BOYCE, James Petigru, American clergyman: b. Charleston, S. C, 11 Jan. 1827; d. Peau, France, 28 Dec. 1888. He was graduated at Brown University in 1847 and studied theology at Princeton from 1849 till April 1851. He was ordained to the ministry in December of the latter year and settled at Columbia, S. C. In 1855 he became professor of theology in Furman University. He was elected professor in the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Greenville, S. C., February 1858, and entered upon the duties of the office in October 1859. The operations of the seminary having been practically suspended during the Civil War, he entered the confederate army as a chaplain and served in that capacity for six months. He was elected to the legislature of South Carolina in 1862 and re-elected in 1864. In 1863 he devised a plan for extinguishing the Confederate debt and was appointed a special commissioner to secure its adoption. After the war he gave his attention to the resuscitating and re-establishing the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky, and in 1874, secured pledges to the amount of $90,000 for the support of the seminary. For several successive years he was president of the Southern Baptist Convention. He contributed frequently to current literature and published several volumes of sermons and addresses. He received the degrees of S.T.D and LL.D. from Columbian and Union (Tenn.) Universities, respectively.============= [The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge, 1918, p. 372. — jrd]
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