Boys, or Bois, John

Boys, Or Bois, John a Church of England divine, was born at Nettlestead, Suffolk, Jan. 3, 1560. He was so precocious that at five years old he could read the Bible in Hebrew. At fourteen he entered St. John's, Cambridge, of which college he became fellow and studied medicine. Fancying himself to have every disease he read of, he quitted medicine for theology, and in 1583 was ordained priest, becoming some time afterward rector of Boxworth. When the new translation of the Holy Bible was resolved on, under King James I, Bois was fixed upon to undertake the Apocrypha, which he completed, together with the portion assigned to some other party whose name is not known. He assisted Sir H. Savile largely in his edition of Chrysostom, and in 1615 was presented by Bishop Andrewes with a stall in Ely Cathedral, which he held till his death, Jan. 14, 1643. He left many MSS., but his only published work was Veterun In. terpretatio cum Beza aliisque recent. collatio (London, 1655, 8vo), a vindication of the Vulgate version of the New Testament.-Hook, Eccles. Biography, ii, 26.