[1] 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.

On 25 October 1748 he was released from the charge, having a call to Oxnam, Roxburghshire; and was admitted there on 10 August 1749.

[1] 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.

On 30 May 1758 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland accepted his demission, and in doing so declared him henceforth incapable of receiving a presentation; and prohibited all ministers from employing him in any office.

His son Michael was minister of the relief congregation at Falkirk; his daughter Christiana, married Dr. Tucker Harris, of Charlestown, South Carolina.

Some of these are in Select Sermons by Boston and James Baine, with introductory essay by Neil McMichael, Edinburgh 1850.