Richard Boys
Encyclopedia
Reverend Richard Boys MA (1785–1867) was a Church of England
clergyman and author, most notable for his tenure as Chaplain
on St. Helena at the time of Napoleon Bonaparte
's exile there. A controversial figure during his time there, he also played a part in the mystery surrounding Napoleon's Death Mask
.
, afterward joining the Royal Engineers
but later renewed his studies, going on to get an MA at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
. He was appointed chaplain
to the East India Company
and made junior chaplain at St. Helena in 1811.
After the compulsory retirement of Rev. Jones later in 1815, Boys was chosen to succeed him, also inheriting his responsibilities as Master of the Upper School on the island. The promotion did little to rein in the chaplain's strident nature as further council records attest. On March 30th 1817, the Council asked Mr Boys for an explanation of his conduct in refusing to take into the church a coffin for burial. He countered by claiming that the funeral attendees were pagans who were disrespecting the church. In 1821 the minutes recall an incident when the Reverend publicly accused a shopkeeper of being a liar and a spy, calling after him in the street: "Blenkens, when is the green bag to be given out?" ("green bag" at the time being a term describing a bag containing the fabricated evidence of paid informers).
On this occasion Boys received an official reprimand.
Boys did not restrict his eccentric behaviour to St Helena. Chaplin recounts another occasion when, on a visit to Rio de Janeiro
accompanying a Mr Thornton, a British minister, Thornton was obliged to send Boys away on account of "his indecent behaviour when a Catholic procession was passing by."
Almost inevitably, Boys came into conflict with the island's Governor Sir Hudson Lowe. Boys took umbrage to the behaviour of Rear admiral
Plampin, one of Lowe's most erstwhile supporters, who was living "in sin" with a lady who was not his wife. Boys' barely disguised diatribes against the officer during his sermons caused Plampin severe embarrassment and he appealled to Lowe for action against Boys. Lowe's correspondence to Britain frequently described his frustration at being unable to act given the chaplain's standing among the residents of the island and the uproar the clergyman would create if banished back to the UK.
Boys further aggravated the island's military by his insistence on completing the record of the births of illegitimate children of slave women with the names of the fathers in bold characters, including the titles and positions of the sires, some of whom were the highest and most trusted of Lowe's lieutenants.
On the eve of Lowe's departure from the island and return to the United Kingdom, Boys used his sermon as an opportunity to take a final shot at the sinfulness of the military hierarchy on the island. The vehemance of the sermon prompted Lowe to lodge an official complaint with the island council. Defiant as ever, Boys declined to provide the council with a copy of the sermon and in the absence of further evidence they were unable to act.
Boys certainly had at least one documented meeting with Napoleon though, which occurred when Ciprian, Napoleon's major-domo died. There being no priest
on the island, Boys and his junior chaplain buried the man, a Catholic
, according to the rites of the Protestant Church. Napoleon was astonished when he heard of it, and said a priest would not have done so much for a Protestant. As a token of appreciation of their conduct Napoleon desired to give the two chaplains a present. A snuffbox was offered to Boys, but was refused owing to the severe penalties attached to any acceptance of gifts from the exile. It was later given to Boys after Napoleon's death and remains in his family's collection.
Another former possession of Napoleon's, a chair from his house at Longwood, was bought by Boys at an auction after Napoleon's death. This chair was brought back by Boys when he returned to England and was latterly bequeathed to Maidstone Museum & Art Gallery
.
Boys also had a role in the mystery and controversy surrounding Napoleon's Death Mask
. As was the custom for major leaders of the time, a death mask
impression of Napoleon's face was taken shortly after his demise. Right from the start there were conflicting reports of who took the impression and when, and in whose possession it was then. Soon there were various and hugely differing masks appearing around Europe all purporting to be the genuine article. While the main focus of the debate ranged around whether the original had been taken by Dr Burton or Dr Antommarchi, both of whom had been physicians attending to Napoleon at the time of his death, another mask appeared in the possession of Dr J. O. Sankey, a grandson of Boys. This mask (commonly known as the Sankey mask), purported to have been taken by Joseph William Buridge, an English artist that had made a famous sketch of Napoleon on his deathbed. The providence of this item was supported by a written testimony from the Rev. Mr. Boys himself.
