853 



BOUCHER, REV. JONATHAN. 



BOUFLERS, DUG DE. 



86* 



be no compromise. His property, all of which was in America, was 

 lost. He became so much an object of popular dislike that his person 

 was in hourly danger, and in 1775 he finally quitted the American 

 shores and returned to his native land. His prospects thus blighted, 

 he had to begin the world anew, aided by some compensation from the 

 government at home for the losses which he had sustained with other 

 American loyalists. Little is known of him during the next nine 

 years of his life ; but it is believed that he had recourse to his 

 original profession, and that he established a school at Paddington. 

 In the church he obtained no preferment till 1784, when Parkhurst, a 

 clergyman, the author of two well-known Scripture lexicons, presented 

 him to the vicarage of Epsom in Surrey, at which place it is believed 

 he weut immediately to reside, and where he died. 



In this last twenty years of his life we find him devoted, as in the 

 former period, to religion, to politics, and to literature. He collected 

 and published, in 1797, the discourses before spoken of, and prefixed 

 to them a dedication to Washington, with whom, before the war, he 

 had been on terms of intimacy, and for whom he never ceased to feel 

 a high personal respect He added also a loug preface, entitling the 

 whole collection, ' A View of the Causes and Consequences of the 

 American Revolution/ He printed also two assize sermons, and in 

 every way supported to the utmost of his power the Pitt policy in 

 respect of France, adhering to the principles which he had maintained 

 in Maryland in such dangerous times and for which he had been so 

 great a sufferer. But the kind of literature to which be directed his 

 attention was changed. It became more English. The love of his 

 native country, which is said to be stronger in those born in moun- 

 tainous regions than in other persons, appeared in various forma. He 

 addressed his Cumbrian friends on the backwardness which they 

 showed ia following in tlie track of public improvement. He wrote 

 some of the best portions of Hutchinson's history of that county. 

 He erected in the church of Sebergham a monument to the memory 

 of Relph, a Cumbrian poet. He also became a Fellow of the Society 

 of Antiquaries of London, and was made an honorary member of the 

 Society of Antiquaries of Edinburgh, and also of the Stirling Literary 

 Society. His acquaintance among the men devoted to antiquarian, 

 and especially English philological literature, became extended, and 

 he enjoyed the intimacy aud particular friendship of several of them. 



His mind at length became determined towards a particular object : 

 it was, to prepare a kind of supplement to the ' Dictionary of the 

 English Language ' by Dr. Johnson, in which he should introduce 

 words provincial and arcLaical. By provincial, he meant words which 

 are still found in the speech of certain parts of England, though not 

 found in writing or heard in the conversation of the cultivated and 

 polite; words however which are genuine portions of the English 

 language, and to be found, most of them at least, in our early and 

 almost forgotten writers. By archaical, he meant words which are 

 found in those writers, though now regarded as obsolete, and which 

 are not now, and perhaps never were, in any general use by the 

 common people. These words it was his intention to illustrate by 

 quotations from the authors hi which they occur, and also by dis- 

 sertations on their history in a manner much more at large than 

 Dr. Johnson had thought it necessary to do in respect of the purer 

 and better terms which he had allowed to find a place in his 

 Dictionary. 



This was a design of great magnitude, and Boucher set himself to 

 the accomplishment of it with great earnestness of purpose, and pro- 

 ceeded with an unwearied perseverance which was truly admirable. 

 He made his classical knowledge bear upon it with effect, and he 

 obtained no mean acquaintance with the languages cognate to our own 

 and the other modern languages of Europe. He had an intimate 

 acquaintance with the dialect of Cumberland and Westmoreland, 

 where perhaps more of peculiar terms remain than in other counties, 

 which he had acquired when a youth, a time of life when such know- 

 ledge U best attained. He made a large collection of books applicable 

 to his purpose, and he established a correspondence with persons in 

 many of the counties of England, from whom he received contributions 

 for his vocabulary, aud sometimes valuable remarks. 



But the plan on which he proceeded included more than is generally 

 understood to fall within the province of lexicography. He made his 

 dictionary the deposit of what he was able to collect concerning many 

 of the usages of the English nation dress, sports, superstitions, what- 

 ever iu short falls under the uot-strictly defined term of popular 

 antiquities : so that his work may, in many portions of it, be read for 

 amuaing or interesting information, as well as consulted as a dictionary 

 for the illustration of the words which it contains. In this respect it 

 resembles Dr. Jamiesou's valuable dictionary of the Scottish language. 



Mr. Boucher began this work iu or about 1790. It was not too late 

 a period of life for him to indulge the hope and a reasonable expecta- 

 tion of being able to complete it, well furnished as he already was 

 with much of the information needed for such an undertaking. In 

 1802 it had so far advanced towards maturity that he issued a pro- 

 pectua of the work, and proposals for publication. His health how- 

 ever waa then beginning to decline. In 1803 he visited his native 

 county. He lived till the 27th of April in the following year, when 

 he died without having committed any part of his large manuscript to 

 the press. 



