Life

He was descended from an old Kentish

Kentish

The Kentish Council is a Local Government Area of Tasmania. It is located in the north-west of the state, slightly inland from the coast. The area was explored by the surveyor Nathaniel Kentish in 1842 who was given the task of finding a route from Deloraine through to Tasmania's north west coast...

 family who boasted that their ancestor came into England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 with William the Conqueror, and who at the beginning of the seventeenth century had no less than eight branches, each with its capital mansion, in the county of Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

. The dean was the son of Thomas Boys of Eythorn, by Christian, daughter and coheiress of John Searles of Wye. He was born at Eythorn in 1571, and probably was educated at the King's School, Canterbury, for in 1586 he entered Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

Corpus Christi College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is notable as the only college founded by Cambridge townspeople: it was established in 1352 by the Guilds of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary...

, where Archbishop Matthew Parker

Matthew Parker

Matthew Parker was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1559 until his death in 1575. He was also an influential theologian and arguably the co-founder of Anglican theological thought....

 had founded some scholarships appropriated to scholars of that school. He took his M.A. degree in the usual course, but migrated to Clare Hall

Clare Hall, Cambridge

Clare Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is a college for advanced study, admitting only postgraduate students.Informality is a defining value at Clare Hall and this contributes to its unique character...

 in 1593, apparently on his failing to succeed to a Kentish fellowship vacated by the resignation of Mr. Coldwell, and which was filled up by the election of Dr. Willan, a Norfolk man.

Boys was forthwith chosen fellow of Clare Hall. His first preferment was the small rectory of Betteshanger

Betteshanger

Betteshanger is a village near Deal in East Kent, England. It gave its name to the largest of the four chief collieries of the Kent coalfield.-Before the coal mine:...

 in his native county, which he tells us was procured for him by his uncle Sir John Boys of Canterbury, whom he calls 'my best patron in Cambridge.' He appears to have resided upon this benefice and to have at once begun to cultivate the art of preaching. Archbishop John Whitgift

John Whitgift

John Whitgift was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 to his death. Noted for his hospitality, he was somewhat ostentatious in his habits, sometimes visiting Canterbury and other towns attended by a retinue of 800 horsemen...

 gave him the mastership of the Eastbridge Hospital

The Hospital of St Thomas, Canterbury

The Hospital of St Thomas the Martyr of Eastbridge was founded in the 12th century in Canterbury, England, to provide overnight accommodation for poor pilgrims to the shrine of St Thomas Beckett....

 in Canterbury, and soon afterwards the vicarage of Tilmanstone

Tilmanstone

Tilmanstone is a small village in Kent, in the South East of England, near Eastry a much bigger and more developed area. Tilmanstone has no schools, few shops and a church and town hall. The population of Tilmanstone often work for the nearby companies, such as Pfizer or Tilmanstone Salads, or in...

, but the aggregate value of these preferments was quite inconsiderable, and when he married Angela Bargrave of Bridge, near Canterbury, in 1599, he must have had other means of subsistence than his clerical income.

The dearth of competent preachers to supply the London pulpits appears to have been severely felt about this time, and in January 1593 Whitgift had written to the vice-chancellor and heads of the university of Cambridge complaining of the refusal of the Cambridge divines to take their part in this duty. The same year that the primate appointed Boys to Tilmanstone we find him preaching at St. Paul's Cross, though he was then only twenty-seven years of age. Two years after he was called upon to preach at the Cross again, and it was actually while he was in the pulpit that Robert, earl of Essex, made his mad attempt at rebellion (8 Feb. 1600-1).

Next year we find him preaching at St Mary's, Cambridge, possibly while keeping his acts for the B.D. degree, for he proceeded D.D. in the ordinary course in 1605; the Latin sermon he then delivered is among his printed works. Whitgift's death (February 1604) made little alteration in his circumstances; Archbishop Richard Bancroft

Richard Bancroft

Archbishop Richard Bancroft, DD, BD, MA, BA was an English churchman, who became Archbishop of Canterbury and the "chief overseer" of the production of the authorized version of the Bible.-Life:...

 soon took him into his favour, and he preached at Ashford, on the occasion of the primate holding his primary visitation there on 11 Sept. 1607. Two years after this Boys published his first work, The Minister's Invitatorie, being An Exposition of all the Principall Scriptures used in our English Liturgie: together with a reason why the Church did chuse the same.

