BOYCE, WILLIAM (1710–1779), English musical composer, the son of a cabinet-maker, was born in London on the 7th of February 1710. As a chorister in St Paul’s he received his early musical education from Charles King and Dr Maurice Greene, and he afterwards studied the theory of music under Dr Pepusch. In 1734, having become organist of Oxford chapel, Vere Street, Cavendish Square, he set Lord Lansdowne’s masque of Peleus and Thetis to music. In 1736 he left Oxford chapel and was appointed organist of St Michael’s church, Cornhill, and in the same year he became composer to the chapel royal, and wrote the music for John Lockman’s oratorio David’s Lamentation over Saul and Jonathan. In 1737 he was appointed to conduct the meetings of the three choirs of Gloucester, Worcester and Hereford. In 1743 was written the serenata Solomon, in which occurs the favourite song “Softly rise, O southern breeze.” In 1749 he received the degree of doctor of music from the university of Cambridge, as an acknowledgment of the merit of his setting of the ode performed at the installation of Henry Pelham, duke of Newcastle, as chancellor; and in this year he became organist of All-hallows the Great and Less, Thames Street. A musical setting to The Chaplet, an entertainment by Moses Mendez, was Boyce’s most successful achievement in this year. In 1750 he wrote songs for Dryden’s Secular Masque and in 1751 set another piece (The Shepherd’s Lottery) by Mendez. He became master of the king’s band in succession to Greene in 1757, and in 1758 he was appointed principal organist to the chapel royal. As an ecclesiastical composer Boyce ranks among the best representatives of the English school. His two church services and his anthems, of which the best specimens are By the Waters of Babylon and O, Where shall Wisdom be found, are frequently performed. It should also be remembered that he wrote additional accompaniments and choruses for Purcell’s Te Deum and Jubilate, which the earlier musician had composed for the St Cecilia’s day of 1694. Boyce did this in his capacity of conductor at the annual festivals of the Sons of the Clergy at St Paul’s cathedral, an office which he had taken in succession to Greene. His twelve trios for two violins and a bass were long popular. One of his most valuable services to musical art was his publication in three volumes quarto of a work on Cathedral Music. The collection had been begun by Greene, but it was mainly the work of Boyce. The first volume appeared in 1760 and the last in 1778. On the 7th of February 1779 Boyce died from an attack of gout. He was buried under the dome of St Paul’s cathedral.
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
