GLASGOW, Earl of,
a title in the peerage of Scotland, conferred in 1703, on David Boyle of
Kelburne, Ayrshire, whose ancestor, Richard Boyle (See BOYLE, surname
of), married Marjory, daughter of Sir Robert Comyn of Rowallan, and his
direct male descendant in the sixth generation, John Boyle, a faithful
adherent of King James the Third, lost his life at the battle of
Sauchieburn in 1488. The son of the latter, John, obtained from King
James the Fourth, in the third year of his reign, a precept for the
restitution of the lands forfeited by his father for his adherence to
James the Third. He lived to a great age, and had an exemption from King
James the Fifth, excusing him from attending the royal army in time of
war. He married Agnes, daughter of the family of Ross of Hawkhead, in
the shire of Renfrew, killed at Flodden in 1513, and in 1549 was
succeeded by his eldest son, John, who in 1536, in his father’s
lifetime, got a charter of the lands of Ballehewin, in the isle of
Cumbrae, and the same year was made hereditary coroner of that island.
Of two sons, David, the elder, predeceased him, leaving a son, and John,
of Halkshill, whose great-grandson married the heiress of Kelburne, and
carried on the line of the family.
David’s son,
John Boyle, succeeded his grandfather. He had a son, also named John,
who adhered firmly to the interest of Queen Mary, and died in 1610. His
son, John Boyle, of Kelburne, was in 1630 one of the commissioners for
revising the practice of the law of Scotland. For his faithful adherence
to the king, during the civil wars, he suffered ten years’ banishment,
and many hardships, and died in 1672. He married Agnes, only daughter of
Sir John Maxwell of Pollock, and had an only daughter, Grizel, his sole
heiress, who became the wife of her cousin, David Boyle of Halkshill,
and had three sons and one daughter. His eldest son, John Boyle of
Kelburne, was chosen member for the shire of Bute in the parliament of
1681. In 1684 he was one of the tacksmen of the excise, and died 7th
October 1785. He had, with a daughter, two sons; David, first earl of
Glasgow, and William, one of the commissioners of the customs for
Scotland, and died in 1685.
David, his
elder son, was member of parliament for Bute in the convention
parliament of 1689; sworn a privy councillor, 8th June 1697;
and created a peer, by the title of Lord Boyle of Kelburne, Stewarton,
Cumbrae, Largs, and Dalry, 31st January 1699. On 2d January
1700, he was appointed treasurer-depute, and on 12th April
following, created earl of Glasgow, viscount of Kelburne, and Lord Boyle
of Fenwick, by patent, to him and his heirs male whatsoever. He steadily
supported the protestant succession, and was one of the commissioners
for the treaty of union. In 1706 he was appointed lord-high-commissioner
to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and filled that high
office for four successive years afterwards. He was one of the sixteen
representative peers of Scotland chosen by parliament, 13th
February 1707, and rechosen at the general election in 1708. Constituted
the same year lord-register of Scotland, he held that office till 1714.
On the alarm of invasion by the Pretender in July 1715, observing that
there were few regular troops in Scotland, his lordship not only made an
offer to George the First to maintain a thousand men at his own expense,
for the service of government, but took an active part in promoting the
arming and disciplining of the fencible men in Ayrshire. He died 1st
November, 1733. By his first wife, Margaret, eldest daughter of Patrick
Crawford of Kilbirny, (sister of the first Viscount Garnock,) he had
four sons, namely, John, second earl; Patrick, of Shewalton, passed
advocate 15th January 1712, and made a lord of session 19th
December 1746, when he took the title of Lord Shewalton, and on 6th
June 1749, was appointed by patent one of the commissioners for
improving the fisheries and manufactures of Scotland; died, unmarried,
at Drumlanrig, 31st March, 1761; the two younger sons also
died unmarried. By his second wife, Jean, daughter and heiress of
William Mure of Rowallan, in Ayrshire, he had two daughters, the elder
of whom, Lady Jean Boyle, heiress of Rowallan, married to the gallant
Sir James Campbell, K.B., killed at Fontenoy in 1745, was the mother of
the fifth earl of Loudon (see LOUDOUN, Earl of).
