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Gordon Turnbull

Full name
Gordon Turnbull
First name
Gordon
Last name
Turnbull
Biography

Gordon Turnbull graduated with first class honours at the Australian National University. He subsequently took his Ph. D. at Yale University. He has taught in the English Departments of the University of Newcastle (New South Wales), Yale, and Smith College. In 1997 he succeeded as General Editor of the Yale Editions of the Private Papers of James Boswell.

Boswellian impact

Gordon Turnbull has made significant contributions to Boswellian scholarship since the early 1990s. In 1995, he co-edited, with Mary, Viscountess Eccles, Boswell's Book of Company, which was published by Lady Eccles in a limited number for the Roxburghe Club.1 Two years later, in 1997, he was appointed General Editor of the Yale Boswell Editions. As per March 2019, seven volumes of the Boswell Research Editions have been published under his management, although most have been edited by other associated scholars. 

In 2010 was published the first revised edition of Boswell's London Journal since its original publication in 1950. The volume was edited by Turnbull and especially the annotations, originally by Pottle, were expanded and corrected. Turnbull's edition of the London Journal is today considered the authoritative version.

Terry Seymour

Full name
Terry Seymour
First name
Terry
Last name
Seymour
Biography

Terry Seymour is an independent scholar specialising in bibliographical topics. 

Boswellian impact

Terry Seymour's 2016 Boswell's Books is a unique history of the library of the Boswells. The more than 4,500 entries each represents a single title, and the book documents not only James Boswell's library, but also that of his father, grandfather and two sons. 

On December 14, 2013, Seymour laid the wreath on Dr Johnson’s grave in Westminster Abbey at the Johnson Society’s annual commemoration. He has also addressed the Boswell Society and has been published in the Johnsonian Newsletter.

As of March 2019, Seymour is compiling a census of the first edition of the Life of Johnson. If you have any particular knowledge about the original owners of the first edition, or if you know any of the current owners, you are very welcome to get in touch with Terry Seymour, either directly or by writing an e-mail to the webmaster of this site (webmaster@jamesboswell.info). Requests for privacy are respected at all times.

 

Joseph Ritter - Boswell's Servant

Name
Joseph Ritter
First name
Joseph
Last name
Ritter
Gender
0
Biography

According to Boswell, Ritter was "a Bohemian, a fine stately fellow above six feet high, who had been over a great part of Europe, and spoke many languages."1 He served for several years as James Boswell's manservant before opening the Abercorn Arms, a large inn in Paisley.2

The opening of the Abercorn Arms was advertised as follows on October 13, 1783:3

Joseph Ritter begs leave to inform the nobility, gentry, and the public in general, that he has taken that large and commodious inn, in Newtown Of Paisley (just now built by the Earl of Abercorn), which is furnished and fitted up in the neatest and genteelest
manner; and will be Opened on Monday, the 13th current, for the reception of those who please to favour him with their c ompany, where they may depend on the best usage,
and every article charged on the most reasonable terms

Ritter is the fictional author of a series of love letters to Boswell's wife, Margaret, printed in Boswell's Bus Pass (2011) by Stuart Campbell.

  • 1In Boswell's Tour of the Hebrides, entry: August 18, 1773
  • 2According to a note attributed to Sir Walter Scott printed in some editions of the Life of Johnson since at least Croker's 1831 edition
  • 3Cf. Robert Brown's The History of Paisley (1886), vol. II, p. 95
Life with Boswell

Ritter served as Boswell's manservant for several years, and Boswell, in his Tour of the Hebrides, described him as "the best servant I ever saw".

Alexander Murray - Lord Henderland

Name
Alexander Murray
First name
Alexander
Last name
Murray
Born May 11, 1736
Place of birth
in Edinburgh

Died March 16, 1795
Place of death
in Edinburgh
Cause of death
from cholera
Gender
0
Alias
Lord Henderland
Biography

Alexander Murray was a Scottish judge and politician. He was the son of advocate Archibald Murray of Cringletie and his wife Jean Hay, daughter of Lord William Hay of Newhall. In 1773 he married Katherine, daughter of Sir Alexander Lindsay, 3rd Baronet of Evelick. 

Murray served as Sheriff-Depute of Peebles 1761-65, and from 1775 until 1783 as Solicitor-General for Scotland. On March 6, 1783, he was raised to the bench as Lord Henderland. In 1780, he was elected Member of Parliament for Peeblesshire, but according to official records, he only spoke once, when on May 8, 1781, he "strongly opposed the petition of the delegated counties for redress of grievances, urged the repression of associations as dangerous and unconstitutional and, as a parallel, unwisely suggested that had the Scottish Government in the 17th century repressed the Solemn League and Covenant delegated meetings, there might have been no civil war."1 He retired from parliament upon becoming a judge in February 1783 and was succeeded by his namesake, Alexander Murray of Blackbarony (1747-1820).

  • 1Cf. Namier and Brooke's The House of Commons 1754-1790, entry: MURRAY, Alexander.
Life with Boswell

Boswell, in his Tour to the Hebrides, recounted that on August 17, 1773, in Edinburgh, before Boswell and Johnson set out on their grand tour of Scotland, Murray "sat with us a part of the evening, but did not venture to say anything that I remember, though he is certainly possessed of talents which would have enabled him to have shown himself to advantage if too great anxiety had not prevented him."

Boswells of Oxford - any relation?

Question

Is there any connection between James Boswell and Boswells of Oxford?

