BOYCOTT, the refusal and incitement to refusal to have commercial or social dealings with any one on whom it is wished to bring pressure. As merely a form of “sending to Coventry” or (in W.E. Gladstone’s phrase) “exclusive dealing,” boycotting may be, from a legal point of view, unassailable, and as such has frequently been justified by its original political inventors. But in practice it has usually taken the form of what is undoubtedly an illegal conspiracy to injure the person, property or business of another by unwarrantably putting pressure on all and sundry to withdraw from him their social or business intercourse. The word was first used in Ireland, and was derived from the name of Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott (1832-1897), agent for the estates of the earl of Erne in Co. Mayo. For refusing in 1880 to receive rents at figures fixed by the tenants, Captain Boycott had his life threatened, his servants compelled to leave him, his fences torn down, his letters intercepted and his food supplies interfered with. It took a force of 900 soldiers to protect the Ulster Orangemen (“Emergency Men”) who succeeded finally in getting in his crops. He was hooted and mobbed in the streets, and hanged and burnt in effigy. The system of boycotting was an essential part of the Irish Nationalist “Plan of Campaign,” and was dealt with under the Crimes Act of 1887. The term soon came into common English use, and was speedily adopted by the French, Germans, Dutch and Russians. In the United States this method of “persuasion” was taken up by the trade unions about 1886, an employer who refused their demands being brought to terms by a combination to refuse to buy his product or do his work, or to deal with any who did. Various cases have occurred in America in which labour organizations have pronounced such a boycott against a firm; and its illegal nature has been established in the law-courts, notably in the case of the Bucks Stove Company v. The American Federation of Labor (1907) in the Supreme Court of the district of Columbia, and in a suit against the Hatters’ Union (February 1908) in the U.S. Supreme Court. A boycott has also been held by the U.S. Supreme Court to be a violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust law.
BOYD, ANDREW KENNEDY HUTCHISON (1825-1899), Scottish author and divine, was born at Auchinleck manse in Ayrshire on the 3rd of November 1825. He studied at King’s College, London, and at the Middle Temple, with the idea of practising at the English bar. Returning to Scotland, however, he entered Glasgow University and there qualified for the Scottish ministry, being licensed as a preacher by the presbytery of Ayr. He served in succession the parishes of Newton-on-Ayr, Kirkpatrick-Irongray near Dumfries, St Bernard’s, Edinburgh, and finally, in 1865, became minister of the first charge at St Andrews. Here he advocated an improved ritual in the Scottish church, his action resulting in the appointment by the general assembly of a committee, with Boyd as convener, to prepare a new hymnal. In 1890 he was appointed moderator of the general assembly, and fulfilled the duties of the position with admirable dignity and tact. He died at Bournemouth on the 1st of March 1899. Dr Boyd was a very famous preacher and talker, and his desultory essays have very much of the charm of his conversation. Among his numerous publications may be specially mentioned the two works (each in three series), Recreations of a Country Parson (1859, 1861 and 1878), and Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson (1862-1865 and 1875); he also wrote Twenty-five Years at St Andrews (1892), and St Andrews and Elsewhere (1894). He was familiarly known to the public as a writer by his initials “A.K.H.B.”
BOYD, ROBERT BOYD, Lord (d.c. 1470), Scottish statesman, was a son of Sir Thomas Boyd (d. 1439), and belonged to an old and distinguished family, one member of which, Sir Robert Boyd, had fought with Wallace and Robert Bruce. Boyd, who was created a peer about 1454, was one of the regents of Scotland during the minority of James III., but, in 1466, with some associates he secured the person of the young king and was appointed his sole governor. As ruler of Scotland he was instrumental in reforming some religious foundations; he arranged the marriage between James III. and Margaret, daughter of Christian I., king of Denmark and Norway, and secured the cession of the Orkney Islands by Norway. However, when in 1467 he obtained the offices of chamberlain and justiciary for himself, and the hand of the king’s sister Mary, with the title of earl of Arran for his eldest son Thomas, his enemies became too strong for him, and he was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. He escaped to England, and the date of his death is unknown. His brother and assistant, Sir Alexander Boyd, was beheaded on the 22nd of November 1469.
Boyd’s son Thomas, earl of Arran, was in Denmark when his father was overthrown. However, he fulfilled his mission, that of bringing the king’s bride, Margaret, to Scotland, and then, warned by his wife, escaped to the continent of Europe. He is mentioned very eulogistically in one of the Paston Letters, but practically nothing is known of his subsequent history.
Lord Boyd’s grandson Robert (d. c. 1550), a son of Alexander Boyd, was confirmed in the possession of the estates and honours of his grandfather in 1549, and is generally regarded as the 3rd Lord Boyd. His son Robert, 4th Lord Boyd (d. 1590), took a prominent part in Scottish politics during the troubled time which followed the death of James V. in 1542. At first he favoured the reformed religion, but afterwards his views changed and he became one of the most trusted advisers of Mary, queen of Scots, whom he accompanied to the battle of Langside in 1568. During the queen’s captivity he was often employed on diplomatic errands; he tried to stir up insurrections in her favour, and he was suspected of participation in the murder of the regent Murray. He enjoyed a high and influential position under the regent James Douglas, earl of Morton, but was banished in 1583 for his share in the seizure of King James VI., a plot known as the Raid of Ruthven. He retired to France, but was soon allowed to return to Scotland. He died on the 3rd of January 1590.
William, 8th or 9th Lord Boyd (d. 1692), was created earl of Kilmarnock in 1661, and this nobleman’s grandson William, the 3rd earl (d. 1717), was a partisan of the Hanoverian kings and fought for George I. during the rising of 1715. His son William, the 4th earl (1704-1746), was educated in the same principles, but in 1745, owing either to a personal affront or to the influence of his wife or to his straitened circumstances he deserted George II. and joined Charles Edward, the Young Pretender. The 4th earl fought at Falkirk and Culloden, where he was made prisoner, and was beheaded on the 18th of August 1746. The title of earl of Kilmarnock is now merged in that of earl of Erroll.