Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky, by H. Levin, editor, 1897. Published
by Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago.  Reprinted by Southern Historical
Press.  p.156.  Boyle County.

JOHN BOYLE, chief justice of Kentucky, and judge of the United States
district court for the district of Kentucky, was born in Virginia,
October 28, 1774, and died January 28, 1835, at his own home near
Danville, Boyle county, Kentucky.  He came of humble ancestry, and thus,
without fortune or influential friends to aid him, by his own merit he
attained to the highest position in the judiciary of Kentucky.  When a
child of five years he was brought to this state by his father, who
located first in Madison county, but afterward removed to Garrard county,
where he spent the remainder of his life.  The home of the family was
such as one usually sees in the frontier regions.  The educational
facilities of the state had not then reached the high development of
the present, and consequently Judge Boyle received but meager school
privileges.  He was educated by private tutors and in the subscription
schools until the elementary branches of learning had been mastered,
when he took up the study of Greek and Latin and the most useful of the
sciences under the direction of Rev. Samuel Finley, a celebrated
Presbyterian divine of Madison county, who did much toward shaping the
character of his young pupil, as well as developing his mental powers.
When it came time to choose a pursuit to which his talents and energies
through life should be devoted, he turned toward the law.  His
preparation for practice at the bar was thorough and systematic, and
within a few years of the commencement of his career as a lawyer he had
gained a reputation that ranked him among the able jurists of the state.
He was married in 1797 to Elizabeth Tilford and about the same time began
his labors at the bar.
     In 1802 Judge Boyle was elected to represent his district in
congress, and in the council chambers of the nation was an active worker
in the Republican party, then led by Thomas Jefferson.  He, however,
believed that the interests of the party were subordinate to those of the
nation, and ever placed principle before self-aggrandizement.  His desire
was not for a political career; he was pre-eminently a man of domestic
tastes, whose intersts centered in his home and family and who regarded
home ties and duties as most sacred.  He therefore preferred to remain in
Kentucky, rather than in Washington, hoping to devote his energies to his
law practice.  His fellow citizens decreed otherwise, however, and twice
re-elected him, without opposition, to congress, his service extending from
1803 to 1809.  His manner was most modest and unassuming and he never
sought the personal advancement and honors that a more self-assertive man
could have secured, but superior ability and true worth always makes
itself felt and Mr. Boyle could not remain in retirement.
     He was offered several federal appointments by President Jefferson,
but his devotion to his family led him to decline these honors.  One of
the first official of President Madison was to appoint him governor of
Illinois territory.  This was an important and lucrative appointment,
and he accepted it provisionally; but on his return to Kentucky to visit
his family the position of appellate judge of Kentucky was tendered him,
and this he accepted, although the duties thereof were very onerous
and the salary small.  Resigning the governorship, he took his place
upon the bench, and on the 3d of April, 1810, he was made chief justice
of Kentucky, in which capacity he served until November, 1826, when he
resigned.  It might be said of him as it was of King Duncan, he "has
borne his faculties so meek, has been so clear in his great office,"
that no more priceless legacy could he have left to his family than the
blameless record of his judicial career.
     Judge Boyle was a man of broad general information, with an
extensive knowledge of mental and moral philosophy and polite literature.
His colloquial style was plain and unpedantic, but fluent, chaste and
perspicuous; and his style of writing was pure, graceful and luminous. His
legal learning was clear and scientific.  Many men had read more books, but
none understood better what they read.  His reported opinions are equal in
most, if not in all, respects to those of any other judge, ancient or
modern.  His decisions were models of perspicuity and the embodiment of
justice.  He upheld the majesty of the law and stood firmly as the
representative of "that even-handed justice" which is the conservator of
the rights and liberties of every individual, humble or great.  He
adhered closely to the ancient precedents and technicalities of the
common law, and in this respect only awakened the criticism of some who
believed he did not adapt himself enough to the progressiveness of America
or introduce the changes that the advancement of time might permit. In the
year 1813 the question whether a merely legal or constructive seizin was
sufficient for maintaining a writ of right came up, for the first time,
before the court of appeals of Kentucky.  This question was eventful
and interesting, as it involved the title of much of the best land in the
state; and the decision given by Judge Boyle has never been overruled.
Another of his more important decisions related to the constitutionality
of the Bank of the United States.  His most famous decision, however, is
the memorable one arising from a series of legislative enactments designed
for the relief of debtors and therefore characterized as the "relief
system."  In this decision Judge Boyle and his associates held that a
two-years replevin statute, in it retroactive operation on contracts made
prior to the enactment of it, was repugnant to that clause of the federal
constitution which declares that no state shall pass any act "impairing
the obligation of contracts."  This decision was very offensive to the
dominant party of the state, and the appellate judges were denounced as
"tyrants, usurpers, kings."  An attempt was then made to degrade these
judges, remove them from office and establish a "new court."  The "old
court," however, vigorously upheld and maintained its position; and
eventually a signal and glorious civic victory was won, and Judge Boyle
was still the honored chief justice of that signally persecuted, yet
more signally triumphant, "old court."
     On the 8th of November, 1826, he resigned the chief justiceship of
Kentucky and accepted from the federal government the office of district
judge of Kentucky, which office he held until his death, twice refusing
an appointment as a member of the supreme court of the United States.
     Judge Boyle was one of the most conspicuous figures in the public
life of Kentucky for more than a third of a century, and yet there was no
man more modest and unassuming in manner.  His strong mentality and
brilliant talents made him the equal of Kentucky's most gifted members of
bench and bar, and in social life he was genial, courteous and most
companionable.  His home life was ideal, friendship was to him sacred;
his helping hand was ever extended to the needy, and "e'en his failings
learned to virtue's side."  His wife, who was ever his most loved
companion, died in 1833.  He survived her only until January 28, 1835.
That "he live for his country" is a fitting epitaph for one whose name is
inseparably linked with the best interest of Kentucky during the formative
period of the state, when was laid the foundation of her present glory
and greatness.

Boyle Finely Tilford
=
Madison-KY Garrard-KY VA

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/boyle/boyle.j2.txt