BOSSAM, JOHN (fl. 1550), painter, is mentioned by Nicholas Hilliard in a manuscript quioted by Vertue as 'that most rare English drawer of story works in black and white,' and as 'worthy to have been sergeant-painter to any king or emperor.' His poverty prevented him doing much in colours, and latterly he found painting so unremunerative that he gave it 'clean over,' On the accession of Elizabeth he became a reading minister. According to Walpole, Vertue never discovered any of his works.
[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting (Dallaway), i. 136-7.]
BOSSEWELL, JOHN (fl. 1572), heraldic writer, was, according to his own statement, a northern man, and probably a member of the family of Bosvile, established for many generations in the neighbourhood of Doncaster. It has indeed been ingeniously suggested that he was son and heir of Thomas Bosvile of Stainton, who died in the fifth year of Edward VI (Nichols, Herald and Genealogist, ii. 113). He describes himself as ‘gentleman,’ and appears to have acted as a notary public, but by taste he was an antiquary and specially devoted to heraldic pursuits. In the latter he was a close follower of Gerard Legh, and the first part of his ‘Workes of Armorie,’ entitled ‘Concordes,’ is in fact a mere abridgement of Legh's ‘Accedens.’ Like his master, he delighted in symbolism and allegory, in conceits and legendary fables; nor can it be said that his writings are of much value, even from an heraldic point of view. The dates of his birth and death are alike unknown. The first edition of his ‘Workes of Armorie’ was published by Tottell in 1572, the second (a mere reprint) in 1597.
[Moule's Bibliotheca Heraldica, p.21 ; Hunter's South Yorkshire, i. 32.]
BOSTE or BOAST, JOHN (1543?–1594), catholic priest, was born of a good family at Dufton, in Westmoreland, in or about 1543, and educated at Oxford, where he graduated M.A. On being converted to Catholicism he quitted the university repaired to the English college of Douay, then temporarily removed to Rheims, was ordained priest, and sent back on the mission in 1581. After many narrow escapes he was betraved into the hands of the Earl of Huntington, lord president of the north, who sent him to London to be examined by the privy council. He was imprisoned in the Tower, where he was 'often most cruelly rack'd, insomuch that he was afterwards forced to go crooked upon a staff.' When he had so far recovered as to be fit to travel, he was sent back to the north, and was tried and condemned for high treason at Durham, on account of exercising-his priestly functions in England. He was a man of undaunted courage and resolution, as was shown by his behaviour at the trial. George Swallowfield, formerly a minister of the established church, who was arraigned at the same time on a similar charge, showed signs of wavering, but Boste vehemently exhorted him to stand firm. Thereupon Swallowfield declared himself sincerely penitent, and Boste publicly gave him absolution in open court. Boste drawn to the place of execution, and was scarcely turned oft the ladder when he was cut down so that he stood on his feet, and in that posture was cruelly butchered alive on 19 or 24 July 1594.
[MS. Lansd. 75 f. 44; Dairies of the English College. Douay; Dodd's Church Hist. ii. 88; Challoner's Memoirs of Missionary Priests (1741). i. 312; Memorials of the Rebellion of 1569, p. 312; Strype's Annals, 199. 344.]
BOSTOCK, JOHN, the elder (1740–1774), was born in England, but educated at the university of Edinburgh, where he graduated M.D. in 1769. His inaugural dissertation is his only published work. It is dedicated to Cullen, under whom he had studied, and for whom he expresses very warm admiration. This dissertation is on gout, and extends to forty-three octavo pages, of which four and a half are occupied by a quotation from Sydenham's famous treatise on the disease. Under the heading of diagnosis a lucid summary of the distinctions between gout and rheumatism is given, which is, however, much less complete than Heberden's well-known passage on the subject. The thesis contains nothing original, and the author in the last paragraph gracefully acknowledges that all his matter is drawn from Cullen. Bostock became an extra licentiate of the College of Physicians of London in 1770, and began practice immediately after at Liverpool. He was elected physician to the Royal Infirmary, married, and had a son, Dr. John Bostock [q. v.]. and but died when only thirty-four years old, 10 March 1774. Some of Bostock's books are preserved in the library of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society in London, and among them a copy of his 'Tentamen Medicum inaugurale de Arthritide,' Edinburgh. 1769.
[Munk's Coll. of Physicians (1878), vol. ii.; Bostock's Works.]
BOSTOCK, JOHN, the younger (1773–1846), physician, was son of Dr. John Bostock of Liverpool [q. v.], and was born in that city. He was educated at the university of Edin-
