CHIEF:  Dr Robin Boyd, MA (Oxon); MB BS; LRCP, MRCS; DCH; AFOM, 8th Baron Kilmarnock

Richard G. Boyd

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RichBoyd (at sign) Charter.net

Mary Semple's 1893 Letter-Boyd/Blair of Boydstown, Ballymena, Co Antrim, N. Ireland

The descriptions and statements of Aghadowey are taken from a series of letters written by Miss Mary Semple of Monthill, Larne, County Antrim, Ulster Province, Ireland, who made a personal visit to the place and talked with the aged men, who recounted tales they had received from their grandsires.

                           Monthill (Ireland), 28th August, 1893

Dear Mr. Blair 

"I was at a place called Craigs, seven miles beyond Ballymena and unexpectedly (received) information which may interest you.  Robert Boyd, who lives at a place called Boydstown, in the parish of Craigs, gave me a history of his own family.                                                                                       

You may imagine my surprise when he began to tell of the Boyds being married among the Blairs of Aghadowey.  He said the founder of his, and many more families, was one Thomas Boyd, a native of Oxfordshire, who settled at Craigs in 1573.  He married Elizabeth Douglas, a daughter of Scotch parents who had settled at Craigs also.

This Thomas Boyd received a grant of land, of which his descendants still hold a part. A son settled at Dungiven, County Derry, and was the grandfather of the Rachel Boyd who married James Blair, and father of the Rev. Mr. Boyd who went with the emigrants to New Hampshire.

I never met a more interesting old man than this Mr. Boyd.  He took me around 
his farm, and nearly every field had a history.  A small river runs near the house, which is called the Red Ford, so named because it was surcharged with blood the three days when Cromwell's army fought that of Philim Roe O'huill 'till that place where the Irish leader was killed.' A large cairn marks his grave.  He also showed me the spot where a church (with) a graveyard once stood in which many Boyds were buried.  As it stood far from the public road, it was gradually neglected and now is a fair meadow.  There are apple trees in his garden which were planted by an ancestor named Montfield Lyle Boyd, some two hundred years ago; he was a soldier and fought under the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim...

I was told that one of the ships that carried the first emigrants was called "The Eagle's Wing" and another "The Lady Sellerooke." There is an old song about the emigrants going away in the ship "Lady Sellerooke" that left fair Londonderry."

Yours, 
Mary Semple.

NOTE: Use this data as a finding tool, just as you would any other secondary source. When you find the name of an ancestor listed, confirm the facts in original sources.

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