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THE BOYDS OF IRELAND
Petition
of Ulstermen, 1718
In the beginning of the seventeenth-century, when
James VI of Scotland became James I of England, (1603) a concerted
effort was made to settle the province of Ulster in N. Ireland
with Scots. While they were not aware of the fact,
many of them were returning to the home of their ancestors.
(An Irish Celtic tribe called the Scotti had migrated across the water
from Ireland to Caledonia which later became Scotland). King James thought of this as one
way to cure the "Irish problem".
Most of the
large estates from this time have long since passed
into other hands. Some of the Undertakers (a man who undertook to
plant the land with settlers) did not adhere to the conditions
of the grants and, therefore, lost their
estates. Others sold the land once they had obtained title.
Many more estates were created by land grants between
1641 and 1703, after the 1641 rebellion. The Scottish Undertakers
as part of their land grants undertook to plant the land with settlers
(or undertenants) whom they brought over from
Scotland. It was mainly these
tennants who became the ancestors of the ethic
group known today as Scotch-Irish, a term virtually unknown
in Ireland where they are known as Ulster-Scots.
Very little
documentation survives on the Undertenants, but the
Undertakers are a different story. It must be remembered that, in
those times land was considered more valuable than people. Because
large tracts of land are involved there is far more
information on the Undertakers. As the undertenants were brought
to Ireland by the Undertakers it is obvious that many of them came from
the same area in Scotland and were his near relatives. One such
undertaker was:
Sir Thomas Boyd of Bedlay
was the second son of the sixth Lord Boyd of Kilmarnock, Scotland.
He married Grizel Cunningham, the daughter of
Alexander Cunningham on 22 October 1603. Ulster patent dated
29 August 1610: Shean 1,500 acres, Strabane Barony,
County Tyrone.
Marion, the
sister of Thomas Boyd, married James Hamilton, Earl of
Abercorn and eventually acquired Sir Thomas Boyd's estate. It can
be assumed that Thomas Boyd brought over many settlers by
the name of Boyd since the surname is quite
common in Northern Ireland. Many of the Boyd's
in America are descended from these Ulster-Scots but tracing
them down is another thing altogether. Many records have been destroyed
during the centuries of civil strife in the country.
The Petition of
Ulstermen
Three hundred people
signed the memorial (Petition of Ulstermen 1718) to Governor
Shute, March 6, 1718 asking encouragement to obtain land in "that
very excellent and renowned plantation called New England.
Five heads of the Boyd family; John, Robert, Thomas,
William and another Thomas signed the Petition. Captain William
Boyd came to this country fourteen times bringing Scottish pioneers
from the north of Ireland, and finally located at
Londonderry. There is reason to believe
that many of the Scottish Boyds who came between the years 1718
and 1750 from Ulster were his near kin. A number of them
located at Bristol, Maine and Londonderry, NH. The Petition
begins:
"We whose
names are the underwritteninhabitants of ye north of Ireland
doe in our own names and in the names of many others,
our neighbors, gentlemen, ministers, farmers, and
tradesmen, commisionate and appoint our trusty and well beloved
friend the Reverand William Macasky to repair to His Excellancy the
Right Honorable Colonel Samuel Suitte (Shute) Governor of New
England, and to insure His Excellancy of our sincere and hearty
inclinations to transport ourselves to that excellant
and renowned Plantation upon our obtaining from his
Excellancy suitable encouragement".........
The original copy of the
Petition of Ulstermen hangs in the rooms of the New Hampshire Historical
Society in Concord.
.
Rev. William Boyd
William Boyd
Irish Presbyterian minister, was ordained minister of Macosquin,
County Derry, by the Coleraine Presbytery, on 31 January 1710.
He is memorable as the bearer of a commission to Colonel Samuel
Suitte, governor of New England, embodying a proposal for an
extensive emigration from County Derry to that colony. The
commission is dated 26 March 1718, is signed by nine
Presbyterian ministers and 208 members of their flocks, who
declare their sincere and hearty inclination to transport
ourselves to that very excellent and renowned plantation, upon
our obtaining from His Excellency suitable encouragement.'
