Thomas Boston, the younger (1713–1767) was a Scottish minister of the Relief Church.
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Early life
The youngest son of Thomas Boston (1676–1732), he was born at Ettrick on 3 April 1713. After some home instruction, he went to the grammar school at Hawick, and then to Edinburgh University.
Boston was licensed on 1 August 1732 by the Selkirk presbytery, presented to Ettrick in place of his father in November 1732, and ordained there on 4 April 1733. As father and son were successive ministers in the same location, portraits of both men are frequently confused due to the inscription "Minister of Ettrick". On 25 October 1748 he was released from the charge, having a call to Oxnam, Roxburghshire; and was admitted there on 10 August 1749.
The "relief" presbytery
Popular as the heir to his father's theology of the Marrow Controversy, Boston was the immediate cause of a rift in the parish church of the neighbouring town of Jedburgh. When a vacancy there was filled over the wishes of the congregation, the elders of the church and most of the parishioners, including the town council, withdrew from the church and built a meeting-house for Boston.