Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/772

BOY added to their subsequent mortification. In the following year, 1699, Bentley came out with his final reply, which for ever silenced his opponents, and placed him at the height of his fame as a scholastic critic.

On leaving Christ Church, Boyle was returned for Huntingdon, not however without opposition, and a duel, in which he had a narrow escape with his life. In 1703 he succeeded his eldest brother, Lionel, in the earldom of Orrery, of whom nothing more worthy of note can be recorded by the family biographer, than that "he was a pleasant companion, drank hard, and died without issue." He shortly after married the daughter of the earl of Exeter, and in the same year he was appointed to a colonelcy in a regiment of foot, and two years after was elected a knight of the order of the thistle. Having been made a general, he went out as envoy to Flanders, and in 1712 served there under the duke of Ormond. On his return he was made a privy councillor and a British peer, as Baron Boyle of Marston. Lord Orrery maintained for a time his position under George I., but though clever and dexterous, he was neither sagacious nor profound; and while endeavouring to stand well with all parties, he lost favour at court, and either lost, or was obliged to resign, several of his posts, and retired into a comparatively private sphere. In 1720 he was implicated in the conspiracy in favour of the Pretender, in conjunction with the earl of Arran, Atterbury, and others; and this being discovered. Orrery and the duke of Norfolk were sent to the tower in 1722, from which he was released on bail in consequence of the state of his health. From this period he took no very active part in public affairs, though he attended in his place in the house of lords, and after a short illness he died on the 28th August, 1731, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. Lord Orrery was a man of no small genius and considerable accomplishments, though both were overrated in his own times. Mechanics were a favourite study, and he has given his name to a piece of mechanism representing the revolution of the planets, though the invention of a person of the name of Graham. He also wrote a comedy and some verses. He bequeathed his fine library to Christ Church college, Oxford.—J. F. W.  BOYLE,, third earl of Burlington and fourth earl of Cork, was born on the 25th April, 1695. After receiving his early education in England, he prosecuted an extensive course of travel on the continent of Europe, especially in Italy, where he indulged his taste for architecture, and subsequently became one of the most distinguished amateur architects of his day. He erected a mansion at Chiswick after the design of the Villa Capra of Palladio, which, though inconveniently small, was nevertheless admired for its beauty. He also designed the front of Burlington house in Piccadilly, as well as the house of the duke of Richmond at Whitevale. His best work is said to be the assembly-room at York. Lord Burlington was a generous patron of the arts, and was the friend of Pope and Berkeley, and published at his own expense one of Palladio's works. In 1721 he married one of the daughters of the marquis of Halifax, and in 1730 the honour of the garter was conferred on him. Having retired from public life, he occupied himself principally in improving his seat at Chiswick, and died in 1753, when the title of Burlington became extinct.—J. F. W.  BOYLE,, earl of Cork and Orrery, son of Charles, earl of Orrery, was born in 1707. He received his early education from Elijah Fenton, and after spending some time at Westminster he entered Christ Church, Oxford. On the death of his father in 1731 he succeeded to the earldom of Orrery, and on the death of Lord Burlington to that of Cork. Though he took some part in politics, he was chiefly devoted to literary pursuits, and was an intimate acquaintance of Swift. He edited the dramas and state papers of his ancestor, Roger, earl of Orrery, and wrote some essays and translations himself. He died in 1762, aged fifty-six.—J. F. W.  BOYLE,, son of Charles Lord Clifford, and nephew of Robert Boyle, devoted himself from an early age to politics, in which he took an active part during the reigns of William III., Anne, and George I. He was a member of the house of commons, where he distinguished himself so much, that he was made chancellor of the exchequer by King William, with whom he was much in favour. This post he occupied till 1707-8, when he was made one of the principal secretaries of state by Queen Anne. Upon the accession of George I., Boyle was created Lord Carleton, and was shortly after made lord-president of the council. He died on the 14th March, 1724-25. Boyle was a man of respectable ability, of great judgment, and well versed in business. Though not an eloquent speaker, he was remarkable for his prudence and address; and it is said of him, that he was never known to say an imprudent thing in a public debate, or to hurt the cause he engaged in.—J. F. W.  BOYLE,, speaker of the Irish house of commons, was son of Colonel Henry Boyle, and grandson of Roger Lord Broghill. He was born at Castle Martyr in the county of Cork. He was returned to parliament for his native county, and soon became a leading and influential member, so that upon the death of the speaker. Sir Ralph Gore, in 1732, he was elected as his successor. In his new office Boyle conducted himself with ability and integrity. He appears to have possessed great influence in the house, and was called by Sir Robert Walpole, "the king of the Irish Commons." He was subsequently made a privy councillor. When the struggle took place between the Irish commons and the British cabinet in 1753, relative to the assent of the crown to the appropriations by the house of surplus revenues—a right which the commons denied—Boyle's influence was exerted against the ministers. The dispute continued till 1756, when the government found it necessary to put Boyle out of their way. He was accordingly raised to the peerage as earl of Shannon, with a pension of £2000 a-year. He died in 1764. Plowden describes him as a deep politician. The simplicity and unaffected ease of his address, and a natural politeness of manner, rendered him amiable even to his opponents. In appearance he was most open, in reality most reserved. He had the art of extracting the secrets of others, and of preserving his own, without any show of art or constraint. He had been raised to the chair and supported in it by the people, at least without the assistance of, if not in opposition to, the government. He had shown much firmness in resisting attacks upon him while carrying measures through the house, and had the uncommon address of preserving his popularity even in supporting unpopular acts.—J. F. W.  BOYLEAU, BOYLEAUX, or BOILESVE,, provost of Paris under St. Louis, famous as the author of a collection of statutes relating to the military, administrative, and judicial affairs then under the cognizance of the first magistrate of Paris; born probably about the year 1200. He was of noble parentage, and accompanied St. Louis in the crusade of 1248. His Statutes, an excellent edition of which was published at Paris in 1837, form a curious monument of the state of trades, manners, and legislation in Paris, in the thirteenth century. He appears to have been superseded in 1270, about which date it was remarked, to the credit of his judicial labours, that vagabondism had less scope in the city than in any preceding period of its history.—J. S., G.  BOYLSTON,, a physician of much eminence in New England, who introduced the practice of inoculation for the small-pox into America, was born at Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1680. After receiving a thorough education, he began the practice of physic in Boston, where he was very successful, and accumulated a large fortune. The small-pox appeared there in 1721, and caused great terror, as on two previous occasions it had destroyed many lives. Dr. Cotton Mather, a clergyman, who had read in the Philosophical Transactions an account of the successful practice of inoculation at Smyrna and Constantinople, called the attention of the medical faculty to the subject, but could make no convert amongst them except Dr. Boylston. He was a man of great resolution as well as sagacity and skill; and having satisfied his own mind upon the subject, he proceeded, in spite of a vehement outcry from his brethren of the faculty, to inoculate his own son, six years old, and two of his servants. The experiment was successful, and before the end of the year he inoculated 247 persons, of whom less than three per cent. died; while out of 5759 who, during the same time, took the disease the natural way, it was fatal to over fourteen per cent. Dr. Boylston visited England in 1725, where he was received with great attention, and made a member of the Royal Society, being the second American upon whom that honour had been conferred. He died at Boston in 1766, at the age of eighty-six.  BOYNE,, Viscount, born in 1639, was the youngest son of Sir Frederick Hamilton, a descendant of the Scottish Hamiltons, and a distinguished soldier under Gustavus Adolphus, after whom his son was named. He settled in Ireland, and Gustavus held a commission in the Irish army under Charles II., and was a privy councillor in the following reign. <section end="772Zcontin" />