BOSWELL, .TaNtEs, Esq., of Auchinleck, in Ayrshire, celebrated as the friend and biographer of Dr. Samuel Johnson, was b. Oct. 20, 1740, at Edinburgh, where his father was one of the judges of the court of session, and as such was styled lord Auchtffieek. Ile war intended by his father for the profession of an advoeate, and studied first at Gins (vow. and afterwards at the then famous university of Utrecht, to which he went in 1763. When in London in that year he made the acquaintance of Johnson, an event of decisive importance for his whole subsequent life. The acquaintance was earnestly sought by himself, and originated in his strong literary tastes and his ardent admiration of Johnson's writings. lie spent one la inter at Utrecht, and then proceeded on a tour through Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, and visited Corsica with a letter of introduc tion from Rousseau to Paoli, with whom he contracted a warm and lasting friendship. lie enthusiastically adopted the cause of Corsican independence; and after his return to Scotland. published an ilecould of Corsica, with Memoirs of Gt neral BLIP:ale Di Paoli 1768: 3d ed., Loud_ 1769), which was speedily translated into several Ian 'unitizes. B. became a member of the faculty of advocates in 1766, but never devoted himself with earnestness to the business of law. In 1773. he was admitted into the Me racy club instituted by and of which Burke, Goldsmith, Reynolds. and Garrick were members. From this lime he made it his principal business to note down the say ings and doings of Johnson, with whom he associated on most intimate terms, and whom lie accompanied on his tour in Scotland and the Hebrides in 1773. Boswell was married in 1769 to a lady named Montgoniery, by whom lie had several children. Led by his taste for London society, he removed thither at a mature period of life, and entered at the English bar, but without attaining to any success in the profession. After
.Johnson's death in 1784, lie employed himself in arranging the materials which he had collected, and preparing his long-contemplated biography. His Jwirnal of a Tour to the liebrides appeared in 1785, his Life of Samuel Johnson, in 2 vols., in 1791. Both have gone through many editions. B. has been emphatically styled by Macaulay " the first of biographers." His work is indeed full of details but they are such as exhibit charac ter, and are arranged in the most interesting manner. He neither conceals his own faults, nor those of Johnson. but presents a picture of which the truthfulness is too evident to be questioned; and Johnson is perhaps already better known by the pages of B. than by any of his own writings. B. died in London, June 19, 1795. Besides the works already mentioned, he was the author of one or two minor productions of temporary interest. In Dec., 1856, there was published a posthumous volume of Letters of Jaines Boswell, addressed to the Rev. W J. Temple, from the Original MSS., in which the gay, iii.souciaht character of the man very strongly appears. His eldest son, Sir ALEXANDER BOSWELL, baronet, of Auchinleck, born 1775, was the author of a number of Scottish songs, full of humor, which he collected into a volume, entitled, Songs, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (Edin. 1803), and some of which attained considerable popularity. He also wrote Edin burgh, or the Ancient Royalty, a picture of Scottish manners in the dialogue form, and edited many of the older productions of Scottish literature. A duel with Mr. Stuart of Dunearn, occasioned by peJsonal allusions in a publication connected with a parliament ary election, resulted in his death on Mar. 26, 1822.