Robert Boswell of St Boswells, WS

Biographical Summary

Boswell, Robert, of St. Boswells — Apprentice to Thomas Tod. — Second son of Dr. John Boswell, Physician in Edinburgh. Born 30th January 1746. Died 1st April 1804. Mar. June 1769, Sibella, daughter of William Sandeman, Merchant, Perth. Lyon Depute and Clerk, 2d November 1770."

SOURCE: The Society of Writers to Her Majesty's Signet; 1890; page 21

---

Occupation: Writer to the Signet (Society of Writers to Her Majesty’s Signet is a private society of Scottish solicitors, dating back to 1594 and part of the College of Justice). Office Judicial: Writer to the Signet listed in, [Edinburgh, 1778] Williamson's Directory for the City of Edinburgh, Canongate, Leith, and Suburbs; From June 1778, to June 1779.

https://hymnary.org/person/Boswell_Robert : Boswell, Robert, born 1746, in Ayrshire. He received a classical education, and was an excellent Hebrew scholar. For some time he was a writer to the Signet in Edinburgh. He joined the followers of John Glas, a dissenting minister from the Church of Scotland, and was chosen to be leading elder of the Glassite congregation at Edinburgh. Whilst highly appreciating the Scottish Version of the Psalms, he thought it to be susceptible of improvement, and published a revised version in 1784 as The Psalms in Metre from the Original. In 1786 a 2nd edition appeared with the new title The British Psalter. He died suddenly whilst preaching in London, Sunday, April 1st, 1804. -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasite for a description of the beliefs of the Glassites or Sandemanians of which sect Robert Boswell was an elder. " The Glasites /ˈɡlæsaɪts/ or Glassites were a small Christian church founded in about 1730 in Scotland by John Glas.[1][2] Glas's faith, as part of the First Great Awakening, was spread by his son-in-law Robert Sandeman into England and America, where the members were called Sandemanians. Glas dissented from the Westminster Confession only in his views as to the spiritual nature of the church and the functions of the civil magistrate. But Sandeman added a distinctive doctrine as to the nature of faith which is thus stated on his tombstone:
"That the bare death of Jesus Christ without a thought or deed on the part of man, is sufficient to present the chief of sinners spotless before God.""