4th Earl of Kilmarnock (1705 - 1746)
William Boyd’s career as a Jacobite is marred with conflicting sides and evidence. He appears to have been perhaps a soldier chasing fortune, not the complete political or religious ideal. In the uprising of 1715 he followed his father, the 3rd Earl of Kilmarnock, into battle under their own regiment in support of the government.
His father died in 1717 and William Boyd succeeded him to lands and titles. Sadly, his land by this point was encumbered and Boyd’s finances were not as one would have expected for a Peer of the realm with such status and lands. Boyd later confessed his was a ‘careless and dissolute life’ marked by ‘vanity, and addictedness to impurity and sensual pleasure’. He played an active part in the peer’s elections and rarely, if ever, voted against the ministry and establishment. In the hotly contested 1734 election, it was noted by the opposition, he was brought back from France by the government, indeed at their expense, and both he and his wife received pensions of £200. A vote bought but again showed his hunger for money and his will to bend to its will.
However, by the time Walpole left office his pension had been withdrawn and his leanings change markedly to becoming a high profile Jacobite – for which he will forever be remembered. He is quoted as telling the Duke of Argyll,
"...for the two Kings and their rights, I cared not a farthing which prevailed; but I was starving, and, by God, if Mahommed had set up his standard in the Highlands I had been a good Mussulman for bread, and stuck close to the party, for I must eat”.
Although amongst the highest ranking Jacobites he was relatively late in joining the cause, in October of 1745, and had no part in the planning of the uprising. He was one of the few lowland Peers who followed Prince Charles and it can still be debated if this was with the view to restoring his fortunes alone.
After joining Prince Charles, he quickly rose through the ranks was named to his Privy Council. Although an advisor he generally followed the will of Charles and was not as outspoken as many other important figures. He commanded a troop of Horse Guards and led their march south into England. His local knowledge helped him distinguish himself on 17th January 1746 at the battle of Falkirk.
Present at Culloden and in the rear guard, unmounted, but in the heat of the closing stages of the battle his regiment mistook the Hanoverian Royal Dragoons as a Jacobite regiment and were captured. Imprisoned at Inverness he was transported to London and tried for High Treason at the House of Lords, with Earl Cromarty and Lord Balmerino. While he pled guilty he repented for his part in the Jacobite actions, however to little avail. Even with supporters such as the Duke of Hamilton and Lady Townshend making pleas for leniency he was sentenced to death.
As with Lord Balmerino, he was accused of acting upon Prince Charles' apparent order to ‘give no quarter’, he and Balmerino opposed this view and were publicly interviewed of the facts. Although repenting his part in the ’45 he and Balmerino (staunch to the end) ended their lives together and as friends. Dressed in black, he met his final moments bravely and in his statement said that 'his punishment was just'.
Unlike many others executed in London, Boyd’s head was not displayed and was reunited with his body in the coffin, buried that day in the chapel of St. Peter and Vincula within the Tower of London. An allowance perhaps bestowed upon him due to his attempt to repent his part in the uprising or as a small gesture to the fact he was the highest-ranked peer to be executed for these crimes.