27. Captain Nathan Boys (Boyse, Boyce, and sometimes written Nathaniel Boyce), born ---, died, Philadelphia, January 1803; will December 20, 1802 - January 7, 1803; wife Mary Boys, executrix. He was a brother of Elias Boys, merchant, Philadelphia, Warden of the Port, 1787, and Member Hibernian Society. Captain Boys by the Navy Board 1st Lieutenant Pennsylvania Navy; assigned August 29, 1775, to the Provincial Armed Boat "General Washington", built by John Martin; served until made Captain, December 6, 1775, of the Armed Boat "Franklin", built by Manuel Eyre, succeeding Captain Nicholas Biddle, who, December 22, 1775, was made Captain by Congress of the ship "Andrew Doria" of 14 guns. Captain Boys served as President of the Court Martial August 5-18,1778. He was placed in charge of the Galleys and the Forts at Mud Island and Billingsport, February 13, 1781, and was Commander in Chief of the Pennsylvania Galleys 1779-1781, then comprising the "Franklin," ,'Hancock," "Chatham," "Viper," and "Lion," with 130 rank and file. In August, 1778, after the British evacuated Philadelphia, all the Officers of the Pennsylvania Navy were discharged, except Captain Boys and enough men to man these boats. He was ordered, May 7,1781, to immediately raise a company of 31 rank and file to act as a garrison to defend the Forts in the Delaware. His services in defending the Delaware appear in the Correspondence of the Navy Board, and justly entitled him to a fuller recognition than he has yet received. He took the oath of allegiance to Pennsylvania June 23, 1777, and to the United States April 1, 1779. When Independence was assured and the rest of the Pennsylvania Navy dismissed, he was discharged from service Deeember 20,1781, with this action of the Executive Council:
"Ordered that Captain Nathan Boys be discharged from the State service, that the Council are sensible of his merit as an officer, and think it proper to declare their approbation of his conduct during the time he has been in the public service, and to assure him that they discharge him because the service in which he was engaged is at an end, and for no other cause." (Col. Rec. Pa.. XIII. 151.) In 1791 he was one of the "Commissioners of Philadelphia for Lighting, Watching and Paving the streets of the city." He continued to be a City Commissioner until 1798. He was one of the Commissioners "to prevent forestalling in the Philadelphia Markets." (Pa. Arch., 2d S,, III. 713.) He was elected 1790 a member of the Hibernian Society.
