Charles Boycott
Encyclopedia
Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott (12 March 1832 – 19 June 1897) was a British land agent
whose ostracism by his local community in Ireland as part of a campaign for agrarian tenants' rights in 1880 gave the English language the verb to boycott
, meaning "to ostracise". Boycott's service in the British Army
39th Foot
brought him to Ireland, where he later worked as a land agent for Lord Erne (John Crichton, 3rd Earl Erne
), a landowner in the Lough Mask
area of County Mayo
.
In 1880, as part of its campaign for the "Three F's
" (fair rent, fixity of tenure and free sale), the Irish Land League under Charles Stewart Parnell
and Michael Davitt
withdrew the local labour required to save the harvest on Lord Erne's estate and began a campaign of isolation against him in the local community. Neighbours would not talk to him. Shops would not serve him. Local labourers refused to tend his house, and the postman refused to deliver his mail.
The campaign against Boycott became a cause célèbre in the British press after Boycott wrote a letter to The Times
about the situation, with newspapers sending correspondents to the West of Ireland to highlight what they viewed as the victimisation of a servant of a peer of the realm
by Irish nationalists. Fifty Orangemen
from County Cavan
and County Monaghan
travelled to Lord Erne's estate to save the harvest, while a regiment of troops and over 1,000 men of the Royal Irish Constabulary
were deployed to protect the harvesters. The entire episode was estimated to have cost the British government and others over £10,000 to harvest approximately £500 worth of crops.
Boycott left Ireland on 1 December of the same year. In 1886, he became land agent for Hugh Adair
's Flixton estate in Suffolk
. He died on 19 June 1897 in his home in Flixton after an illness earlier in that year, aged 65.
origin, and had fled from France in 1685 when Louis XIV revoked civil and religious liberties to French Protestants. In 1841 the family changed the spelling of its name from Boycatt to Boycott.
Boycott was educated at a boarding school in Blackheath, London
. He was interested in the military, and in 1848 he entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich in hopes of serving in the Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners. However, he was discharged from the academy in 1849 after failing a periodic exam. In 1850, his family bought him a commission in the 39th Foot regiment for £450.
Shortly after he joined the regiment, it was transferred to Belfast
. Six months later, it was sent to Newry
, then marched to Dublin, where it spent a year. In 1852 Boycott married Anne Dunne in St Paul's Church, Arran Quay, Dublin. He was ill for seven continuous months between August 1851 and February 1852 and decided to sell his commission the following year.
After selling his commission, Boycott decided to remain in Ireland. He leased a farm in County Tipperary
, where he acted as a landlord on a small scale.
, to move to Achill Island
, a large island off the coast of County Mayo
. McGregor Blacker agreed to sub-let 2000 acres (809.4 ha) of land belonging to the Irish Church Mission Society on Achill to Boycott and he moved there in 1854. According to Joyce Marlow in the book, Captain Boycott and the Irish, Boycott's initial life on the island was difficult, and in Boycott's own words, it was only after "a long struggle against adverse circumstances" that he became prosperous. After receiving another inheritance, and due to his success in farming the land, he built a large house near Dooagh
.
Boycott was involved in a number of disputes during his time on Achill. Two years after he arrived there, he was unsuccessfully sued for assault by Thomas Clarke, a local man. Clarke said that he had gone to Boycott's house because Boycott owed him money. He said that he had asked for repayment of the debt, and that Boycott had refused to pay him and told him to go away, which Clarke refused to do. Clarke alleged that Boycott approached him and said: "If you do not be off, I will make you". Clarke later withdrew his allegations, and said that Boycott did not actually owe him any money.
