The Boyds

This is both a chilling, yet gripping, saga of a noble people; warriors in the fight for Scottish Freedom; and leaders and followers of the Religious Reformation in Scotland. They were the Calvinists, followers of John Knox, determined to institute the reforms flowing from the Reformation in the 1500's. They fought valiantly despite persecution and massacre. They bravely signed the National Covenant of Scotland, and many became known as Covenanters. Hunted down like wild animals, many decided to make the short sea journey of 20 miles across the channel from southwestern Scotland to the Province of Ulster, Northern Ireland, which had been opened up to English and Scottish settlers in the early 1600's. While the Scottish, English, and some Huguenot settlers flourished in the Province of Ulster, Northern Ireland, the 'grin of the wolf' was not long in planning a tortuous massacre in order to exterminate all Protestants in the Province of Ulster, Northern Ireland. What followed was so horrific as to be scarcely fit for the printed page. Yet the Massacres of 1641 and 1688-91 are described in detail. Finally, with discrimination in their midst, unjust laws legislated against them, treated as second class citizens, many Scottish, English, and Huguenot settlers decided a greater destiny lay across the Atlantic where others seeking religious and civil liberties had preceded them. Their sojourn in Ulster, Northern Ireland had been a bitter disappointment. This bitterness against their British landlords carried over to America. The Scots from Ulster became the backbone of the American Revolutionary War. When Washington was in his deepest despair at Valley Forge, The Ulster Scots were with him. The story of the Boyd Family begins in Scotland, carries over to Northern Ireland, and follows them to the frontier of all the colonies in America. It could be the story of thousands of Scots who all experienced the same pilgrimage and endured the same hardships and sufferings.