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BOGUE, BOAG, AND BOOG,
varieties of a surname common in the south of Scotland. From its similarity,
as used in the most ancient families, to the old French name De Bogue,
it is probably of French or Norman origin. The word Bogue, in old
Norman-French and Spanish, signifies a mouth (Bocca), and is used in Spanish
topography to describe a narrow channel or passage of water, as Bogue
Chito, (little mouth,) in Louisiana. It is met with also in the names of
a few places in Scotland, but all in the province of Moray; as in the old
residence of Bog o’Gight, now Gordon Castle, near the new or small mouth of
the Spey, and which may be the same as Bogue Chito, even when pronounced in
modern Spanish; Boat-of-Bog, the village of the old ferry at the above mouth
or channel of the Spey; and perhaps the water of Bogie itself, which is not
so much a river as a mouth, channel, or passage, by which the two streamlets
Craig and Corchinnan, after a short course, reach the Deveron. It would
almost appear from this nomenclature as if, when Malcolm IV. drove out the
ancient inhabitants of Moray, and introduced a new colony in their stead,
that these latter were natives of Toulouse or of the neighbourhood of the
Pyrenees, where the Spanish tongue was spoken; a circumstance the less
unlikely, as it was for having served under Henry II. at Tourlouse, and in
defence of that people against the king of France, that the Moravians
professed to have rebelled against him. The word occurs in English in
disembogue, to discharge by a mouth. Embogue, the opposite of
this latter word, is used as a noun in an old writer (Florian, in 1613) in a
sense so similar to bog – which originally implied not a soft mud but a body
and oftimes a large body, of water, without an outlet – as to suggest
its being the original of the latter term. The subject of the following
notice is the only individual who has obtained a place in Biography, but the
name is common in old writings:
BOGUE, DAVID,
the Rev., one of the
fathers and founders of the London Missionary Society, was born at Hallydown,
parish of Coldingham, Berwickshire, February 18, 1750. He was the fourth son
of John Bogue, laird of Hallydown, and Margaret Swanston, his wife. He
commenced his classical education at the school of Eyemouth, and afterwards
studied for the church at the university of Edinburgh, and in due time was
licensed as a preacher of the gospel. In 1771 he went to London, and was for
some time employed as usher in an academy at Edmonton; afterwards in the
same capacity at Hampstead, and ultimately went to the Rev. Mr. Smith’s at
Camberwell, whom he assisted also in his ministerial duties. He subsequently
became minister of an Independent chapel at Gosport. In 1780, besides his
clerical charge, he undertook the duties of tutor to an institution in that
town, for the education of young men destined for the ministry in connection
with the Independent communion. At the same time, he originated the design
of a grand missionary scheme, which afterwards led to the formation of the
London Missionary Society. Soon after he took an active part in the
establishment of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the Religious
Tract Society. To the latter body he contributed the first of a series of
very useful publications. In 1796, he and the Rev. Greville Ewing of
Glasgow, and the Rev. William Innes of Edinburgh, who, like himself, had
left the Church of Scotland and become Independent ministers, agreed with
Robert Haldane, Esq. of Airthrie, who sold his estate to furnish funds for
the purpose, to go out to India to preach the gospel to the natives. The
East India Company, however, refused their sanction to the undertaking, and
the design was in consequence abandoned; providentially for them, as a
massacre of Europeans afterwards took place at the exact spot which had been
fixed upon for the missionary station, where a seminary was to have been
built for the education of missionaries. In 1815, the Senatus Academicus of
Yule college North America, conferred upon him the degree of D.D. Dr. Bogue
was in the practice of making an annual tour to the country in behalf of the
Missionary Society. In one of these journeys, in which he had been requested
to assist at a meeting of the Sussex Auxiliary Society, he became unwell at
the house of the Rev. Mr. Goulty of Brighton; and after a short illness,
died there, October 25, 1825, in the 75th year of his age. At the
time of his death he was president of the seminary of missions at Gosport.
He was an eminently amiable, energetic, and pious man, and contributed much
towards a revival of religious feeling in the age and body with which he was
connected. His history of Dissenters is written with considerable feeling of
dislike to the persecuting party, as he called them. It is mentioned, and it
is creditable to him, that before his death he expressed regret for the
harsh manner in which he wrote respecting some members of the English
church. His works are:
Reasons for
seeking a Repeal of the Test Acts, by a Dissenter. London, 1790, vo.
An Essay on the
Divine Authority of the New Testament, written at the request of the London
Missionary Society. London, 1891, 8vo. This work has been translated into
the French, Italian, German, and Spanish languages.
A Catechism for
the use of all the Churches in the French Empire; from the French. London,
1807, 12mo.
A Sermon preached
before the Promoters of the Protestant Dissenters, Grammar School,
Mill-hill. Hendon, 1808.
Discourses on the
Millennium.
History of the
Dissenters, from the Revolution in 1689, to the year 1808; in conjunction
with Mr. Bennet. 1809, 3 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1812, 4 vols, 8vo. Another
edition, 1833.
Sermons by the
Rev. Dr. Grasomer; with a Preface. 1809.
On the first
appearance of the Evangelical Magazine in 1793, Dr. Bogue contributed
several powerful articles to its columns.
BOAG, JOHN (1775-1863), compiler of the
‘Imperial Lexicon' was born at High-gate in the parish of Beith, Ayrshire,
011 7 Jan. 1775. He matriculated at the university of Glasgow in 1797, and
completed his academical course with a view to taking orders in the church
of Scotland, but joined the body of independents or congregational-ists, who
in 1812 formed themselves into the Congregational Union of Scotland. He
acted for many years as an evangelist, and not infrequently in the open air
or by the wayside. He had small charges in the Isle of Man and Helensburgh.
Ultimately he accepted the appointment of pastor over a very small
independent congregation in the village of Blackburn, Linlithgowshire, from
which, it is believed, he never received more than 25/. to 30/. a year. He
also kept a day-school on his own account. It was in this humble position
that Boag compiled his magnum opus. His aim was to combine etymology,
pronunciation, and explanation of scientific terms and others used in art
and literature. He wished also to incorporate (1) new words since Johnson,
and (2) modifications and other changes of meanings. He commenced this
arduous undertaking after he had entered his seventieth year. Within three
years his manuscript was ready for the press. It was printed and published
by the Edinburgh Printing and Publishing Company. Unfortunately this company
speedily became bankrupt. About 1847 Messrs. Fullarton & Co. became
proprietors of the ‘Imperial Lexicon' and issued it in parts or numbers,
constituting two massive volumes. The work had an enormous sale and held its
own until the publication of Ogilvie’s Dictionary, which was largely based
upon it. Prefixed was a ‘Popular Grammar of the English Language/ by Mr. R.
Whyte. Besides his ‘ Imperial Lexicon/ Boag was the author of a number of
pamphlets on questions of the day, and was a frequent contributor to
contemporary religious periodicals.
He married Agnes Hamilton on 19 June 1798, by whom he had six sons and three
daughters. One of his sons was Sir Robert Boag, mayor of Belfast. He died at
Craigton House, Linlithgowshire—the residence of a daughter-in-law, with
whom he had resided in his later years—on 15 Sept. 1863, in the eighty-ninth
year of his age.
'[Communications from Blackburn (Linlithgowshire);
from Rev. James Ronaldson, Longridge, Fauldhouse; Rev. George Boag, M.A.,
Holme Eden Vicarage, Carlisle; John Macnab, Esq., Edinburgh (of Eullarton &
Co.); and Boag’s books.] |
