Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/142

 1625), brother of the dean, [q. v.], inherited the estate of Hoad Court from his uncle, Sir John Boys, an eminent lawyer, who died without issue in 1612. On 24 Jan. 1659-1660 Boys presented to the mayor of Canterbury a declaration in favour of the assembly of a free parliament, drawn up by himself in behalf (as he asserted) 'of the nobility, gentry, ministry, and commonalty of the county of Kent.' But the declaration gave offence to the magistrates, and the author, as he explained in his 'Vindication of the Kentish Declaration,' only escaped imprisonment by retiring to a hiding-place. Several of his friends were less successful. In February 1659-60 he went to London with his kinsman,  [q. v.] of Bonnington, and presented to Monk, at Whitehall, a letter of thanks, drawn up by himself 'according to the order and advice of the gentlemen of East Kent.' He also prepared a speech for delivery to Charles II on his landing at Dover on 25 May 1660; but 'he was prevented therein by reason his majesty made no stay at all in that town,' and he therefore sent Charles a copy of it.

Boys chiefly prided himself on his classical attainments. In 1661 he published two translations from Virgil's 'Æneid.' The first is entitled, 'Æneas, his Descent into Hell: as it is inimitably described by the Prince of Poets in the Sixth of his Æneis,' London, 1661. The dedication is addressed to Sir Edward Hyde, and congratulates him on succeeding to the office of lord chancellor. His cousin, Charles Fotherby, and his friend, Thomas Philipott, contribute commendatory verses. The translation in heroic verse is of very mediocre character, and is followed by 181 pages of annotations. At their close Boys mentions that he has just heard of the death of Henry, duke of Gloucester (13 Sept. 1660), and proceeds to pen an elegy suggested by Virgil's lament for Marcellus. The volume concludes with 'certain pieces relating to the publick,' i.e. on the political matters referred to above, and with a congratulatory poem (dated Canterbury, 30 Sept. 1656) addressed to Boys's friend,, on the completion of his 'Dictionarium Saxonico-Latino-Anglicum.' Boys's second book is called 'Æneas, his Errours on his Voyage from Troy into Italy; an essay upon the Third Book of Virgil's "Æneis."' It is dedicated to Lord Cornbury, Clarendon's son. A translation of the third book of the 'Æneid' in heroic verse occupies fifty-one pages, and is followed by 'some few hasty reflections upon the precedent poem.' Boys's enthusiasm for Virgil is boundless, but his criticism is rather childish.

Boys married Anne, daughter of Dr. William Kingsley, archdeacon of Canterbury, by whom he had three sons—Thomas, who died without issue; John, a colonel in the army, who died 4 Sept. 1710; and Sir William Boys, M.D., who is stated to have died in 1744. Boys himself died in 1660-1, and was buried in the chancel of the church of Hoad.

 BOYS, JOHN (1607–1664), royalist military commander, was the eldest son and heir of Edward Boys of Bonnington, Kent, by Jane, daughter of Edward Sanders of Northborne. He was baptised at Chillendon, Kent, on 5 April 1607. In the civil war he became a captain in the royal army and governor of Donnington Castle in Berkshire. This castle, which is within a mile of Newbury, was garrisoned in 1643 for King Charles I, and commanded the road from Oxford to Newbury and the great road from London to Bath and the west. Boys, by the bravery with which he defended the castle during a long siege, showed himself well worthy of the trust reposed in him. It was first attacked by the parliamentary army, consisting of 3,000 horse and foot, under the command of Major-general Middleton, who attempted to take the castle by assault, but was repulsed with considerable loss. Middleton lost at least 300 officers and men in this fruitless attempt. Not long afterwards, on 29 Sept. 1644, Colonel Horton began a blockade, having raised a battery at the foot of the hill near Newbury, from which he plied the castle so incessantly during a period of twelve days that he reduced it to a heap of ruins, having beaten down three of the towers and a part of the wall. Nearly 1,000 great shot are said to have been expended during this time. Horton having received reinforcements sent a summons to the governor, who refused to listen to any terms. Soon afterwards the Earl of Manchester came to the siege with his army, but their united attempts proved unavailing; and after two or three days more of ineffectual battering the whole army rose up from before the walls and marched in different directions. When the king came to Newbury (21 Oct. 1644) he knighted the governor for his good services, made him colonel of the regiment which he had before commanded as lieutenant-colonel to Earl Rivers, the nominal governor of Donnington, and to his coat armour gave the augmentation of a crown imperial or, on a canton azure. During the second battle of Newbury Boys secured the