Why? Other agents were not so lucky.Ĭould it be because he spoke Irish, had an Irish wife, and was known as a horse-loving, sporting sort of man. He took what precautions he could, but when the gunmen found him, as they did, they always missed. On September 25th, 1880, local landlord, Lord Mountmorres, was assassinated and on October 14th Boycott wrote to ‘The Times’ in London setting out his predicament and seeking help with his harvest.Īt this time, all landlords, Agents and Bailiffs were under threat of violence and many were assassinated, but Boycott seemed to bear a charmed life. It seems that at this stage ‘Captain’ Boycott had been targeted by the Land League as a test case ‘to gain the eyes and ears of the world’, because the following day his farm was invaded by a mob of up to 100 and his workers warned off three of them refused to leave. The military title was an affectation: in fact his military career was limited. ‘Captain’ Charles Cunningham Boycott, photographed in London in 1863 in a On September 22, 1880, David Sears, process server, escorted by 17 RIC Officers, began serving Lord Erne’s defaulting tenants with eviction notices, in accordance with the law, but they were soon forced back to Lough Mask House by the local women, under a shower of stones, mud and dung. Clare, and the eviction of tenants for non-payment of rent was about to lead to a new level of protest and violence. On Sunday, September 19, 1880, Parnell made his ‘Shun Him’ speech in Ennis, Co. The spectre of famine once more hung over the country, and Mayo, with its bogs and mountains and mainly poor land, became the focus of the hostility to England and Landlordism.Īfter the General Election of April 1880, Charles Stewart Parnell became leader of an 86-member Irish Party at Westminster. That year was very wet with poor harvests starvation again stalked the land and 48,000 Mayo people sought refuge in work-houses. On October 21st, 1879, The Land League was founded with the ‘3 Fs’ as its aims – Fair Rent, Fixity of Tenure and Free Sale. He kept a few racehorses, which he often rode himself at local Meets with some success, and hunted and fished in season.Īs the Earl of Erne’s agent he had a duty to collect the rents from the other 35 tenants and generally look after the estate, but after 20 years in the county, he was a Mayo man. He had found the home ‘where he would spend the remainder of his days’ but it was to prove to be the wrong place and the wrong time.Īlthough still a tenant farmer himself, he was probably the largest employer in the area and got on well both with his workers and the locals. ![]() On May 1st, 1874, Boycott took a 31 year lease on Lough Mask House and farm and, unknowingly, began his march into history. Some of the 50 volunteers of the ‘Boycott relief expedition’ – mainly Orangemen from Cavan and Monaghan. ![]() In 1870, landlords owned 80 per cent of the land of Ireland while 50 per cent of tenants occupied holdings of less than 15 acres and three quarters of holdings were annual tenancies. He and his wife lived for the next year at Landscape, Kilsheelin before moving to Achill Island, Co Mayo in the spring of 1854, where he had leased 2,000 acres from the Dugort Protestant Mission.īoycott built a stone house with a slate roof, high on the southern slopes of Croaghaun Mountain, overlooking lonely Keem Bay and he kept sheep and black cattle hunted game on the mountain grew vegetables kept poultry and fished the bay, which was teeming with fish and shellfish.īy 1871 ‘Captain’ Boycott had proven himself a capable farmer in a challenging environment, when the Earl of Erne, who owned 40,386 statute acres in Ireland, 2,184 of them in Mayo, offered him the agency of his lands near The Neale, and a lease on a farm of 629 statute acres with good house, yard and stables. ![]() On June 5th, 1852, Charles married Irish girl Anne Dunne, in Dublin, and in August, the 39th marched 100 miles south-west to Clonmel, Co Tipperary where on December 17th, probably due to ill-health, Charles resigned his commission. Charles was a well educated, loyal, honest and God-fearing Christian, 18 years old with a spare frame and stood 5’ 8” in height. On the 15th February, 1850, Boycott was commissioned as Ensign in the 39th Foot, which was under orders to proceed to Ireland, and early in May, the Regiment sailed for Belfast. ![]() Sometime around 1840 ‘Boycatt’ became ‘Boycott’. LIAM Ó RAGHALLAIGH argues that history has been unkind to the man who gave a new word to the English language.Ĭharles Cunningham Boycatt was born on March 12th, 1832, to Reverend William and Georgiana Beevor Boycatt of Burgh-St-Peter, Norfolk, England, where his grandfather and great-grandfather had also served as Protestant Rectors, and it was here that he acquired his love for horses and an ambition to join the army.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |