Bogue, David

Bogue, David, one of the founders of the London Missionary Society, was in 1750 born in Coldingham parish, Berwickshire. He studied at Edinburgh, and was licensed to preach by the Church of Scotland, but went to London to teach in 1771. He afterwards became minister of an Independent chapel at Gosport, and here he also took a tutorship in a seminary for Independent students of theology. This became a great school of missionaries, and out of it grew the scheme for foreign missions realised in the London Missionary Society. Bogue also took an active part in the establishment of the British and Foreign Bible Society and the Religious Tract Society. He was on the point of going as a missionary to India in 1796, when the East India Company refused to sanction the scheme. Bogue died at Brighton, October 25, 1825. He published numerous books, including an Essay on the Divine Authority of the New Testament. In conjunction with Dr James Bennet, he wrote a History of Dissenters (3 vols. 1809), of great value, though somewhat impaired by partisan prejudices.