elected organist of Vere Street chapel, Cavendish Square, and commenced his profession as a teacher of music. Anxious to extend the theoretical knowledge which he had acquired under Dr. Greene, he became a constant attendant at the scientific lectures of the learned Dr. Pepusch; studying with deep attention the philosophical principles of music, and at the same time becoming intimately acquainted with the works of the early Flemish and Italian composers, as well as those of our own country. In 1736 he relinquished his situation at Vere Street chapel, on being chosen organist of St. Michael's, Cornhill—a place vacated by Kelway, who was chosen to fill a similar situation at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields; and upon the decease of John Weldon in the same year, he was appointed one of the composers to his majesty's chapels royal. In 1740, upon the erection of an organ in the church of the united parishes of Allhallows, the great and the less, in one of which he was born, he was so earnestly entreated by the parishioners to become their organist, that he yielded to their solicitations, notwithstanding his other various engagements. In 1749, at the installation of the duke of Newcastle as chancellor of the university of Cambridge, he set to music an ode written for the occasion by Mason, the poet—likewise an anthem—both of which were publicly performed. As an acknowledgment of the merits of these compositions, the university conferred upon him, unsolicited, the degree of doctor in his faculty. On the death of Dr. Greene in 1755, he was nominated to the office of master of the royal band of musicians, and in 1758, upon Travers' death, one of the organists of the chapels royal. He died February 7, 1779, and was buried in the crypt of St. Paul's cathedral Besides numerous odes, songs, concertos, sonatas, and trios, Dr. Boyce was the author of the music to Lord Lansdowne's "Peleus and Thetis," a masque; "David's Lamentation over Saul and Jonathan," an oratorio; "Solomon," a serenata; "The Chaplet," and "The Shepherd's Lottery," two dramatic productions, &c.—all of which works possess various degrees of excellence. But his chief merit lies in his compositions for the church. For instance, his noble anthems—"By the waters of Babylon;" "If we believe that Jesus died;" "O where shall wisdom be found?" and a host of others that could be named, which fully entitle him to rank amongst the inspired musicians. Dr. Boyce is entitled to the lasting gratitude of the church and nation for the publication of the splendid collection of cathedral music, in three large folio volumes, 1760, in which are preserved the finest productions of our best church composers, from the Reformation to the middle of the eighteenth century.—E. F. R.
BOYD, the name of a Scottish noble family, at one time possessed of great power and wealth. The first of the house conspicuous in the history of Scotland was Robert, who was called to parliament as Baron Boyd of Kilmarnock. He was an able and ambitious man, and gained the favour of James II. by his great qualifications for business. In 1459 he was employed with other distinguished persons in negotiating the prolongation of a truce with England. Upon the death of James in the following year, Lord Boyd was made high justiciary of the kingdom. Aided by the address of his brother. Sir Alexander Boyd of Duchal, he acquired great influence over the young James III.; and on the death of good Bishop Kennedy in 1466, he violently seized the person of the sovereign while presiding in a session of the exchequer court at Linlithgow, and carried him off to Edinburgh. At the next meeting of parliament he obtained indemnity for this treasonable act, and a formal pardon was made out under the great seal. He was also appointed by the parliament governor of the king and his two brothers. Shortly after he was invested with the office of lord chamberlain, and put the copestone on his family honours by marrying his eldest son and heir, who was created earl of Arran, to the Princess Mary, the king's eldest sister. Such a sudden acquisition of rank and power of course excited the jealousy of the other nobles, and the ambition and arrogance of the Boyds contributed greatly to increase their unpopularity. Their fall was as rapid as their rise. In 1469 the earl of Arran was sent with other commissioners to Denmark, to negotiate a marriage between James and the king of Denmark's daughter, and during his absence a combination was formed amongst the nobles against the overgrown power of the Boyds. On the arrival of the earl in the Frith of Forth with the royal bride, he did not venture to land, but warned by his wife, the Princess Mary, he escaped with her to the continent. His aged father, after an unsuccessful attempt to maintain his ground by arms, took refuge in England, where he died in 1470. Sir Alexander Boyd, brother of the justiciar, was brought to trial for his share in the seizure of the king's person at Linlithgow, and beheaded. The earl of Arran seems to have acquired considerable distinction in the service of the duke of Burgundy; but he died at Antwerp in 1474, of grief, it is said, for the loss of his wife, who was recalled by her brother from the continent, compelled to submit to a divorce, and remarried to Lord Hamilton, whose descendants became by this alliance the nearest heirs to the Scottish throne. The Boyds never completely recovered from this blow, but a branch of this family was afterwards ennobled under the title of earls of Kilmarnock. William, the fourth earl, was involved in the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. After the battle of Culloden he fell into the hands of the duke of Cumberland, and was brought to trial upon a charge of high treason, condemned, and beheaded on Towerhill, August 18, 1746, in his forty-second year. His eldest son James, Lord Boyd, who fought for King George at Culloden, afterwards succeeded to the earldom of Errol, which his descendants still enjoy.—J. T.
