Page:Men of Kent and Kentishmen.djvu/35

 JOHN BOYS,

OF BETSHANGER,

Was a farmer, and wrote a treatise on "The Agriculture of Kent," published in 1796, to which has been accorded the palm amongst County reports of agriculture, **for soundness of judgment and enlightened practical views." He died 16th Dec., 1824.

[See "Gentleman's Magazine," 1825.]

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