soil of Garrard county,
Lived another famous jurist,
Lived John Boyle, another member
Of the Lancaster triumvir,
Of the Letcher, Boyle, and Owsley--
Triune band of legal heroes.
Born at Castle Woods, Virginia,
Seventeen hundred four and seventy
By and by he journeyed westward,
Settling near to Whitley's Station,
And in seventeen hundred eighty,
Emigrated thence to Garrard,
Where the sun went down upon him,
On his brilliant life of labor,
In eighteen hundred five and thirty.
Educated in the English,
In the Greek and in the Latin,
Taught the strict routine of science,
By the Rev'rend Samuel Finley,
He selected as his mission,
'Mid his striving fellow-creatures,
The career of the lawyer;
And for sixteen years and over,
Stood among the highest jurists,
Was Chief Justice of Kentucky.
He declined a marked preferment,
In the ranks of politicians,
Choosing avenues of labor
Nearer home and happier duties,
Nearer scenes of calm retirement.
His decisions when Chief Justice
Meet the eyes of his successors,
Furnish precept and example,
State Reports, in fifteen volumes,
Give the purity and firmness
Of a day when vice and bribery,
Pettifogging and corruption,
Strategy and self-promotion,
Clouded not the patriot's vision.

Our renowned Judge William Owsley,
Representative and jurist,
Lawyer, legislator, ruler,
Has a record full of glory,
From his youth to his departure
From the stage of human striving.
Boyle and Mills and Owsley, colleagues,
With George Robertson, associate,
In the "Old Court" revolution,
Which endangered brave Kentucky
With dark anarchy and ruin,
Steered the state-craft o'er the breakers,
Stood unshaken 'mid the billows,
Saved the honored Constitution
From fierce partisans and wranglers.
Owsley's firm administration,
From the bench and bar judicial,
In the governor's chair of power,
Comes in heraldry unsullied,
On the banner of the contest,
Of the pen and diction contest,
Mightier than the sword of battle.
He reduced the annual bugbear,
The state debt, so long amassing,
And devoted all his efforts
To the Commonwealth's advantage.
In eighteen hundred two and sixty,
He laid down his useful manhood,
In the dust of lasting greatness,
At his home in Boyle county.
Long his psalm of life be chanted,
Long his earnest work remembered,
Long the sand ret