Answer

Boswells of Oxford was Oxford's oldest independent and still trading department store when it closed down in 2020. It was founded by a Francis Boswell in 1738, two years before James Boswell, the biographer, was even born. It stayed in the possession of Francis Boswell's descendants until 1890 when it passed on to Arthur Pearson of the Oxford Drug Company. At the time of its closure, it occupied the building at 1-4 Broad Street.

There is nothing to indicate any immediate family relationship between the Boswells of Auchinleck and the Boswells of Oxford, and one might have expected James Boswell to mention it, had he been aware of any such relation. Boswell visited Oxford from April 23 to 26, 1763, and stayed at the Blue Boar Inn, which was located on the corner of St Aldate's and Blue Boar St, where the Museum of Oxford stands today. This was only a few hundred meters from 50 Cornmarket Street, the location of the first Boswells of Oxford. 

Read more about the history of Boswells of Oxford here.

What does it mean to be a Boswell?

Question

What does it mean to be a Boswell? What is a Boswell?

Answer

To be someone's Boswell is a phrase inspired by the relationship between James Boswell and Samuel Johnson. Boswell looked up to the older and more famous Johnson, and he made a point of writing down many of their conversations and accompanying Johnson on some of his travels, especially their trips to the Hebrides in 1773. In 1791, Boswell published the biography The Life of Johnson about his friend, who had died 7 years earlier. The Life has had as much influence on later biographies, as Johnson's own dictionary has had on the history of dictionaries, and being someone's Boswell has come to mean a frequent companion and life chronicler of that person.

The most famous example of "being someone's Boswell" is probably in Arthur Conan Doyle's A Scandal in Bohemia (1891), in which Sherlock Holmes says to Dr. Watson, "I am lost without my Boswell." In Conan Doyle's novels about the famous detective, Watson assists Holmes on most of his investigations, and he is also the supposed author of the novels themselves, thus being Holmes' chronicler and companion.

James Gregory

Name
James Gregory
First name
James
Last name
Gregory
Born 1753
Place of birth
in Aberdeen

Died April 02, 1821
Place of death
in Edinburgh
Gender
0
Biography

Scottish physician and classicist. Gregory was the son of the esteemed physician Dr John Gregory (1724-1773) and his wife Elizabeth Forbes (d. 1761). He was married two times, firstly to Mary Ross (d. 1784) and secondly (in 1796) to Isabella Macleod (1772-1847), with whom he had eleven children. 

He was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School, before going on to study at the universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Oxford and Leyden. In 1776 he was appointed to the chair formerly held by his father at Edinburgh University, and he also began teaching clinical medicine at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. In 1790 he succeeded Dr William Cullen as Head of the Edinburgh University School of Medicine. His reputation was so great, that in 1799 he was appointed First Physician to the King in Scotland to King George III. This commission was renewed by King George IV in 1820.

Gregory was president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh from 1798 to 1801, but his publishing certain private proceedings of the college led to the suspension of his fellowship on May 13, 1809.

In 1820, Gregory had a riding accident, sustaining fractured ribs and hydrothorax. He never fully recovered, dying the next year. He lies buried, together with his wife and most of his children, next to the philosopher Adam Smith in Edinburgh's Canongate Kirkyard. For several decades after his death, he was known as the creator of "Gregory's Powder", an antacid, stomachic and cathartic which was composed of powdered rhubarb, ginger and magnesium oxide. The mixture was frequently used for stomach complaints until World War I. 

Life with Boswell

On August 17, 1773, Gregory had dinner at Boswell's in Edinburgh, during Dr Johnson's stay there, shortly before Johnson and Boswell set out on their tour of Scotland. Also present were Sir Alexander Dick, Sir David Dalrymple, the advocate John Maclaurin and Boswell's uncle, John Boswell.

Related links
James Gregory (Royal College of Physicians)

John Maclaurin - Lord Dreghorn

Name
John Maclaurin
First name
John
Last name
Maclaurin
Born December 15, 1734
Died December 24, 1796
Gender
0
Alias
Lord Dreghorn
Biography

John Maclaurin was a Scottish advocate, judge and author. He was born in 1734, one of seven children of the noted mathematician Colin Maclaurin (1698-1746)1 and his wife Anne Stewart.2 

Maclaurin studied law at Edinburgh University, qualifying as an advocate in 1756. In 1762 he married Esther Cunningham (d. 1780). In 1781 he was elected Chief of the Clan McLaren, and in 1788 he was created a Senator of the College of Justice (a judge) as Lord Dreghorn, after his family home.

  • 1Colin Maclaurin made important contributions to geometry and algebra, and the Euler-Maclaurin formula is named after him, as is The Maclaurin Society (MacSoc), the Mathematics and Statistics Society at Glasgow University.
  • 2Anne Stewart was a daughter of Walter Stewart, who was briefly (1720-21) Solicitor-General for Scotland.
Life with Boswell

Maclaurin was a professional colleague of Boswell's and just a few years older, although he completed his studies faster and qualified as an advocate at the young age of 21 (to compare, Boswell was 26 when he was admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates in 1767).

Boswell had Maclaurin, Alexander Dick, David Dalrymple, Dr Robert Gregory and his uncle, John Boswell, for dinner in Edinburgh on August 17, 1773, together with Dr Johnson, who was staying with Boswell before they set out on their tour of Scotland. Of this dinner, Boswell wrote, in Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, that "Mr Maclaurin’s learning and talents enabled him to do his part very well in Dr Johnson’s company. He produced two epitaphs upon his father, the celebrated mathematician. One was in English, of which Dr Johnson did not change one word. In the other, which was in Latin, he made several alterations."1.

  • 1Some further details of those Latin alterations also appear in
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