Both Boycott and McGregor Blacker were involved in a protracted dispute with Mr Carr, the agent for the Achill Church Mission Estate, from which McGregor Blacker leased the lands, and Mr O'Donnell, Carr's bailiff
. The dispute began when Boycott and Carr supported different sets of candidates in elections for the Board of Guardians to the Church Mission Estate and Boycott's candidates won. Carr was also the local receiver of wrecks for the area, which meant that he was entitled to collect the salvage
from all shipwrecks in the area, and guard it until it was sold in a public auction. Salvage was relatively big business at the time and the local receiver was entitled to a percentage of the sale and was entitled to keep whatever did not sell. In 1860 Carr wrote a letter to the Official Receiver of Wrecks
stating that Boycott and his men had illegally broken up a wreck and moved the salvage to Boycott's property. In response to this accusation, Boycott sued Carr for libel and claimed £500 in damages.
in County Mayo. Boycott agreed to become Lord Erne's agent, which meant that he had to collect rents from the tenant farmers on the land. The total rent due to Lord Erne was £500 annually, from which Boycott earned ten per cent, or £50, for being the agent. In his roles as farmer and agent, Boycott employed numerous local people as labourers, grooms
, coachmen and house-servants
. Joyce Marlow wrote that Boycott had become set in his mode of thought, and that his twenty years on Achill had "strengthened his innate belief in the divine right of the masters, and the tendency to behave as he saw fit, without regard to other people's point of view or feelings".
In his time in Lough Mask before the controversy began, Boycott had become unpopular with the tenants. He had become a magistrate and was an Englishman, which may have contributed to his unpopularity. According to Marlow, his unpopularity was more due to his personal temperament. While Boycott himself maintained that he was on good terms with his tenants, they said that he had laid down many petty restrictions, such as not allowing gates to be left open, not allowing hens to trespass on his property, etc., and that he fined anyone who transgressed these restrictions. He had also withdrawn privileges such as collecting wood from the estate from his tenants. In August 1880, his labourers went on strike in a dispute over a wage increase.
in County Fermanagh
. He was a wealthy landowner, and owned 40386 acres (163.4 km²) of land in Ireland, of which 31,389 were in County Fermanagh, 4,826 in County Donegal
, 1,996 in County Sligo, and 2,184 in County Mayo. Lord Erne also owned properties in Dublin. Of the 2184 acres (8.8 km²) owned by Lord Erne in County Mayo, Boycott acted as agent for 1,500.
In the nineteenth century, agriculture was the biggest industry in Ireland. In 1876, the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
commissioned a survey to find who owned the land in Ireland; it was found that almost all of the land was owned by just 10,000 people, or 0.2% of the population. The majority of these were small landlords, but the 750 richest landlords owned half of the country between them. Many of the richest landlords were absentee landlords, in that they lived in Britain or elsewhere in Ireland and paid agents like Charles Boycott to manage their estates.
Landlords generally divided their estates into smaller farms which were let to tenant farmers. Tenant farmers were generally on one-year leases, and could be evicted by landlords even if they paid their rents. Some of the tenants were large farmers who farmed over 100 acre (0.404686 km²), but the majority were much smaller, on average between 15 and 50 acres (0.06–0.20 km2) . Many of the small farmers worked as labourers on the larger farms. The poorest sector of agricultural workers were the landless labourers, who worked on the land of other farmers. Farmers were a very politically important group, they had more votes than any other sector of society.
In the 1850s, some tenant farmers formed associations to demand "the three F's": fair rent, fixity of tenure and free sale. In the 1870s, the Fenians tried to organise the tenant farmers in County Mayo to resist eviction. They mounted a demonstration against a local landlord in Irishtown
and succeeded in getting him to lower his rents.
Michael Davitt was the son of a small tenant farmer in County Mayo who became a journalist and joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood
. He was given a fifteen year sentence for gun-running. Charles Stewart Parnell
, then Member of Parliament for Meath
and member of the Home Rule League
, arranged to have Davitt released on probation. When Davitt returned to County Mayo, he was impressed by the Fenians' attempts to organise farmers. He thought that the "land question" was the best way to get the support of the farmers for Irish independence.
In October 1879, after forming the Land League of Mayo, Davitt formed the Irish National Land League. The Land League's aims were to reduce rents and to stop evictions, and in the long term, to make the tenant farmers the owners of the land they farmed. Davitt asked Parnell to become the leader of the league. In 1880, Parnell was also elected leader of the Home Rule Party.
