While in London in 1734, "Begging letters, including many to eminent dissenters who were friends and admirers of Boyse's father, together with verse writing, much of it for magazines, provided the family's uncertain income" (DNB). Throughout his life, he squandered what little money he had and pawned his clothes to survive. He was arrested for debt in 1742, and begged Cave for assistance. Boyse thus epitomizes the dirty, impoverished Grub-Street hacks satirized by Davys and Pope. He was buried as a pauper.