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 Boyd indeed until quite the close of the rebellion of '45 that he proved false to the opinions which this act shows him to have held. Various reasons are assigned for his defection ; by some it was attributed to the influence of his wife, Lady Anne Livingstone, who was a catholic, and whose father, fifth earl of Linlithgow, had been attainted for treason in 1715. Smollett, however, says : 'He engaged in the rebellion partly through the desperate situation of his fortune, and partly through resentment to the government on his being deprived of a pension which he had for some time enjoyed.' This opinion is supported by Horace Walpole, who mentions that the pension was obtained by his father (Sir Robert Walpole) and stopped by Lord Wilmington. In his confession to Mr. James Foster a dissenting minister who attended him from the time sentence of death was passed on him to the day of his execution the earl himself says : 'The true root of all was his careless and dissolute life, by which he had reduced himself to great and perplexing difficulties.' The persuasions of his, wife, who was captivated by the affability of the young Pretender, no doubt influenced him in deserting the Hanoverian cause ; but the hope of bettering his straitened fortunes by a change of dynasty must also be taken into account. His estates were much encumbered when he succeeded to them, and a long course of dissipation and extravagance had plunged him into such embarrassment that his wife writes to him : 'After plaguing the Stewart for a fortnight I have only succeeded in obtaining three shillings from him.'

When he finally joined the rebels he was received by Prince Charles with great marks of distinction and esteem, and was made by him a privy councillor, colonel of the guards, and subsequently general. He took a leading part in the battle of Falkirk, 17 Jan. 1746. At the battle of Culloden he was taken prisoner in consequence of a mistake he made in supposing a troop of English to be a body of Fitz-James's horse. In his speech at the trial he pleaded as an extenuating circumstance that his surrender was voluntary, but afterwards admitted the truth, and requested Mr. Foster to publish his confession. On 29 May he, together with the Earl of Cromarty and Lord Balmerino, was lodged in the Tower. They were subsequently tried before the House of Lords, and convicted of high treason, notwithstanding an eloquent speech from Lord Kilmarnock. The court was presided over by Lord Hardwicke as lord high steward, and his conduct on this occasion seems to have been strangely wanting in judicial impartiality. Walpole, in a letter to Sir Horace Mann commenting on this, says : 'To the prisoners he was peevish, and instead of keeping up to the humane dignity of the law of England, whose character it is to point out favour to the criminal, he crossed them and almost scoffed at any offer they made towards defence.' The sentence on Lord Cromarty was afterwards remitted, but no such grace was accorded to Lord Kilmarnock, principally on account of the erroneous belief held by the Duke of Cumberland that it was he who was responsible for the order that no quarter was to be given to the English at Culloden. On 18 Aug. 1746 he was executed on Tower Hill in company with Lord Balmerino. He is described as being 'tall and slender, with an extreme fine person,' and his behaviour at the execution was held to be a most just mixture between dignity and submission.' His lands were confiscated, but subsequently restored to his eldest son, and sold by him to the Earl of Glencairn. The title was merged in 1758 in that of Errol.

[Paterson's History of Ayr, 1847; M'Kay's History of Kilmarnock, 1864; Doran's London in the Jacobite Times, 1871 ; Moore's Compleat Account of the Lives of the two Rebel Lords, 1746; Ford's Life of William Boyd, Earl of Kilmarnock, 1746; Foster's Account of the Behaviour of William Boyd, Earl of Kilmarnock, 1746; Observations and Eemarks on the two Accounts lately published by J. Ford and J. Foster, 1746; Gent. Mag. xvi.; Scots Mag. viii. ; Howell's State Trials, xviii.] 

BOYD, WILLIAM (d. 1772), Irish presbyterian minister, was ordained minister of Macosquin, co. Derry,by the Coleraine presbytery, on 31 Jan. 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 co. 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 McGregor (minister of Aghadowey, co. Derry, from 1701 to 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.