£10,000
Jacobite, Stuart, and Scottish Applied Arts | 429
Auction: 13 May 2015 at 12:00 BST
William Clerk of Glasgow, marked to rim with indisinct makers mark sturck three times, of conventional form with engraved panels of flower head and thistle to exterior with withie line under, the twin shaped lugs with hatched borders and initials 'IS' and 'MI' within
Provenance:
William Boys, 4th Earl of Kilmarnock
Christie's, London May 9th 1898
Colonel Sir Ian Walker-Okeover, Bart Collection
Thomas Lumley, London
John Hyman Collection, 2008
Private Collection
References:
'Further Reflections of Scottish Silver, Antiques Magazine, Aug 1998, J Hyman
‘I am now in my Boots to join the Prince’ and that ‘every Scotsman in his senses will go the same way’
Notes:
William Boyd, 4th Earl Kilmarnock succeeded his father in 1717. Son of William Boyd, 3rd Earl and Euphemia (daughter of 11th Lord Ross). He was educated at Glasgow University and, in early life, a country Whig with a great political background. A lifelong member of the Church of Scotland, he married Lady Anne Livingstone, from an Episcopalian family, whose father was James 5th Earl of Linlithgow and 4th Earl of Callendar. Through her aunt she was also heir to the title of Countess of Erroll.
It is this family connection that likely helped sway Boyd from his Hanoverian leaning of the ’15, to his Jacobite support for the ’45. The possible restoration of his fortunes and the rumour that his wife’s aunt would disinherit them of the titles of Earl and Countess of Erroll if he did not come out for the Young Pretender in ’45.
Boyd’s involvement in the uprising is best stated in his own words, recorded by Rev James Foster who attended him in prison.
When I asked him, ‘what could be his motive to engage thus in the rebellion against his conscience, in defiance of God, and in violation of sacred oaths, and, consequently, in contempt of all laws divine and human, all types of justice and honour.’ He answered, ‘That the true root of all was his careless and dissolute life, by which he had reduced himself to great and perplexing difficulties; that the exigency of his affairs was in particular very pressing at the time of the rebellion; and that, besides the general hope he had of mending his fortune by the success of it, he was also tempted by another prospect of retrieving his circumstances, if he follow’d the pretender’s standard. His love of vanity, and addictedness to impurity and sensual pleasure (he said) had not only brought pollution and guilt upon his soul but debased his reason, and, for a time, suspended the exercise of his social affections which were by nature strong in him, and, in particular, the love of his country:’ So that his rebellion was a kind of desperate scheme, proceeding originally from his vices, to extricate himself from the distress of his circumstances…..”
Upon his death the lands and titles were forfeited, as with many other Jacobites. However, his eldest son, James Lord Boyd, who had fought on the government side at Culloden successfully regained them through litigation in 1751. By 1758 he had also inherited the earldom of Erroll from his great aunt.
A family divided by the ’15 and ’45, their support for both sides perhaps muddies the waters for their true loyalty, or indeed gives a telling example of the war torn nature of the British isles with family fighting against family (rarely as closely as father against son). To try and come out on the winning side of a war that arguably had no clear winner, certainly not the nation of Scotland they aimed to support.
For further discussion on William Boyd’s involvement in the ’45 and his place within the Four Peers see proceeding lot.