James Shergold Boone

James Shergold Boone (1799–1859) was an English cleric and writer.

Life Boone was born on 30 June 1799. In 1812 he was sent to Charterhouse School, and in 1816 he became a student of Christ Church, Oxford, where in 1817 he obtained a Craven scholarship. With an ordinary degree, he took his B.A. 24 May 1820. Thomas Mozley, in a discursive chapter of his Reminiscences, speculated that the teaching of John Russell at Charterhouse had a negative effect on Boone, considered a brilliant student as a young man.

Soon after Boone left Oxford, he was offered a seat in the House of Commons by an owner of a pocket borough, but declined the offer. He lectured in London, on the "union and mutual relation" of art and science; and took his degree of M.A. 4 March 1823. For some years he was a master at Charterhouse; but having taken holy orders he accepted in June 1832 the appointment of incumbent of St. John's Church, Paddington. Here he remained until his death on 26 March 1859; that year he was appointed "select preacher" at Oxford, but was prevented by illness from taking up the duties. A brass was erected to his memory in the chancel of St. John's. In 1820 he received the chancellor's prize for the Latin essay. He published Men and Things in 1823: a Poem in three Epistles with Notes, in which he showed admiration for George Canning.

Journal editor In June 1822 the first number of The Council of Ten was published, a monthly periodical of which Boone was the editor and almost the sole contributor; it lasted a year.

Boone then came under pressure from the Tractarians, to include their reviews. By 1837 his position was made untenable by John Henry Newman. Boone's attempt to remain above the fray in the row over Renn Dickson Hampden had earned him the partisan Newman's enmity. Newman, also, was being urged into a divisive approach that would see tractarian contributions as distinctive and noticeable in the Review.

Sermons and theoretical works Boone also wrote: One, Manifold, or, System; Introductory Argument, open letter addressed to Raikes Currie, 1848. Sermons on Various Subjects and Occasions, with a Brief Appendix on the Modern Philosophy of Unbelief, 1853. Two Sermons on the Prospect of a General War, 1854. The Position and Functions of Bishops in our Colonies; a Sermon, 1856. Sermons chiefly on the Theory of Belief, 1860.

Family Boone was twice married. There were no children by either marriage.