This caused a great deal of consternation as although the story of Buridge making a mask didn't tally with any other accounts, Boys was universally accepted to have been an honest individual. In his 1915 book The Story of Napoleon's Death Mask, Napoleon iconologist
G. L. de St. Watson argued the case for the Sankey mask, suggesting that it was a copy made by Buridge of Burton's original whilst at Longwood without Burton's knowledge. Today, however, the Sankey mask has been largely dismissed as unlikely to be authentic.
Boys appears as a character in Brooks Hansen
's The Monsters of St. Helena (2003), a fictional account of Napoleon's final years on St. Helena.
, in Kent, in 1854. He published two works, The Elements of Christian Knowledge: Or a Compendium of the Christian Religion, in the Form of a Catechism (1838), and Primitive Obliquities; Or, a Review of the Epistles of the New Testament, in Reference to the Prevailing Offences in the Church.
He died in 1867 and is buried in Loose churchyard.
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
clergyman and author, most notable for his tenure as Chaplain
Chaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...
on St. Helena at the time of Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
's exile there. A controversial figure during his time there, he also played a part in the mystery surrounding Napoleon's Death Mask
Napoleon's Death Mask
Napoleon's Death Mask is a marble cast mold of the face of Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French. Much mystery and controversy surrounds the origins and whereabouts of the most original cast moulds...
.
Early life
Richard Boys was born in 1785, the fourth son of John Boys and Mary (née Harvey). He was educated at The King's School, CanterburyThe King's School, Canterbury
The King's School is a British co-educational independent school for both day and boarding pupils in the historic English cathedral city of Canterbury in Kent. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Eton Group....
, afterward joining the Royal Engineers
Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....
but later renewed his studies, going on to get an MA at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Corpus Christi College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is notable as the only college founded by Cambridge townspeople: it was established in 1352 by the Guilds of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary...
. He was appointed chaplain
Chaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...
to the East India Company
East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
and made junior chaplain at St. Helena in 1811.
Chaplaincy
The forthright and uncompromising Boys quickly gained notoriety on the island. He had a fractious relationship with the Senior Chaplain, the Rev. Samuel Jones, to the point that in January 1815 the St Helena council minutes record an unspecified disagreement which had arisen between the two that was “productive of disgraceful effects” such as the council felt moved to order them to “abstain from further personal controversy, or circulation of written or printed letters referring to it on pain of suspension."After the compulsory retirement of Rev. Jones later in 1815, Boys was chosen to succeed him, also inheriting his responsibilities as Master of the Upper School on the island. The promotion did little to rein in the chaplain's strident nature as further council records attest. On March 30th 1817, the Council asked Mr Boys for an explanation of his conduct in refusing to take into the church a coffin for burial. He countered by claiming that the funeral attendees were pagans who were disrespecting the church. In 1821 the minutes recall an incident when the Reverend publicly accused a shopkeeper of being a liar and a spy, calling after him in the street: "Blenkens, when is the green bag to be given out?" ("green bag" at the time being a term describing a bag containing the fabricated evidence of paid informers).
On this occasion Boys received an official reprimand.
Boys did not restrict his eccentric behaviour to St Helena. Chaplin recounts another occasion when, on a visit to Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
accompanying a Mr Thornton, a British minister, Thornton was obliged to send Boys away on account of "his indecent behaviour when a Catholic procession was passing by."
Almost inevitably, Boys came into conflict with the island's Governor Sir Hudson Lowe. Boys took umbrage to the behaviour of Rear admiral
Rear Admiral
Rear admiral is a naval commissioned officer rank above that of a commodore and captain, and below that of a vice admiral. It is generally regarded as the lowest of the "admiral" ranks, which are also sometimes referred to as "flag officers" or "flag ranks"...
Plampin, one of Lowe's most erstwhile supporters, who was living "in sin" with a lady who was not his wife. Boys' barely disguised diatribes against the officer during his sermons caused Plampin severe embarrassment and he appealled to Lowe for action against Boys. Lowe's correspondence to Britain frequently described his frustration at being unable to act given the chaplain's standing among the residents of the island and the uproar the clergyman would create if banished back to the UK.
Boys further aggravated the island's military by his insistence on completing the record of the births of illegitimate children of slave women with the names of the fathers in bold characters, including the titles and positions of the sires, some of whom were the highest and most trusted of Lowe's lieutenants.
On the eve of Lowe's departure from the island and return to the United Kingdom, Boys used his sermon as an opportunity to take a final shot at the sinfulness of the military hierarchy on the island. The vehemance of the sermon prompted Lowe to lodge an official complaint with the island council. Defiant as ever, Boys declined to provide the council with a copy of the sermon and in the absence of further evidence they were unable to act.