The work was dedicated to Bancroft, who had lately been made chancellor of the University of Oxford, and in the 'dedicatorie epistle' Boys speaks of his 'larger exposition of the Gospels and Epistles' as
shortly about to appear. It appeared accordingly next year in 4to, under the title of An Exposition of the Dominical Epistles and Gospels used in our English Liturgie throughout the whole yeere, and was dedicated to his 'very dear uncle,' Sir John Boys of Canterbury. In his dedication Boys takes the opportunity of mentioning his obligations to Sir John and to Archbishop Whitgift for having watered what 'that vertuous and worthy knight' had planted.

The work supplied a great need and had a very large and rapid sale; new editions followed
one. another in quick succession, and it would be a difficult task to draw up an exhaustive bibliographical account of Boys's publications. Archbishop Bancroft died in November 1610, and George Abbot was promoted to the primacy in the spring of 1611. Boys dedicated to him his next work, An Exposition of the Festival Epistles and Gospels used in our English Liturgie, which, like its predecessors, was published in 4to, the first part in 1614, the second in the following year.

Hitherto he had received but scant recognition of his services to the church, but preferment now began to fall upon him liberally. Abbot presented him with the sinecure rectory
of Hollingbourne

Hollingbourne

Hollingbourne is a village and civil parish in the Maidstone District of Kent, England. The parish is located on the southward slope of the North Downs to the east of the county town, Maidstone. The parish population is almost 1000 persons and includes Hollingbourne village as well as Broad...

, then with the rectory of Monaghan in 1618, and finally, on the death of Dr Fotherby, he was promoted by King James I

James I of England

James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

 to the deanery of Canterbury, and installed on 3 May 1619. Meanwhile in 1616 he had put forth his Exposition of the proper Psalms used in our English Liturgie, and dedicated it to Sir Thomas Wotton, son and heir of Edward, lord Wotton of Marleigh. In 1620 he was made a member of the high commission court, and in 1622 he collected his works into a folio volume, adding to those previously published five miscellaneous sermons which he calls lectures, and which are by no means good specimens of his method or his style. These were dedicated to Sir Dudley Digges

Dudley Digges

Sir Dudley Digges , of Chilham Castle, Kent , was a Member of Parliament, elected to the Parliament of 1614 and that of 1621, and also a "Virginia adventurer," an investor who ventured his capital in the Virginia Company of London...

 of Chilham Castle

Chilham Castle

Chilham Castle is a manor house and keep in the village of Chilham, between Ashford and Canterbury in the county of Kent, England. The polygonal Norman keep of the Castle, the oldest building in the village, dates from 1174; still inhabited, it was said to have been built for King Henry II...

, and appear to have been added for no other reason than to give occasion for paying a compliment to a Kentish
magnate.

On 12 June 1625 Henrietta Maria

Henrietta Maria of France

Henrietta Maria of France ; was the Queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland as the wife of King Charles I...

 landed at Dover. Charles I

Charles I of England

Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

 saw her for the first time on the 13th, and next day the king attended service in Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site....

, when Boys preached a sermon, which has been preserved. It is a poor performance, stilted and unreal as such sermons usually were; but it has the merit of being short. Boys held the deanery of Canterbury for little more than six years, and died among his books, suddenly, in September 1625. There is a monument to him in the Lady Chapel of the Cathedral.

He left no children; his widow died during the rebellion.

Works

He quotes widely and from contemporary literature including popular writers of the day. Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and pioneer of the scientific method. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England...

's Essays

Essays (Francis Bacon)

Essayes: Religious Meditations. Places of Perswasion and Disswasion. Seene and Allowed was the first published book by the philosopher, statesman and jurist Francis Bacon. The Essays are written in a wide range of styles, from the plain and unadorned to the epigrammatic...

and The Advancement of Learning, Sandys's Travels, Owen's, More's, and John Parkhurst

John Parkhurst

John Parkhurst was an English Marian exile and from 1560 the Bishop of Norwich.-Early life:Born about 1512, he was son of George Parkhurst of Guildford, Surrey. He initially attended the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, before at an early age moving to Magdalen College School at Oxford...

's Epigrams, Piers Plowman

Piers Plowman

Piers Plowman or Visio Willelmi de Petro Plowman is the title of a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in unrhymed alliterative verse divided into sections called "passus"...

, and Richard Verstegan's Restitution, with Boys's favourite book, Joseph Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas's Divine Weeks all feature. Boys's works contain proverbs, allusions to the manners and customs of the time, curious words and expressions.

His works were translated into German and published at Strasburg in 1683, and again in two volume in 1685. The Works of John Boys were reprinted in English in 1997 by Soli Deo Gloria Publications taken from the 1854 edition published by Stanford and Swords, New York.