652 



BOWER BOX-TREE. 



mission to depart from the city unmolested, which 

 agreement, however, was violated by the British 

 commanders. Shortly after, he was appointed chief 

 of the Massachusetts council, and, in 1778, was 

 chosen president of the convention which formed the 

 constitution of that state. In 1785, he was appointed 

 governor of Massachusetts, and had the good fortune 

 to crush, without a single execution, an insurrection- 

 ary movement against the government. Governor 

 B. was a inemlwr of tin- ron\ rntion of Massachusetts 

 assembled to delilH'rute on the adoption of the con- 

 stitution of the United States, and exerted himself in 

 its favour. He was ever an ardent lover of learning 

 and science, and a benefactor to others of the same 

 character. The university of Edinburgh honoured 

 him with the degree of doctor of laws, and the royal 

 societies of Dublin and London, with several other 

 foreign societies, admitted him among their members. 

 He was the first president of the academy of arts and 

 sciences, which was established, in 1780, at Boston, 

 in a great measure through his influence and exer- 

 tions *"d to which he contributed several papers, 

 printed in the first volume of their Transactions. His 

 letters to doctor Franklin have likewise been pub- 

 lished. He died at Boston, 1790. 



BOWER. See Anchor. 



BOWER, Archibald, a Scottish writer, possessed of 

 some talents and industry, but more remarkable on 

 account of his singular tergiversation with regard to 

 religion. He was born near Dundee, in 1686, of 

 Catholic parents, and after being educated at the 

 Scots college at Douay, he went to Rome, and be- 

 came a member of the order of the Jesuits. He 

 settled at Macerata, where, according to his own 

 account, he was a counsellor of the inquisition. In 

 1726, he was obliged to leave this place for Perugia, 

 whence he fled secretly to England, and professed 

 himself a convert to the Protestant faith. He obtained 

 respectable patronage, was engaged as a tutor in a 

 nobleman's family, and employed by the booksellers 

 in conducting the " Historia Literaria," a monthly 

 review of books, and in writing a part of the " Uni- 

 versal History," in 60 vols. 8vo. The money which 

 he gained by these occupations he is believed to have 

 given or lent to the society of the Jesuits, and thus 

 to have purchased his re-admission among them about 

 the year 1744. Subsequently repenting of the en- 

 gagement he had made with his old associates, he 

 claimed and recovered the property he had advanced. 

 In 1748, he published the first volume of a " History 

 of the Popes," by subscription ; and the same year 

 was appointed keeper of the queen's library, through 

 the interest of the honourable George (afterwards lord) 

 Lyttleton. In his history, which was continued to 

 seven volumes, he displayed such an indiscreet zeal 

 against popery, as exposed him to the animadversions 

 of Alban Butler, a learned Catholic ; and the literary 

 merits of his work were at the same time severely 

 canvassed by Douglas, afterwards bishop of Salisbury. 

 But still more unfortunately for his reputation, his 

 money transactions with the Jesuits were brought to 

 light, and, in spite of his spirited defences of his con- 

 duct, he was generally believed to be a man destitute 

 of moral or religious principle ; so that he had hardly 

 * friend or patron left except lord Lyttleton, whose 

 disapprobation alone prevented Garrick from making 

 the apostasy and double dealing of Bower the subject 

 of a satirical drama. He died in 1766, leaving a 

 widow (the niece of bishop Nicholson), who shortly 

 after published an attestation of his having died a 

 Protestant 



BOWLED John, an English divine of considerable 

 literary attainments, who was educated at Oxford, 

 where he took the degree of M. A. in 1750. Entering 

 into orders, he was presented to the vicarage of 



Mini-ton, in Wiltshire, where he continued till his 

 death, in 1788. He assisted in detecting the con- 

 spiracy of Lander against the reputation of Milton 

 and was a contributor to Granger's Biographical I Ii-- 

 tory of England, Stevens's edition of Shakspeare, 

 and Warton's History of English Poetry, and the au- 

 thor of some papers in the Archteologia ; but he is 

 chiefly distinguished as the publisher of a splendid 

 edition of Don Quixote in the original Spanish, (i vols. 

 4to, 1781, which involved him in a controversy with 

 Joseph Baretti, carried on without much courtesy on 

 either side, and now deservedly forgotten. 



BOWYER, William, an English printer and classical 

 scholar of eminence in the last century. He \\a- a 

 native of London, where his father, also a printer. 

 carried on business. The son acquired the rudiments 

 of learning under Ambrose Bonwicke, a nonjuring 

 clergyman, and was afterwards admitted a sizar of St 

 John's college, Cambridge, but left the university 

 without a degree, in 1722, and became an associate 

 in trade with his father. In 1729, he obtained the 

 office of printer of the votes of the house of commons, 

 which he held nearly fifty years. He was subse- 

 quently appointed printer to the society of antiquari- 

 ans, of which learned body he was admitted a mem- 

 ber ; and on the death of Samuel Richardson in 1761, 

 the interest of lord Macclesfield procured him the 

 appointment of printer to the royal society. In 1768, 

 he was nominated printer of the journals of the house 

 of lords, and the rolls of parliament. He died in 

 1777, aged seventy-eight, and was interred in the 

 church of Low Layton, in Essex. By his will he 

 bequeathed a considerable sum of money, in trust to 

 the stationer's company, for the relief of decayed 

 printers or compositors. His principal literary pro- 

 duction was an edition of the New Testament in 

 Greek, with critical notes and emendations. He also 

 published several philological tracts, and added notes 

 and observations to some of the learned works which 

 issued from his press. About ten years previous to 

 his decease, he entered into partnership with Mr 

 John Nichols, who shortly after that event published 

 a small volume of biographical anecdotes of Bowyer 

 and his learned contemporaries, which formed the 

 basis of his " Literary Anecdotes of the 18th Cen- 

 tury," 9 vols. 8vo, a work containing a vast mass of 

 indigested materials for a history of English literature 

 during the period to which it relates. 



BOXING. See Gymnastics. 



BOX-TREE. The box-tree (buxus-sempervirens) is a 

 shrubby evergreen tree, twelve or fifteen feet high, 

 which has small, oval, and opposite leaves, and grows 

 wild in several parts of Britain. It has been re- 

 marked, that this tree was formerly so common in 

 some parts of England, as to have given name to se- 

 veral places, particularly to Box-hill in Surry, and 

 Boxley in Kent; and, in 1815, there were cut down, 

 at Box-hill, as many trees of this sort as produced 

 upwards of 10,000. This tree was much admired 

 by the ancient Romans, and has been much cultivated, 

 in later times, on account of its being easily clipped 

 into the form of animals and other fantastic shapes. 

 The wood is of a yellowish colour, close-grained, very 

 hard aud heavy, and admits of a beautiful polish. On 

 these accounts, it is much used by turners, by en- 

 gravers on wood, carvers, and mathematical instru- 

 ment makers. Flutes and other wind-instruments are 

 formed of it ; and furniture, made of box-wood, would 

 be valuable were it not too heavy, as it would not 

 only be very beautiful, but its bitter quality would 

 secure it from the attacks of insects. In France, it is 

 much in demand for combs, knife- handles, and but- 

 ton-moulds ; and it has been stated that the quantity 

 annually sent from Spain to Paris is alone estimated 

 at more than 10,000 livres. An oil distilled from the 



