staunch advocate of popular rights, and entered parliament in 1801 as representative for the family borough of Downton, and boldly ventured into the front ranks of opposition. In 1802 he was returned for Salisbury, and sat for that borough as Viscount Folkestone until he succeeded to the title of Radnor in the year 1828. During this long period he uniformly advocated advanced liberal principles. He took a leading part in the impeachment of Lord Melville, the proposed inquiry into Wellesley's alleged abuse of power in India, and Wardle's charges against the Duke of York; he was an active assailant of corporal punishment in the army, excessive use of ex-officio information against the press, attempts to exclude strangers from the House of Commons, endeavours to coerce the people in times of distress, and any process which aimed at limiting public freedom. He opposed the treaty of Amiens, and the proposal to pay Mr. Pitt's debts. He warmly resisted the imposition of the corn laws in 1815, and in 1819 the arbitrary coercive measures of Lord Castlereagh. Upon his removal to the upper house, Radnor continued his active support of all measures bearing on social amelioration. He made two vigorous but unsuccessful endeavours to promote university reform, the first in 1835, by the introduction of a bill for abolishing subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles; secondly, two years later, with a measure for revising the statutes of Oxford and Cambridge universities. One of his later parliamentary efforts (1845) was to enter a lords' protest against an Allotment Bill, which he maintained would strike at the independence of the agricultural labourer and have a tendency to lower wages. Radnor offered the borough of Downton to Robert Southey in 1826, and subsequently to Mr. Shaw-Lefevre, stipulating on each occasion that the member should vote for its disfranchisement. He never held office.
Radnor gradually withdrew from the scene of his political career, and devoted himself to agricultural pursuits and to the duties of a country gentleman. He was long associated, both in political views and on terms of private friendship, with William Cobbett. It has been said that he was the only man with whom Cobbett never quarrelled. He did not pretend to be an orator, but he was always attentively listened to. Some of his speeches may still be read in 'Hansard' with considerable interest, notably that of March in support of his proposal to abolish subscription. He died 9 April 1869, at the age of ninety, leaving behind him a name distinguished by unwearied generosity and devotion to the welfare of his countrymen.
Radnor married in 1800 Lady Catherine Pelham Clinton, who died in 1804; and secondly, in 1814, Judith, daughter of Sir Henry Mildmay.
[Random Recollections of the House of Lords, pp. 290-4; Swindon Advertiser, April 12 and 19; Salisbury and Winchester Journal, April 17; Wilts County Mirror, April 14; Times, April 12, 1869; Cobbett's Register, passim; Journal of Thomas Raikes, Esq., ii. 169, iii. 159; Romilly's Memoirs, ii. 380, iii. 329; Southey's Life and Correspondence, v. 261; William Cobbett, a Biography (1878), ii. 23, 49, 97, 112, 231, 264, 277.]
BOUYER, REYNOLD GIDEON (d. 1826), archdeacon of Northumberland, was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge (LL.B. 1769); collated to the prebend of Preston in the church of Sarum, 1785; obtained the rectory of Howick and the vicarage of North Allerton, with the chapelries of Brompton and Dighton, all in the diocese of Durham; was collated to the archdeaconry of Northumberland, 9 May 1812; and died, 20 Jan. 1826. He published two occasional discourses, but is remembered for the parochial libraries which he established at his own expense in every parish in Northumberland. They contained upwards of 30,000 volumes, which cost him about 1,400l., although he was supplied with them by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge at 40 per cent. under prime cost. These useful libraries were placed under the care of the parochial ministers, and the books were lent gratuitously to the parishioners.
[Funeral Sermon by W. N. Darnell, B.D., Durham, 1826; Richardson's Local Historian's Table Book (Hist. Div.), iii. 323; Graduati Cantab. (1856), 43; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy), ii. 678, iii. 308.]
BOVEY or BOEVEY, CATHARINA (1669–1726), charitable lady, was born in London in 1669, her father being John Riches, a very wealthy merchant there (Wilford, Memorials of Eminent Persons, p. 746, Epitaph), originally of Amsterdam, and her mother being a daughter of Sir Bernard de Gomme, also of Holland, surveyor of ordnance to Charles II, and delineator of the maps of Naseby, &c. (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. ix. 221-2). Catharina was a great beauty. In 'The New Atlantis' of 1736 (iii. 208 et seq.), where she is called Portia, she is described as
