John Boswell was born on 23 January 1698 in
Dorchester, Dorset, to John Boswell of
Puddletown, part of a
Gloucestershire family. After attending school at Abbey Milton under George Marsh, Boswell matriculated into
Brasenose College at the
University of Oxford on 16 July 1715.
Ordained as a
deacon in the
Church of England in
Oxford, Boswell was then ordained as a
priest at
Wells Cathedral. In 1727, Boswell was assigned as
vicar of
St Mary Magdalene, Taunton. Boswell's response opposed such reforms, offering praise for the
Book of Common Prayer as adjacent to
early Christian liturgical practices and defending its obligation that the
Athanasian Creed be regularly recited. Boswell also approved of the
Test Acts, which legally mandated clerical subscription to the doctrines of the
Thirty-nine Articles. Boswell wrote the two-volume
The Case of the Royal Martyr Considered with Candour to defend
Charles I, who was popularly celebrated by the likeminded Anglicans among Boswell's contemporaries. The works were specifically in reply to criticisms of Charles in George Coades's 1764
A Letter to a Clergyman Relating to his Sermon on 30 January and
Thomas Birch's 1747
Enquiry. ==Works==