Genius Fan

It’s easy to lose sight of the family picture when you dig into the mountains of words, essays and books written about James Boswell. If you want to add another dimension as you read about his life, then take a moment to think about the others in his family and social sphere…what were they doing while Boswell was making his way through life? Take a single slice of his well-dissected life: Monday 15 November 1762, the first entry in his London Journal 1762-63. That day the young Scot set off for London, a trip he hoped would result in a commission to the Guards (ie. lounging around London on half pay). He was aged 22. His anxious father, Alexander (54), one of Scotland’s top civil and criminal judges, was hoping his invisible hand could steer his son into a law career. Also on his mind was his second son John (19), an army lieutenant, whose mental breakdown had left him confined to a hospital in Plymouth. Boswell’s youngest brother, David (14), was left at home in Edinburgh, about to begin an apprenticeship in banking. His father and mother, Euphemia (44), saw him off that morning after a “long serious conversation”. He would never see his mother again, for after failing in his endeavours to secure a commission, he went to Utrecht, Holland, to study, then made a Grand Tour through Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Corsica and France and was in Paris in January 1766 when he read a newspaper notice of his mother’s death earlier that month.

The day in November 1762 when he set off from Edinburgh Boswell was leaving behind three friends: John Johnston (33), a solicitor in Edinburgh and owner of farms in Dumfriesshire, who met Boswell while studying at Edinburgh University, and William McQuhae (25), tutor to his brothers John and David, with whom he had become friends. A lapsed friendship with William Johnson Temple (23), from Berwick-upon-Tweed, who met Boswell at Edinburgh University in 1755, was studying in London on this day. Their friendship was about to be rekindled and would last their lifetime. And as for girlfriends, well Boswell had plenty of assignations over the past few years. the only ‘baggage’ he left behind the day he set off for London was that of Peggy Doig (age?), possibly a local servant girl, with whom he had been sleeping. She was about eight and half months pregnant to Boswell and her bump would have been clearly visible. Boswell left £10 for her care when he set off that Monday. The baby was born about 7 December 1762 and Boswell named him Charles. (He died in 1763, probably before reaching his first birthday.)

Notes
James Boswell: The Earlier Years 1740-1769, FA Pottle (1966)
A Life of James Boswell, Peter Martin (1999)
James Boswell London Journal 1762-1763, (Ed) Gordon Turnbull (2014) (This volume has fantastic notes)