BOYD, Rev. Henry, A.M., a native of Ireland, who wrote several poetical pieces, chiefly dramatic. He is better known as the translator of the Inferno of Dante, and of Vincenzo Monti's poem on the death of Hugo Basseville, the envoy from the French republic. He also translated the Trionfi of Petrarch. Boyd's works were published in Dublin, 1793. He died in 1832.—J. F. W.
BOYD, Hugh, a political writer of the eighteenth century, was born in the county of Antrim in Ireland, and intended by his father for the bar, for which purpose he received a good education and graduated in Trinity college, Dubhn. He did not, however, follow the profession, but addicted himself to political subjects. It was insisted by some persons that he was the author of the celebrated letters of Junius, but the attempt was unsuccessful, and the idea has been long since exploded. Boyd made an advantageous marriage and went to the East, having procured a post there under Lord Macartney. He died in 1791. His writings were collected and published in 1798.—J. F. W.
BOYD, Mark Alexander, a Scottish scholar and writer of Latin poetry, was born 13th January, 1562. He was the son of Robert Boyd of Pinkhill in Ayrshire, and nephew of James Boyd, the unpopular archbishop of Glasgow, under whose care he was educated, having been early left an orphan. He cared little in his early years for academical pursuits; and having tried unsuccessfully to push his fortune at court, he was induced to follow the military profession, and betook himself to France. At Paris he was attracted to the studies he had despised at home, and having attended the academical lectures there, he passed to the university of Orleans, to study civil law. Thence he went in succession to Bourges, Lyons, and Toulouse, famed everywhere for his elegant scholarship. He seems to have done little service as a soldier, though we find him in 1587 attached to a body of troops sent from Auvergne to support Henry III. In this expedition he was slightly wounded. When resident at Toulouse he was a sufferer for his adherence to the royal cause, being cast into prison by the insurrectionists, who had taken possession of the town in name of the League. After obtaining his release he settled near Poictou, where he devoted himself to study. At length he returned to Scotland, and died in April, 1601, at the paternal seat of Pinkhill. Of his numerous productions in prose and verse, displaying a very perfect acquaintance with both Latin and Greek, only his "Epistolæ Hervidum" and "Hymni" are now known. They are published in the Deliciæ Poetarum Scotorum, 1627.—J. T.
BOYD, John P., brigadier-general in the American army in the war of 1812. His early military career was in India, where he commanded an irregular mercenary corps, which he raised, paid, and equipped himself, and with which he served any of the native princes who would pay him best. Once he was in the pay of Halkar, and afterwards in the Peshwa's service. Finding at length no lucrative employment, he sold out his force to a Neapolitan partisan, and came to Paris in 1808, whence he returned to America. Receiving a commission in the army, he served under General Wilkinson in the abortive attempt of that officer in 1813 to advance against Montreal. On coming to the great rapid in the St. Lawrence river, just below Ogdensburgh, Boyd, with the rear-guard, consisting of 2000 men, was ordered to cross to the Canada side and attack the British force who