Boys and Napoleon
Richard Boys' grand-daughter Lilian Boys-Behrens' 1926 book Under Thirty-Seven Kings asserts that Rev. Boys was the first person to whom Napoleon spoke upon his arrival in St Helena, although this is disputed by other contemporary accounts which report that the arrival occurred in silence with no exchanges between Napoleon and the waiting crowd and certainly no explicit mention of Rev. Mr. Boys.Boys certainly had at least one documented meeting with Napoleon though, which occurred when Ciprian, Napoleon's major-domo died. There being no priest
Priesthood (Catholic Church)
The ministerial orders of the Catholic Church include the orders of bishops, deacons and presbyters, which in Latin is sacerdos. The ordained priesthood and common priesthood are different in function and essence....
on the island, Boys and his junior chaplain buried the man, a Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
, according to the rites of the Protestant Church. Napoleon was astonished when he heard of it, and said a priest would not have done so much for a Protestant. As a token of appreciation of their conduct Napoleon desired to give the two chaplains a present. A snuffbox was offered to Boys, but was refused owing to the severe penalties attached to any acceptance of gifts from the exile. It was later given to Boys after Napoleon's death and remains in his family's collection.
Another former possession of Napoleon's, a chair from his house at Longwood, was bought by Boys at an auction after Napoleon's death. This chair was brought back by Boys when he returned to England and was latterly bequeathed to Maidstone Museum & Art Gallery
Maidstone Museum & Art Gallery
Maidstone Museum & Bentlif Art Gallery is in Maidstone, Kent, England. It is located on St. Faith's Street, opposite Fremlin Walk, a new shopping centre in the region.- Overview :...
.
Boys also had a role in the mystery and controversy surrounding Napoleon's Death Mask
Napoleon's Death Mask
Napoleon's Death Mask is a marble cast mold of the face of Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French. Much mystery and controversy surrounds the origins and whereabouts of the most original cast moulds...
. As was the custom for major leaders of the time, a death mask
Death mask
In Western cultures a death mask is a wax or plaster cast made of a person’s face following death. Death masks may be mementos of the dead, or be used for creation of portraits...
impression of Napoleon's face was taken shortly after his demise. Right from the start there were conflicting reports of who took the impression and when, and in whose possession it was then. Soon there were various and hugely differing masks appearing around Europe all purporting to be the genuine article. While the main focus of the debate ranged around whether the original had been taken by Dr Burton or Dr Antommarchi, both of whom had been physicians attending to Napoleon at the time of his death, another mask appeared in the possession of Dr J. O. Sankey, a grandson of Boys. This mask (commonly known as the Sankey mask), purported to have been taken by Joseph William Buridge, an English artist that had made a famous sketch of Napoleon on his deathbed. The providence of this item was supported by a written testimony from the Rev. Mr. Boys himself.
This caused a great deal of consternation as although the story of Buridge making a mask didn't tally with any other accounts, Boys was universally accepted to have been an honest individual. In his 1915 book The Story of Napoleon's Death Mask, Napoleon iconologist
Iconography
Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek "image" and "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the...
G. L. de St. Watson argued the case for the Sankey mask, suggesting that it was a copy made by Buridge of Burton's original whilst at Longwood without Burton's knowledge. Today, however, the Sankey mask has been largely dismissed as unlikely to be authentic.
Boys appears as a character in Brooks Hansen
Brooks Hansen
Brooks Hansen is an American novelist, screenwriter, and illustrator best known for his 1995 book The Chess Garden. He has also written one young adult's novel. He lives with his family in Carpinteria, California. He was the recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005.-Works:* Boone ...
's The Monsters of St. Helena (2003), a fictional account of Napoleon's final years on St. Helena.
Post St Helena
Mr Boys continued in charge in St. Helena until 1830, when he retired on a pension. On returning to England he held several parishes, finally settling at LooseLoose, Kent
Loose is a village some south of Maidstone, Kent, situated at the head of the Loose Valley. The village and the Loose Valley form the Loose Valley Conservation Area. The fast flowing River Loose which rises near Langley runs through the centre of the village and once supported a paper making...
, in Kent, in 1854. He published two works, The Elements of Christian Knowledge: Or a Compendium of the Christian Religion, in the Form of a Catechism (1838), and Primitive Obliquities; Or, a Review of the Epistles of the New Testament, in Reference to the Prevailing Offences in the Church.
He died in 1867 and is buried in Loose churchyard.