John, second
earl of Glasgow, died at Kelburne, in May 1740, in his 53d year. He had
three sons and six daughters. The eldest son, William, died young. The
second son, John, became third earl. The third son, the Hon. Patrick
Boyle of Shewalton, who died at Irvine, 26th February 1798,
was, by his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Alexander Dunlop,
professor of Greek in the university of Glasgow, father of the Right
Hon. David Boyle, lord-justice-genera of Scotland, who was his fourth
and youngest son. He passed advocate 14th December 1793, was
appointed solicitor-general 9th May 1807, and the same year
represented the county of Ayr in parliament. He was elevated to the
bench of the courts of session and justiciary, 28th February
1811, and in the following October was constituted lord-justice-clerk by
commission from the prince regent dated the 15th of that
month, and sworn of his majesty’s privy council. On the resignation of
President Hope in 1841, he was appointed lord-president in his stead,
and lord-justice-general. Feeling his strength decline, he retired from
the bench, which he had adorned for forty-one years, in the beginning of
May 1852, and died 4th February following, in his 80th
year. A portrait of this eminent judge, by Mr. Watson Gordon, is placed
in the stair lobby of the Signet library, Edinburgh. He married, first,
on 24th December 1804, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of
Alexander Montgomery of Annick, brother of Hugh, earl of Eglinton, and
had two sons, Patrick and Alexander, and two daughters. His wife having
died in 1822, he married, secondly, in 1827, the eldest daughter of
David Smythe, Esq. of Methven Castle, Perthshire, a lord of session, and
by her also had issue. He was succeeded in his estate by his eldest son,
Patrick Boyle, born 29th March 1806, passed advocate in 1829,
but never practised, being principal clerk of the high court of
justiciary.
John, third
earl of Glasgow, born 4th November 1714, was a captain in the
33d foot, and was wounded at the battle of Fontenoy, 30th
April 1745; and again severely at the battle of Laffeldt, 2d July 1747.
In 1764 he was constituted lord-high-commissioner to the General
Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and held the same office for eight
years thereafter. He died 7th March 1775, in his 61st
year. By his countess, Elizabeth, second daughter of George, twelfth
Lord Ross, and sole heiress of her brother, William, thirteenth Lord
Ross, he had John, Lord Boyle, who died young; George, who succeeded
him; and two daughters.
George, 4th
earl of Glasgow, born March 26, 1766, was, successively, a captain in
the west Lowland fencibles in 1793; major of the Angus fencibles;
lieutenant-colonel of the Rothesay and Caithness fencibles, and colonel,
first of the Ayr and Renfrew, and afterwards of the Renfrewshire
militia. Constituted lord-lieutenant of Renfrewshire 28th
April 1810; chosen one of the representative peers in 1790, and rechosen
four times afterwards. On August 11, 1815, he was created a British peer
by the title of Lord Ross of Hawkhead in the county of Renfrew, and died
n July 1843. He was twice married: first, in 1788, to Lady Augusta Hay,
3d daughter of 14th earl of Errol; issue, 3 sons and 3
daughters; and, 2dly, in November 1824, to Julia, daughter of Right Hon.
Sir John Sinclair, baronet; issue, a son, Hon. George Frederick Boyle,
and a daughter, Lady Diana. His eldest son, John, Lord Boyle, born in
August 1789, a lieutenant in the navy, served on board the Gilbraltar in
the Mediterranean, and in July 1807, while steering for the port of
Gibraltar, he fell in with a French flotilla, against which he
maintained a very gallant action, but was overpowered and taken
prisoner. He died in 1818. Lady Augusta Boyle, the 3d daughter, married,
in 1821, Lord Frederic Fitzclarence, G.C.H., son of King William IV., a
lieutenant-general in the army, appointed commander-in-chief at Bombay
in 1852.
James, the 2d
son, born 10th April, 1792, a retired commander in the royal
navy, became fifth earl of Glasgow in 1843, and in 1844 was appointed
lord-lieutenant of Renfrewshire. In 1822 he assumed by sign manual the
additional name of Carr, in right of his mother. While Viscount Kelburne
he was M.P. for Ayrshire from 1839 to 1843. He married Aug. 4, 1821,
Georgiana, daughter of Edward Hay Mackenzie, Esq., of Newhall, without
issue. Heir presumptive, his lordship’s half-brother, Hon. George
Frederick Boyle, born in 1825.
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GLASGOW,
a surname, from the city of that name, derived as some write, from the
two Gaelic words, Glass, signifying grey, and gow, a
smith. Others, with more probability, trace the etymology of the name to
two ancient British words signifying “a dark glen.”
For the family
of GLASGOW of Mont-Greenan, Ayrshire, see ROBERTSON GLASGOW.