, County Clare
to a crowd of Land League members. During his speech, he asked the crowd: "What do you do with a tenant who bids for a farm from which his neighbour has been evicted?". The response from the crowd was: "kill him", "shoot him". Parnell replied:
This speech set out the Land League's powerful weapon of social ostracism which was first applied to Charles Boycott.
Three days after Parnell's speech in Ennis, a process server and seventeen members of the Royal Irish Constabulary
began the attempt to serve the eviction notices against the tenants concerned. Legally, the notices had to be delivered to the head of the household or his spouse within a certain time period. The process server was successful in delivering notices to three of the tenants, but at the fourth occasion, a Mrs Fitzmorris refused to accept the notice, and began waving a red flag to alert other tenants that the notices were being served. The women of the area descended on the process server and the constabulary, and began throwing stones, mud, and manure
at them, succeeding in driving them away to seek refuge in Lough Mask House.
The next day, a second attempt was made to serve the notices, this was also unsuccessful. The news of this situation soon spread to the nearby Ballinrobe
; many people came from the Ballinrobe area to Lough Mask House, where, according to journalist James Redpath
, they advised Boycott's servants and labourers to leave his employment immediately. Boycott said that many of his servants were forced to leave "under threat of ulterior consequences". Martin Branigan, a labourer who later sued Boycott for non-payment of wages, said that he left because he was afraid of the people who came into the field where he was working. Eventually, all of his employees left, forcing him to run the estate without help.
Within days, the blacksmith
, the postman and the laundress were persuaded or volunteered to stop serving Boycott. Boycott's young nephew volunteered to act as postman, but he was intercepted en route between Ballinrobe and Lough Mask, and told that he would be in danger if he continued. Soon, shopkeepers in Ballinrobe stopped serving him, and he had to bring food and other provisions by boat from Cong
.
According to James Redpath, the verb to boycott was coined by Father O'Malley in a discussion between them. The following is Redpath's account:
about his situation:
After the publication of this letter, Bernard Becker, special correspondent of the Daily News
traveled to Ireland to cover Boycott's situation. On 24 October, he wrote a dispatch from Westport with an interview with Boycott. He said in his report that Boycott had £500 worth of crops that would rot if help could not be found to harvest them. Becker's report was reprinted in the Belfast News-Letter
and the Dublin Daily Express
. On 29 October, the Dublin Daily Express published a letter proposing a fund to finance a party of men to go to County Mayo to save Boycott's crops. Between them, the Daily Express, Daily Telegraph, Daily News, and News Letter raised £2000 to fund the relief expedition.
for special trains to transport the expedition from Ulster
to County Mayo. Many nationalists viewed the expedition as an invasion, and the Freeman's Journal
denounced the organisers of the "warlike expeditions".
William Edward Forster
, Chief Secretary for Ireland
made it clear in a communication with the proprietor of the Dublin Daily Express that he would not allow an armed expedition consisting of hundreds of men, as was being planned by the committee, and that fifty unarmed men would be sufficient to harvest the crops. He said that the government would consider it their duty to provide protection to this group. On 10 November 1880, the relief expedition consisting of one contingent from County Cavan
and one from County Monaghan
left for County Mayo. Before this, extra troops arrived in County Mayo to protect the expedition.
Boycott himself said that he did not want such a large number of Ulstermen, as he had saved the grain harvest himself, and that only ten or fifteen labourers were needed to save the root crops. Boycott was afraid that a large number of Ulstermen would lead to sectarian violence. While the local Land League leaders said that there would be no trouble from them if the aim was simply to harvest the crops, more extreme sections of the local society did threaten violence against the expedition and the troops.
