Clan Boyle is a

Scottish clan A Scottish clan (from Goidelic languages, Gaelic , literally 'children', more broadly 'kindred') is a kinship group among the Scottish people. Clans give a sense of shared identity and descent to members, and in modern times have an official ...

of the

Scottish Lowlands The Lowlands ( sco, Lallans or ; gd, a' Ghalldachd, , place of the foreigners, ) is a cultural and historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Lowlands and the Highlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowl ...

History

Origins of the clan

The name Boyle comes from the

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

town of Beauville near

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000, In 1164 David de Boivil appears as a witness to a charter. In 1275 Richard de Boyville held the lands of Kelburn in

Ayrshire Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...

. In around 1291 Henry de Boyville was keeper of

Dumfries Castle Dumfries Castle was a royal castle that was located in Dumfries, Scotland. It was sited by the River Nith, in the area now known as Castledykes Park. A motte and bailey castle was built in the 12th century. The town was created a royal burgh by ...

Wigtown Castle Wigtown Castle was a royal castle that was located on the banks of the River Bladnoch, south of Wigtown in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. A castle was built in the 12th century. Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale captured the castle in 1286. ...

and Kirkcudbright Castle. Richard de Boyvil and Robert de Boyvil both appear on the

Ragman Rolls Ragman Rolls are the collection of instruments by which the nobility and gentry of Scotland subscribed allegiance to King Edward I of England, during the time between the Conference of Norham in May 1291 and the final award in favour of Balliol ...

in 1296 submitting to

Edward I of England Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassa ...

. Richard Boyle married a daughter of Sir Robert Comyn.

15th and 16th centuries

Six generations after Richard Boyle, John Boyle, his descendant, was killed at the

Battle of Sauchieburn The Battle of Sauchieburn was fought on 11 June 1488, at the side of Sauchie Burn, a stream about south of Stirling, Scotland. The battle was fought between the followers of King James III of Scotland and a large group of rebellious Scottish n ...

, fighting in support of

James III of Scotland James III (10 July 1451/May 1452 – 11 June 1488) was King of Scots from 1460 until his death at the Battle of Sauchieburn in 1488. He inherited the throne as a child following the death of his father, King James II, at the siege of Roxburgh Ca ...

in 1488. The family estates were forfeited but his son, also called John, had them restored by

James IV of Scotland James IV (17 March 1473 – 9 September 1513) was King of Scotland from 11 June 1488 until his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. He inherited the throne at the age of fifteen on the death of his father, James III, at the Battle of Sauchi ...

. When Elizabeth I was on the throne of England, the Boyles supported

Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legitimate child of James V of Scot ...

17th and 18th centuries

During the 17th century the Boyles supported

Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until Execution of Charles I, his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of ...

and they suffered hardships as a result. However the family fortunes were later restored when John Boyle of Kelburn was elected as a Commissioner of Parliament. John's eldest son, David Boyle also became a Commissioner of Parliament and

Privy Councillor A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

. In 1699 David was raised to the

Peerage A peerage is a legal system historically comprising various hereditary titles (and sometimes non-hereditary titles) in a number of countries, and composed of assorted noble ranks. Peerages include: Australia * Australian peers Belgium * Belgi ...

as Lord Boyle of Kelburn. In 1703 he was created

Earl of Glasgow Earl of Glasgow is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1703 for David Boyle, Lord Boyle. The first earl was subsequently one of the commissioners who negotiated the Treaty of Union uniting the Kingdom of England and the Kingd ...

. He was also one of the commissioners for the

Treaty of Union The Treaty of Union is the name usually now given to the treaty which led to the creation of the new state of Great Britain, stating that the Kingdom of England (which already included Wales) and the Kingdom of Scotland were to be "United i ...

. During the

Jacobite rising of 1715 The Jacobite rising of 1715 ( gd, Bliadhna Sheumais ; or 'the Fifteen') was the attempt by James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled Stuarts The House of Stuart, ori ...

he was a staunch supporter of the British-Hanoverian government and even raised and armed troops at his own expense.

