Talk:Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Boucher, John (1819-1878)

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BOUCHER, JOHN (1819-1878), divine, born in 1819, was the son of a tenant-farmer in Moneyrea, North Ireland. Intended for the Unitarian ministry, he was in 1837 was sent to the Belfast Academy, and in 1842, became minister at Southport; next at Glasgow; and finally in 1848 at the New Gravel Pit Chapel, Hackney, where for five years his fervour and eloquence drew great congregations. He resigned his pulpit in 1853, owing to rationalistic doubt, but soon entered himself at St. John's, Cambridge, to read for Anglican orders. He proceeded B.A. in 1857 when his health broke, and he died, an invalid, at Chesterton 12 March 1878, aged 59. His wife, Louise, daughter of Ebenezer Johnston, of Stamford Hill, London, survived him a year. He left a son and daughter.

[The Inquirer, 23 March 1878, p. 190; Luard's Grad. Cant. p. 46; private information.]