Witherow reprints the document, with the signatures in full,
from Edward Lutwyche Parker's History of Londonderry, New
Hampshire, Boston, 1851. Boyd fulfilled his mission in
1718. How he was received is not known; the intended
emigration did not, however, take place. But in the same
year, without awaiting the issue of Boyd's negotiation, James
M'Gregor (minister of Aghadowey, Co. Derry, from 1701to 1718),
who had not signed the document, emigrated to New Hampshire with
some of his people, and there founded a town to which was given
the name of Londonderry. In the non- subscription
controversy Boyd took a warm part. When the general synod
of Ulster in 1721 permitted those of its members to subscribe
the Westminster Confession who thought fit, Boyd was one of the
signatories. He was on the committee of six appointed in
1724 to draw up articles against Thomas Nevin, M.A. (minister of
Downpatick from 1711 to 1744; accused of impugning the deity of
Christ), and probably drafted the document. Next year Boyd
moved from Macosquin to a congregation nearer Londonderry, anciently known as Taughboyne, subsequently as Monreagh, where
he was installed by Derry presbytery on 25 April 1725. The
stipend promised was 50 pound. The congregation had been
vacant since the removal of William Gray to Usher's Quay,
Dublin, in 1721. In 1727 Gray, without ecclesiastical
sanction, came back to Taughboyne and set up an opposition
meeting in a disused corn-kiln at St. Johnston, within the
bounds of his old congregation. Hence arose defections,
recrimination, and the diminution of Boyd's stipend to 40 pound.
The general synod elected him moderator at Dungannon in 1730.
The sermon with which he concluded his term of office in the
following year at Antrim proves his orthodoxy as a subscriber to
the Westminster Confession, and perhaps also proves that the influence of a
non-subscibing
publication, above ten years old, was by no means spent.
It is directed specially against a famous discourse by the non-
subscribing minister of the town in which it was delivered, John
Abernethy, M.A., whose 'Religious Obedience founded on Personal
Persuasion' was preached at Belfast on 9 Dec. 1719, and printed
in 1720 [see Abernethy, John, 1680-1740]. Boyd decides
that 'conscience is not the supreme lawgiver,' and that it has no judicial authority except
in so far as it administers 'the law of god,' an expression
which with him is synonymous with the interpretation of
Scripture accepted by his church. In 1734 Boyd was an
unsuccessful candidate for the clerkship of the general synod.
His zeal for the faith was again shown in 1739, when he took the
lead against Richard Aprichard, a probationer of Armagh
presbytery, who had scruples about some points of the
Confession, and ultimately withdrew from the synod's
jurisdiction. He was one of the ten divines appointed by
the synod at Magherafelt on 16 June 1747 to draw up a 'Serious
Warning' to be read from the pulpits against dangerous errors 'creeping into our
bounds.' these errors were in reference to such doctrines
as original sin, the 'satisfaction of Christ,' the Trinity, and
the authority of Scripture. The synod, in spite of its
'Serious Warning,' would not entertain a proposal to forbid the
growing practice of intercommunion with the non-subscribers.
We hear nothing more of Boyd till his death, which occurred at
an advanced age on 2 May 1772. He published only 'A Good
Conscience a Necessary Qualification of a Gospel Minister.
A Sermon (Heb. xiii. 18) preached at Antrim June 15th 1731, at a
General Synod of the Protestants of the Presbyterian Persuasion
in the North of Ireland,' Derry, 1731, 18mo.
[Witherow's Hist.
and Lit. Mem. of Presb. in Ireland, 2nd ser. 1880, p. 1;
Armstrong's appendix to Ordination Service, James
Martineau, 1829, p. 102; Manuscript Extracts from Minutes of
General Synod.]
Boyd Gray researcher of this line
boydgray26 "at" utvinternet.com
Funding is being made available to
build a heritage centre at Rev. William Boyd's manse at Monreagh,
County Donegal, about 6 miles from where I live, to celebrate
the lives of the Reverend Frances Makemie and the Reverend
William Gregg, who brought Presbyterianism to the United States
and Canada respectively. As a member of the East Donegal Ulster
Scots Association, I hope to make sure that the Reverend
Boyd also features prominently in this centre. Indeed, I am
organizing an Ulster Scots Summer School
for the last weekend in April here in Donegal and the Reverend
William Boyd will feature prominently in it, as he already does
in the East Donegal Ulster Scots brochure I have just sent to
the publishers. Maybe you would like to advertise it on your
site:
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NOTE:
Use this data as a finding tool, just as you would any other secondary
source. When you find the name of an ancestor listed, confirm the facts
in original sources.
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History
Boyds
of Badenheath
THE
BOYD / HAY FAMILY
Panoramic
View of Kilmarnock (Dean Castle)
KILMARNOCK,
SCOTLAND by ARCHIBALD M'KAY 1864
"Kilmarnock
House" and other Olden views of Dean (Kilmarnock) Castle
The
Origins of Kilmarnock, Scotland
Boyds
of Penkill / Trochrig
THE
BOYDS OF IRELAND
Dean
Castle (Kilmarnock) Visitor's Page
The
Battle of Culloden
and The Execution of William Boyd
Main
Descent of the Boyd family
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NOTES
TO RESEARCHERS
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