Lord Boyd of Kilmarnock, remained faithful to the Crown
during the 'Civil War' period. This initially cost the
Boyd family dear; after mortgaging many of his estates to meet his
obligations to Charles I, he was heavily fined by Cromwell. He
did though find time to modernise parts of Dean
Castle and found a school in Kilmarnock. On the restoration of
Charles II, Royal gratitude toward the Boyds was shown in the
elevation of the tenth Lord Boyd, William, to the Earldom of
Kilmarnock in 1661 and in 1672 further rights and privileges on the
town of Kilmarnock. After an uneventful life for a member of his
family, the 1st Earl of Kilmarnock died in 1692. His son the 2nd
Earl, also William, died shortly after in 1699. The 3rd Earl, again
William, supported the Hanoverian Monarchy against the first
Jacobite rising in 1715. He was referred to in an old Jacobite
song:
"The auld Stuarts back again, The
auld Stuarts back again; Let howlet whigs do what they can, The
Stuarts will be back again. Wha cares for a' their creeshy duds,
And a' Kilmarnock sowen suds? We'll wauk their hydes and fyle their
fuds, And bring the Stuarts back again."
When reviewing a muster at Irvine of 6,000 men raised to put
down the Jacobite threat of 1715, the 3rd Earl was accompanied by
his ten year old son William who "appeared in arms with the Earl
his father and graciously behaved himself to the admiration of all
the beholders."
In 1717 the 3rd Earl died and was succeeded by young William,
who was still only 13 years old. William was the 4th and last Earl
of Kilmarnock.
William lacked parental discipline and scorned learning although
he showed promise in the classics, philosophy and mathematics. He
was disposed to "riding, fencing, dancing and music and was justly
esteemed by men of taste a polite gentleman". He did however show
interest in the prosperity and trade of Kilmarnock by
opening coalmines in the area. He married Lady Anne
Livingstone, daughter and heiress of the Earl of Linlithgow and
Callander. Her father was a strong Jacobite who had supported the
1715 uprising. However Boyd's estates were dwindling, his business
ventures were failing, and, short of money, he suffered the
catastrophic loss of his family home, Dean Castle, in an accidental
fire in 1735. Possibly his lack of funds or possibly out of support
for his wife's family (although she herself urged him not to),
William made a last desperate gamble to regain some of the ground
lost by his family, by throwing in his lot with Charles Edward
Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) and the Jacobite Rebellion of
1745. A very unusual step for any lowland Presbyterian, especially
one whose family had shown keen support in the past for the
Hanoverian Government and had two sons, James and William, already
with commissions within the Government army. His youngest son
Charles joined his father and the Stuart cause.
William Boyd served Prince Charles faithfully and with
distinction, both as commander of a small regiment and as a member
of his privy council during the campaign, but it was an association
which was ultimately to bring the Boyd house of cards crashing to
earth and with it the aspirations of a family who had helped shape
events in Scotland for the past 400 years. In the rout that
followed the disastrous defeat of the Jacobite forces at Culloden,
it is reported that William mistook kilted Scots Dragoons serving
in the Government army to be Highlanders on the Jacobite side,
turned the wrong way and was captured. In a bizarre twist of fate,
his son James served in the Scots Fusiliers on the Government side
at Culloden and as his father was brought, dishevelled and
bareheaded, into the Government camp, he was recognised by James,
who broke rank and placed his own hat upon his father's head. This
was the last time that father and son would meet. His youngest son
Charles managed to escape from Culloden Moor with the Prince and
went into exile in France. After a brief imprisonment, where
William wrote several letters of a calm and dignified nature to his
family (some of which are retained in the collections at Dean
Castle today), he was put on trial for treason in Westminster Hall
on 28th June, 1746. His appearance at the trial was described by
Horace Walpole:
"Lord Kilmarnock is tall and
slender with an extreme fine person; his behaviour a most just
mixture between dignity and submission; if in anything to be
reprehended, a little affected, and his hair too exactly dressed
for a man in his situation; but, when I say that, it is not to find
fault with him but to show how little fault there is to be
found".
William Boyd, 4th Earl of Kilmarnock was declared guilty by his
peers and executed in London at Tower Hill on the 18th of August
1746. The Boyd titles were confiscated, but James, William's eldest
son, was able to reclaim the Kilmarnock estate as he had fought
with the Government forces during the troubles. He had also
inherited his father's debt and the ruined shell of Dean Castle.
James sold off the Castle and estate soon after to a family friend,
the Earl of Glencairn, and through his mother he succeeded to
the title Earl of Errol and took her family name 'Hay'. The title
of Lord Kilmarnock is still retained within that family, but it
spelled the end for the Boyds of Kilmarnock.