In 1615 Boyd removed to Glasgow, to the great loss and sorrow of the people and professors of Saumur; in addition to the duties of principal he had to perform those of a teacher of theology, Hebrew, and Syriac, and those also of preacher to the people of Govan. 'His exemplary holiness,' says his earliest biographer, Dr. Rivet, 'singular learning, admirable eloquence; his gravity, humility, unaffected modesty, and extraordinary diligence, both in his ecclesiastical and scholastical employment, above the rate of ordinary pastors and professors, drew all to a reverence, love, and esteem for, and many even to an admiration of him.' Boyd delivered extemporaneous lectures in Latin with all the flow and elegance of a written discourse. His preaching at Saumur in French had been admired by the natives. In his lectures, all his quotations from the Greek fathers, which were very frequent and sometimes very long, were repeated by heart. He himself used to say that, if he were at liberty to select a language for his public discourses, he would choose Greek, as the most appropriate to express his thoughts.
As it was known to the bishops that Boyd was not in favour of the 'five articles of Perth,' he began to experience annoyance. The mind of the king was poisoned against him, and in 1621 he resigned the principalship and retired to the family house of Trochrig. But, being invited by the magistrates and people of Edinburgh in 1622 to be principal of the university there and one of the ministers of the city, he accepted the invitation. The king, on hearing this, reproved the magistrates for the appointment, and ordered them not only to deprive him of his office, but to expel him from the city unless he should conform absolutely to the articles of Perth. As Boyd refused to comply with this condition, he was deprived and expelled accordingly. Afterwards he had some hope of being restored to his office in Glasgow, and was induced to sign a qualified declaration of conformity. But, after all, the appointment was given to another. In 1626-7 he was called to be minister of Paisley, but owing to disturbances fomented by a bitter enemy, the Marchioness of Abercorn, who had recently gone over to the church of Rome, he was obliged to leave Paisley. In 1627, on a visit to Edinburgh, he was seized with his last illness, and died there, in much bodily pain but great mental serenity, in the forty-ninth year of his age.
Boyd's chief work was a large and very elaborate 'Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians,' published after his death. Dr. Walker thus describes it in his 'Theology and Theologians of Scotland:' 'A work it is of stupendous size and stupendous learning. Its apparatus criticus is something enormous. . . . Much more properly it might be called a theological thesaurus. You have a separate discussion of almost every important theological topic.'
Boyd excelled in Latin poetry, and his 'Hecatombe ad Christum Salvatorem' was included by Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet in his 'Delicias Poetarum Scotorum.' This was afterwards reprinted at Edinburgh by the well-known naturalist, Sir Robert Sibbald, M.D., nephew of Dr. George Sibbald, who married Boyd's widow.
[Life of Robert Boyd by Dr. Rivet, prefixed to Bodii Praelectiones in Epist. ad Ephes. 1652; Wodrow's Life of Mr. Robert Boyd of Trochrig (Maitland Club), 1848.]
BOYD, Sir ROBERT (1710–1794), general, colonel 39th foot, and governor of Gibraltar, is first noticed in official lists about 1740, when he appears as (civilian) storekeeper of ordnance at Port Mahon, Minorca, at a salary of 182l. 10s. per annum, in succession to Mr. Ninian Boyd, by whom the post had previously been held for a good many years. Robert Boyd was still storekeeper sixteen years later, in 1756, when the garrison, commanded by the aged general, afterwards Lord Blakeney, was besieged by the French and Spaniards. During this time, on 19 May 1756, he distinguished himself by a gallant but unsuccessful attempt to carry despatches in an open boat, in view of the enemy, from Governor Blakeney to Admiral Byng, whose long-expected fleet was in the offing, in consequence of which he was one of the first witnesses called by the crown at the subsequent trial of the unfortunate admiral. In recognition of his services at Minorca Boyd received a commission in the army as lieutenant-colonel unattached, bearing date 25 March 1758. On 13 Jan. 1760 he was brought into the 1st foot guards, then commanded by the Duke of Cumberland, as captain-lieutenant and lieutenant-colonel, and on 23 July following was promoted to captain and lieutenant-colonel in the regiment, being at the time in Germany on the personal staff of the Marquis of Granby, then in command of the British troops serving under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick. A couple of letters from Colonel Boyd to Sir Andrew Mitchell, dated from Germany in January 1759 and December 1760, show that there was some intention of sending him to India in command of a regiment, but, the East India Company having applied for an officer who had served in India before, he
