Life of James Boswell Trivia Quiz

Answer: Samuel Johnson

James Boswell and Dr. Johnson first met on 16th May 1763 in the back room of Thomas Davies' book shop on Russell St. near Covent Garden, London. Johnson instantly took a liking to the young Scotsman, and a friendship was formed which lasted until Johnson's death in 1784.

Answer: Margaret Montgomerie

As Margaret didn't bring either money or connections to the family, James' father, Margaret's uncle, Alexander Boswell (1706-1782) only grudgingly approved of the wedding. He chose the exact same day, 25th November 1769, to wed his second wife, who coincidentally was his own cousin, Elizabeth Boswell. Margaret died in 1789, which affected Boswell greatly.

Answer: The Hebrides

Both Johnson and Boswell wrote accounts of the journey. Johnson published "Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland" and Boswell published "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D.". As was typical of the two, Johnson's account was very matter of fact, describing the nature, etc., while Boswell's account focused more on their conversations and the people they met on the tour.

Answer: Utrecht

Boswell studied in Utrecht, taking the advice of his friend Sir David Dalrymple (Lord Hailes). Boswell's father and grandfather had both studied in Leyden. In the 18th century it was normal for Scotsmen to study law in Holland, where the legal system resembled the Scottish system more closely than the English one did, both being based on Roman law.

Answer: Fettercairn House

Most of Boswell's papers had been discovered at Malahide Castle north of Dublin, Ireland. The most famous part of his papers, the journal of his visit to London from 15th November 1762 to 4th August 1763, were, however, discovered at Fettercairn House, north of Aberdeen. Fettercairn House was then owned by Lord Clinton, a descendant of Sir William Forbes, one of Boswell's literary executors.

Answer: Odes to Indolence and to Impudence

"Odes to Indolence and to Impudence" was actually written by Boswell's close friend in the early 1760s, Andrew Erskine, and published in the summer of 1762. Erskine and Boswell published their correspondence with each other in the spring of 1763, to the chagrin of Boswell's father.

Answer: Alexander Boswell

Alexander Boswell (b. 1775) was described in Lockhart's "Life of Scott" as "having all his father, Bozzy's, cleverness, good humour and joviality, without one touch of his meaner qualities." He had a sharp pen, however, and in 1822 was killed in a duel following some attacks he had made in the "Glasgow Sentinel" on a James Stuart. James Boswell's other surviving son, James, was born in 1778 and died unmarried in the same year as his older brother.

Answer: Euphemia

Boswell's other two daughters were Veronica and Elizabeth. Veronica was also the name of his father's grandmother, the Dutch born Countess of Kincardine. In the Dictionary of National Biography it can be read that "Euphemia showed her father's eccentricity in an exaggerated form.

She left her family, proposed to support herself by writing operas, and made appeals for charity, being under the delusion that her relatives neglected her."

Answer: Mary Bryant

Mary Broad was only 21 when, in 1786, she was sent to Botany Bay, convicted of robbery. In 1788 she married William Bryant, a fellow convict at the colony. In 1791 she escaped, with her husband and children, but lost them all on her journey back to England. Back in London, Mary was again put in jail to wait for the due course of law. Now Boswell took an interest in her case, and made a plea to the crown on her behalf. As a result, Mary received a royal pardon, and Boswell helped her financially so that she could return to her family in Cornwall and re-settle.

Additional info: Mary Read and Anne Bonny were both female pirates, captured in the 1720s. Peggy Doig was the mother of Boswell's first illegitimate child, James (1762-1764).

Answer: David Hume

A part of the letter went like this: "How the devil it came into your heads, or rather your noodles (for if there had been a head among you, the thing had not happened; nor are you to imagine that a parcel of volatile spirits enclosed in a skull, make a head) -- I repeat it, how the devil came it into your noodles to publish in a book to all the world what you pretend I told you in a private conversation?"

Boswell knew both Adam Smith and Edmund Burke as well. Smith had been his teacher at the University of Glasgow in 1759-60, while he met Edmund Burke in Johnson's "Club", some years later. Berkeley died when Boswell was just 12.