Robert Boswell

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)