Boyce, James Petigru

BOYCE, JAMES PETIGRU: American Baptist; b. at Charleston, S. C., Jan. 11, 1827; d. at Pau, France, Dec. 28, 1888. He was graduated at Brown University 1847; studied theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, 1849–51; became pastor of the Baptist church at Columbia, S. C., 1851; professor of theology in Furman University, Greenville, S. C., 1855; chairman of the faculty, and professor of systematic theology in the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, opened at the same place in 1859. He was opposed to secession, but went with his State into the Civil War; was chaplain of the Sixteenth South Carolina volunteers 1861–62; member of the legislature 1862–65; of the State council and on the staff of Gov. A. G. Magrath 1864–65; member of the State convention for reconstruction 1865. At the close of the war he returned to his duties in the seminary, reopened it and reestablished it with much labor, and made considerable contributions to its support from his own means. In 1872 he was transferred to the chair of church government and pastoral duties, but was absent much of the time for the next few years arranging for the removal of the seminary to Louisville, Ky., which was accomplished in 1877. In 1887 he returned to his old department of systematic theology. He was president of the Southern Baptist Convention 1872–79 and in 1888. Besides sermons, speeches, and articles he published Three Changes in Theological Education (Greenville, 1856); A Brief Catechism of Bible Doctrine (Memphis, 1872); An Abstract of Theology (Louisville, 1882; rev. and enlarged ed., Baltimore, 1887; rev. and annotated by F. H. Kerfoot, Philadelphia, 1898).

Bibliography: J. A. Broadus, Memoir of James Petigru Boyce, New York, 1893.