'one of those lofty, black, and lasting beauties that strike with reverence and yet delight,' and in 1684 she was married to William Bovey or Boevey, of Flaxley Hall, Gloucestershire. He was given to 'excesses, both in debauch and ill-humour,' bringing much suffering to his wife; she never complained, however, but supported it all 'like a martyr, cheerful under her very sufferings' (ib.). In 1691, when Mrs. Bovey was only twenty-two, Mr. Bovey died, leaving her mistress of his estate of Flaxley (Magna Britannia, 1720, ii. 834); and as she was also the sole heiress to her wealthy father (Ballard, British Ladies, p. 439), she was at once the centre of a crowd of wooers. Mrs. Bovey would listen to none. About 1686 she had formed a strong friendship with a Mrs. Mary Pope; and seeing ample scope for a life of active benefactions, she associated Mrs. Pope with her in her good works. She distributed to the poor, relieved prisoners, and taught the children of her neighbours. Her gifts, which included the purchase of an estate to augment the income of Flaxley Church (Fosbroke, Gloucestershire, ii. 177 et seq.), a legacy to Bermuda, and bequests to two schools at Westminster, are duly enumerated in her epitaph at Flaxley. Particulars of her habits, and of how she dispensed her charities, appear in H. G. Nicholls's 'Forest of Dean,' pp. 185 et seq.
In 1702 Dr. Hickes, in the preface (p. xlvii) to 'Linguarum Septentrionalium Thesaurus,' calls Mrs. Bovey 'Angliæ nostræ Hypatia Christiana.' In 1714, Steele prefixed an 'Epistle Dedicatory' to her to the second volume of the 'Ladies' Library.' 'Do not believe that I have many such as Portia to speak of,' said the writer of 'The New Atlantis' (p. 212); and the repute of her happy ways and generous deeds had not died out in 1807, when Fosbroke (Gloucestershire, p. 179) wrote of her as 'a very learned, most exemplary, and excellent woman.' She died at Flaxley Hall on Saturday, 18 Jan. 1726, and was buried 'in a most private manner,' according to her own directions (Gent. Mag. lxii. pt. ii. 703).
A monument was erected to Mrs. Bovey in Westminster Abbey, by her friend Mrs. Pope, shortly after her death; and it was there certainly as late as 1750. Ballard who calls it 'a beautiful honorary marble monument,' writes to a friend asking him to copy the inscription for him, telling him it is on the north side (Nichols, Lit. Illustr. iv. 223). It is copied in Ballard's 'Ladies' and in Wilford's 'Memorials;' there is no mention of Mrs. Bovey or the monument, however, either in Walcott's 'Memorials of Westminster,' 1851, or in Stanley's 'Westminster Abbey,' fifth edition, 1882. Mrs. Bovey was by some thought to be the widow who was inexorable to Sir Roger de Coverley in 'The Spectator' (Gent. Mag. lxii. pt. ii. 703).
[Wilford's Memorials of Eminent Persons, pp. 745, 746; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. ix. 221-2; Nicholls's Forest of Dean, pp. 185 et seq.; The New Atlantis, ed. 1736, iii. 208 et seq.; Fosbroke's Gloucestershire, 1807, ii. 177 et seq.; Ballard's British Ladies, 437 et seq.; Steele's Ladies' Library, Preface, 1714; Gent. Mag. 1792, lxii. pt. ii. 703.]
BOVILL, Sir WILLIAM (1814–1873), judge, was a younger son of Mr. Benjamin Bovill of Durnford Lodge, Wimbledon, and was born at Allhallows, Barking, on 26 May 1814. He was not a member of any university, but began his legal career by accepting articles with a firm of solicitors in the city of London. 'At an early age,' says a fellow-pupil, he was remarkable for the zeal with which he pursued his legal studies.' For a short time he practised as a special pleader below the bar. He became a member of the Middle Temple, and was called to the bar in 1841. He joined the home circuit, and at a peculiarly favourable time. Platt had already gone, and Serjeants Shee and Channell, and Bramwell and Lush, the then leaders, were all raised to the bench within a few years. Bovill owed something to his early connection with solicitors. He was also connected with a firm of manufacturers in the east end of London, and so became familiar with the details of engineering. Hence he in time acquired a considerable, though far from an exclusive, patent practice, and was largely engaged in commercial cases. Still it was somewhat remarkable that, almost alone among large city firms, Messrs. Hoilams, one of the largest, never were clients of his. He became a Q.C. in 1855, and, being very popular in his circuit towns, was elected M.P. for Guildford in 1857. In politics he was a conservative, but did not take any leading part in the House of Commons for some years. He was, however, zealous in legal reforms, and two useful acts, the Petition of Right Act, 23 & 24 Vict., and the Partnership Law Amendment Act, 28 & 29 Vict., bear his name. In 1865, too, he urged the concentration of all the law courts into one building, and in 1866 pressed for more convenient and suitable provision for the library of the Patent Office. On 6 July 1866, when Sir Fitzroy Kelly was made lord chief baron, Bovill was appointed solicitor-general in Lord Derby's last administration ; but he held office only for five months, and in November of the same year succeeded Sir William Erle as chief justice of the common pleas.
