though it may be thought somewhat lenient. 'His history is written with elegance and vigour, but his fabulousness and credulity are justly blamed. His fabulousness, if he was the author of the fictions, is a fault for which no apology can be made, but his credulity may be excused in an age in which all men were credulous. Learning was then rising on the world, but eyes so long accustomed to darkness were too much dazzled with its light to see anything distinctly. The first race of scholars in the fifteenth century, and for some time after, were for the most part learning to speak rather than to think, and were therefore more studious of elegance than of truth.' As a reward for his history, Boece received the degree of doctor from the university in 1528, a compliment of a tun of wine or 20l. Scots, to help to buy him bonnets, from the town of Aberdeen, which had a little earlier presented him to the chaplaincy of St. Andrew's altar in the church of St. Nicholas. He received a royal pension of 50l. Scots in 1527, and two years later the same or a grant of similar amount, until the king presented him to a benefice of 100 merks Scots. The last payment of this pension was at Whitsunday 1534, when he probably obtained a first of the rectory of Tiree in Buchan, which he held to his death in 1536. He appears before this, in 1528, to have held the vicarage of Tullynessle, one of the gifts of James IV to King's College. He had two brothers, Arthur, the lawyer, one of the first senators of the College of Justice, and Walter, a parson of the church of St. Mary ad Nives in Aberdeen. The last act of his life of which we have evidence on record is his being party to a marriage contract between Isabella Boyis, probably a daughter of Arthur, and the son of John Brabaner, a burgess of Aberdeen, on 18 Jan. 1535. He was buried on the north side of Elphinstone's tomb, before the high altar of the chapel at filing's College. His coat of arms, a saltire and chief, is one of three on the south wall without motto, but with the letters 'H B ob. 1536.'
The portrait hung on the stair of the Senate Hall, and which has been engraved as that of Boece, is of doubtful authenticity. Lord Hailes declared that his countrymen were reformed from popery, but not from Boece, but now that the latter reformation has been accomplished we may do justice to his real merits as we do to those of the mediæval church. His learning and zeal co-operated with the liberality of Elphinstone in laying the foundation of the university which has diffused culture in the northern districts of Britain. A love of historical studies dating from, his time has continued to mark the Aberdonian scholars, who have contributed more to Scottish history than the inhabitants of any other part of Scotland.
[The best life is by Irving in his Lives of Scottish Writers, but the records of the university and town of Aberdeen, the works of Erasmus, and the History of the University of Paris, should be consulted. The editions of Boece's History are mentioned above. His Vitæ Episcoporum Murthlacensium et Aberdonensium, originally printed 1522, was reprinted by the Bannatyne Club in 1825. Bellenden's translation of the History, printed in black letter by 'Thomas Davidson,' was reprinted at Edinburgh in 1821, with a biographical introduction by Thomas Maitland, Lord Dundrennan.]
BOEHM, ANTHONY WILLIAM (1673–1722), German chaplain at St. James's, was the son of the Rev. Anthony Boehm, minister of Oestorff, in the county of Pyrmont, Germany, and was born 1 June 1673. After courses of education at Lemgo and Hameln, he entered in 1693 the then newly founded university of Halle. In 1698 he was called to Arolsen, the seat of the Count of Waldeck, to educate the count's two daughters in the principles of Christianity; but, the liberality of his religious opinions having aroused the hostility of certain ecclesiastics, the count felt constrained, in opposition to his better judgment, to dispense with his services. Shortly afterwards he received an invitation to become chaplain to the Duchess-dowager of Coburg, but he finally resolved to respond to the request of some German families in London, who were desirous of obtaining German instruction for their children. He set out for London 25 Aug. 1701, and after spending some months in the strenuous study of English, he opened his school in February 1702. He met with fair success, but his office was by no means a lucrative one. It so happened, however, that on his way to England he had made the acquaintance of Henry William Ludolf, secretary to Prince George of Denmark, and when the prince, at the request of Queen Anne, resolved to introduce the common prayer book into his own chapel, Boehm, on the recommendation of the secretary, was appointed assistant chaplain to read the prayers, which the then chaplain found too hard for him. After the death of the prince the service was continued at the chapel as before, and on the accession of George I no alteration was made, 'so that,' in the words of his biographer, 'he continued his pious labours to his dying day, which, after three or four days illness, happened at Greenwich 27 May 1722, in the forty-ninth year of his age.' He was buried
