Boomer was born in Ireland, and educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, and at Trinity College, Dublin, having graduated from the latter in 1838, and there receiving the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, in 1860. He came to Canada in 1840; was ordained as a Deacon of the Anglican Church the same year by Bishop John Strachan, and as a Priest the following year. He was appointed to the mission of Galt, a position which he retained for more than thirty years.