Of the dictionary thus left unfinished, the letter A was published 



after his death as a specimen by his friend and frequent correspondent 

 Sir Frederick M. Eden. The merits and the value ef his collection 

 were understood from this specimen, and appreciated in every way 

 highly by those who take an interest in such inquiries. But still 

 there was not sufficient encouragement given to the family to risk the 

 publication of so large a manuscript. It remained, with other papers 

 connected with it, in the hands of the family till 1831, when it was 

 purchased with the intention of immediate publication. Two numbers 

 of the projected work are however all that have appeared, containing 

 Mr. Boucher's learned introduction to his work, which happily was 

 left completed by him, and the words of the alphabet as far as 

 'Blade.' 



For the facts in this life we have been principally indebted to 

 Boucher's own writings, to the ' Gentleman's Magazine ' (vol. Ixxiv., 

 p. 591), where is a biographical notice of him inserted at the time of 

 his decease, and to a little volume printed at Carlisle in 1829, entitled 

 'The Life and Literary Remains of Thomas Sanderson." 



BOUFFLERS. There were two remarkable females often mentioned 

 in the literary history of the 18th century who bore this title, aud 

 who are frequently confounded with each other. The one was the 

 MARQHISE DE BOUFI-LERS-REMENCOORT, a correspondent of Voltaire, 

 aud the principal female ornament of the court of Stanislaus Augustus 

 of Poland. She was a great reader, and wrote some pleasing verses. 

 The other was the COHTESSE DE BUUFFLERS-ROCVHEL, who is perhaps 

 better known in this country than her namesake, from having been a 

 friend and correspondent of David Hume. She was mistress of the 

 Prince of Couti, and on the death of her husband, in 1764, was disap- 

 pointed at not becoming the wife of that prince. She wrote a tragedy 

 in French prose. The ease and accurate idiom of her English letters 

 show that she was a very accomplished woman. 



BOUFLERS, LOUIS-FRANCOIS DUC DE, descended from one of 

 the most ancient and noble families in Picardy, the second son of 

 Francois II., count of Bouflers and Cagni, was born January 10, 1644. 

 He entered the royal guards as a cornet in 1663, during which year he 

 was present at the siege of Marsal in Lorraine. In the following 

 campaign he was engaged in an expedition to Gigari in Africa j and so 

 much talent did he afterwards exhibit in Flanders, that he was allowed 

 to purchase from the Due de Lauzun the colonelcy of the royal 

 dragoons. In all the enterprises of Turenne he bore a distinguished 

 part ; and he was severely wounded at the battle of Woerden, under 

 the uiarechal of Luxemburg, in the winter of 1673. Having passed 

 into Germany, he was again wounded at the battle of Einsueiin in 

 1674, and received the thanks of Turenne for having greatly contri- 

 buted to the success of that day. In the memorable retreat after the 

 death of Turenne, in 1675, he commanded the French rear; and from 

 that time till the peace of Nimeguen, in 1678, he was employed on 

 active service. He then commanded in DauphiniS ami on the frontiers 

 of Spain. His gallantry at the siege of Luxemburg was rewarded 

 with the government of that city and province in 1686; aud the 

 seasonable detachment of a corps from the army of the Moselle, which 

 he commanded in 1690, decided the event of the battle of Fleurus. 

 In 1691 he was again wounded in an attack upon a hornwork at 

 Mons ; but during the remainder of that campaign he triumphantly 

 kept the field against the allies, who were more than threefold his 

 number, and continued the blockade of Liege and of Huy. On his 

 return to court during the winter, he was personally invested by the 

 king with the collars of the several orders into which he had hitherto 

 been admitted only by proxy. Wheu William III. moved to the 

 relief of Namur, Bouflers was selected to oppose him. He thou partook 

 of the glories of Steenkerken. In 1693 he was elevated to the dignity 

 of mardcual of France, and received the new order of St. Louis. He 

 defended Namur against the allies, commanded by William III., for 

 sixty-three days of open trenches in 1695, and repulsed four general 

 assaults. After its capitulation, he was detained a prisoner of war 

 for a fortnight ; and the king, iu recompense for his great services, 

 erected the county of Cagni and some adjoining domains in Beauvaisia 

 into the dukedom of Bouflers. In 1696 he superintended some prepara- 

 tions for a projected invasion of England in support of James II., 

 which was not put in execution. In the war of the Spanish succession, 

 he commanded in the Netherlands; and on June 30, 1703, in conjunc- 

 tion with the Marquis de Bedmar, he obtained a signal advantage 

 over the Dutch at Eckaren, for which he received from the king of 

 Spain the collar of the Goldeu Fleece. In 1708, after the battle of 

 Oudenarde, he undertook to defend Lille against Prince Eugene ; aud 

 he maintained the town from August 12th till October 25th, when he 

 capitulated, after having repeatedly declined the king's urgent wish 

 that he should cease to expose himself; but the citadel into which ho 

 retired held out till the llth of December following. The king loaded 

 him with new honours for the brilliant defence, and made his duchy 

 into a peerage. His presence in the capital iu March, 1709, and his 

 deserved popularity among the citizens, contributed to allay a tumult 

 which had arisen on account of scarcity of bread; after which, hastening 

 to Flanders, he tendered his services to the maruchul Villars, an officer 

 junior to him, and brought off the right wing of his army in good 

 order, losing neither cannon nor prisoners at the disastrous battle of 

 Malplaquet. This was his last public act ; he died at Fontainebleau, 

 March 22, 1711, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, and was buried 

 with great military splendour in the church of St. Paul at Paris, 