John Boyle, 3rd Earl of Glasgow John Boyle, 3rd Earl of Glasgow (4 November 1714 – 7 March 1775) was a Scottish nobleman. Origins Boyle was the third but eldest surviving son and heir of John Boyle, 2nd Earl of Glasgow, by Helenor Morrison, third daughter of William Morrison ...

followed a military career and he was wounded at the

Battle of Fontenoy The Battle of Fontenoy was a major engagement of the War of the Austrian Succession, fought on 11 May 1745 near Tournai in modern Belgium. A French army of 50,000 under Marshal Saxe defeated a Pragmatic Army of roughly the same size, led by th ...

in 1745 and later again at the

Battle of Lauffeld The Battle of Lauffeld, variously known as Lafelt, Laffeld, Lawfeld, Lawfeldt, Maastricht, or Val, took place on 2 July 1747, between Tongeren in modern Belgium, and the Dutch city of Maastricht. Part of the War of the Austrian Succession, a Fr ...

in 1747. He was appointed Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and held the office for nine consecutive years.

19th century

David Boyle, a grandson of the second Earl, was a distinguished solicitor and in 1807 was appointed

Solicitor General for Scotland , body = , insignia = Crest of the Kingdom of Scotland.svg , insigniasize = 110px , image = File:Official Portrait of Ruth Charteris QC.png , incumbent = Ruth Charteris KC , incumbentsince = 22 June 2021 , department = Crown Office and ...

. He was raised to the bench, and in 1841 was appointed

Lord Justice General Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...

. He retired in 1852 after forty-one years of legal service. George Boyle, 4th Earl, also took up military service, rising to colonel and

Lord Lieutenant of Renfrewshire The Lord Lieutenant of Renfrewshire is the representative of the British Crown covering a lieutenancy area of the county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The Lord Lieutenant deals with many of the ceremonial functions a ...

in 1810. His eldest son, John, was a naval officer captured by the French off

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

in 1807. His brother, James, succeeded as the fifth Earl in 1843. He had also served in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

and was also made Lord Lieutenant of Renfrewshire. James was succeeded by his half brother, George Frederick Boyle, which proved to be a disaster for the family. George Boyle had been educated at

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and was passionately interested in art and architecture. He became obsessed by the

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

notions of form and beauty and began a monumental building program, renovating Kelburn and funding churches across Scotland. In 1888 he had bankrupted the estate and the assets were sold, Kelburn was only saved by the purse of his cousin, David, later to become the

David Boyle, 7th Earl of Glasgow David Boyle, 7th Earl of Glasgow, (31 May 1833 – 13 December 1915), was a British naval commander and colonial governor. He served as Governor of New Zealand between 1892 and 1897. Background Boyle was the son of Patrick Boyle (eldest son of D ...

. David Boyle, succeeded as Earl in 1890 and was

Governor of New Zealand The governor-general of New Zealand ( mi, te kāwana tianara o Aotearoa) is the viceregal representative of the monarch of New Zealand, currently King Charles III. As the King is concurrently the monarch of 14 other Commonwealth realms and liv ...

from 1892 to 1897. In 1897 he was created Baron Fairlie and was raised to the

Peerage of the United Kingdom The Peerage of the United Kingdom is one of the five Peerages in the United Kingdom. It comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Acts of Union 1800, Acts of Union in 1801, when it replaced the ...

. (the Earldom of Glasgow and all other titles being in the

Peerage of Scotland The Peerage of Scotland ( gd, Moraireachd na h-Alba, sco, Peerage o Scotland) is one of the five divisions of peerages in the United Kingdom and for those peers created by the King of Scots before 1707. Following that year's Treaty of Union, ...

. This was done to ensure him a seat on the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

as, at that time, only a small number of Scottish peers could sit, known as

Representative peers In the United Kingdom, representative peers were those peers elected by the members of the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerage of Ireland to sit in the British House of Lords. Until 1999, all members of the Peerage of England held the right to ...

Clan Boyle today

The current chief of the clan and 10th Earl of Glasgow was a naval reserve officer and assistant TV director who succeeded his father in 1984. He resides in Kelburn Castle, which has been held by the family since the 13th century.

Clan castles

Kelburn Castle Kelburn Castle is a large house near Fairlie, North Ayrshire, Scotland. It is the seat of the Earl of Glasgow. Originally built in the thirteenth century (the original keep forms the core of the house) it was remodelled in the sixteenth century. ...

is the seat of Patrick Boyle, 10th Earl of Glasgow. *

Rowallan Castle Rowallan Castle (Scottish Gaelic: ''Caisteal an Rubha Àlainn'') is an ancient castle located in Scotland. The castle stands on the banks of the Carmel Water, which may at one time have run much closer to the low eminence upon which the original c ...

References

{{Scottish clans

Boyle Boyle is an English, Irish and Scottish surname of Gaelic, Anglo-Saxon or Norman origin. In the northwest of Ireland it is one of the most common family names. Notable people with the surname include: Disambiguation *Adam Boyle (disambiguation), ...

Scottish Lowlands