Personal data
William Bosville
Born 1745   Died 1813  

Son of Godfrey Bosville of Gunthwaite and Diana Wentworth, daughter of Sir Win. Wentworth, 4th Bart of Bretton. Brother of Elisabeth Diana Bosville. He was educated at Harrow and entered the Coldstream Guards in December 1761. A very distant relative of JBs, the names Bosville and Boswell both being variations of the french Boisville. He retired from the army with the rank of Lieutenant in 1777.

He was known as a Bon Vivant in his own lifetime, and had dinner parties in his house on Welbeck Street, London, on an almost daily basis up until his death. He was also a friend of author John Horne Tooke (1736-1812), also known as The Philosopher of Wimbledon. He was buried in the chancel in St. Giles-in-the-Fields.1

Boswell first met Bosville on April 18, 1763, at the Tower of London. In his London Journal, he described the moment as a happy occasion, and Boswell became a good friend of the Bosvilles later on.

  • 1Main source for this short biography is the Dictionary of National Biography.
University of Hull: Bosville-Macdonald family of Gunthwaite
Boswell's London Journal 1762-1763

Comments

Unless otherwise noted, the source for a dated quotation of Boswell's is generally the corresponding volume of the Yale Trade Editions of Boswell's journals.