While there were a number of hostile protests on the expedition's route through County Mayo, there was no violence, and the crops were harvested without incident. There were rumours amongst the Ulstermen that an attack was being planned on the farm; however, no such attack occurred.
were escorted from Lough Mask House by members of the 19th Hussars. While a carriage had been hired for the family, no driver could be found for it, and an army ambulance and driver had to be used. The ambulance was escorted to Claremorris
railway station, where Boycott and his family boarded a train to Dublin. Boycott was received with hostility by some in Dublin. The hotel he stayed in received letters saying that they would be boycotted if they continued to keep Boycott. While Boycott intended to stay in Dublin for a week, he was advised to leave sooner. On 1 December 1880, he left Dublin for England on the Holyhead
mail boat.
The cost to the government of harvesting Boycott's crops was estimated to have been £10,000, in Parnell's words, "one shilling for every turnip dug from Boycott's land". In a letter to William Ewart Gladstone
, then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
requesting compensation, Boycott said that he had lost £6,000 of his investment in the estate.
Boycotting had strengthened the power of the peasants in Ireland. By the end of 1880, there were reports of boycotting from all over Ireland. The events at Lough Mask had also increased the power of the Land League, and the popularity of Parnell as a leader. On 28 December 1880, the trial of Parnell and other Land League leaders on charges of conspiracy to prevent the payment of rent opened. The trial attracted thousands of people onto the streets outside the court; according to a Daily Express reporter, the court reminded him "more of the stalls of the theatre on opera night". On 24 January 1881, the judge dismissed the jury, it having been hung
ten to two in favour of acquittal. This news was received as a victory by Parnell and Davitt.
After the boycotting, the issue of land reform was discussed by Gladstone, who said in an 1880 letter: "the subject of the land weighs greatly on my mind and I am working on it to the best of my ability". In December 1880, the Bessborough Commission, headed by Frederick Ponsonby, 6th Earl of Bessborough
, recommended major land reforms, including the three F's. William Edward Forster
argued that a Coercion Act
, which would punish those participating in events like those at Lough Mask, and which would include the suspension of Habeas Corpus
, be introduced before any Land Act. This argument was eventually accepted by Gladstone. When Forster attempted to introduce the Protection of Person and Property Act 1881, Parnell and other Land League MP's attempted to obstruct its passage by using tactics such as filibuster
ing; one such filibuster lasted for forty one hours. Eventually, the Speaker of the house intervened, and a measure was introduced whereby the Speaker could control the house if there was a three to one majority in favour of the business being urgent. This was the first time that a check was placed on a debate in a British parliament. The act was passed on 28 February 1881. There was a negative reaction to the passing of the act in both England and Ireland. In England, the Anti-Coercion Association was established, which was a precursor to the Labour Party
.
In April 1881, Gladstone introduced the Land Law (Ireland) Act 1881, in which the principle of the dual ownership of the land between landlords and tenants was established, and the three F's introduced. The Irish Land Commission
, a judicial body which would fix rents for a period of 15 years and guarantee fixity of tenure, was set up. According to The Annual Register, the act was "probably the most important measure introduced into the House of Commons since the passing of the Reform Bill".
said that "The arrival of Captain Boycott, who has involuntarily added a new word to the language, is an event of something like international interest". The purpose of the visit was to see friends in Virginia
, including Murray McGregor Blacker, a friend from his time on Achill Island who had settled in the United States. Boycott returned to England after a number of months.
In 1886, Boycott became a land agent for Hugh Adair
's Flixton estate in Suffolk
, England. He had a passion for horses and racing, and became secretary of the Bungay
race committee. Boycott continued to spend holidays in Ireland, and according to Joyce Marlow, he left Ireland without bitterness.
In early 1897, Boycott's health became very poor. In an attempt to improve his health, he and his wife went on a cruise to Malta
. In Brindisi
, he became seriously ill, and had to return to England. His health continued to deteriorate in June, and on 19 June 1897, he died at his home in Flixton at the age of 65. His funeral took place in the church at Burgh St Peter, and was conducted by his nephew, Arthur St John Boycott, who was at Lough Mask during the time of the first boycott. Charles Boycott's wife, Annie, was later sued over the funeral expenses and other debts, and a number of assets had to be sold off. A number of London newspapers, including The Times
, published obituaries of Boycott, mentioning his connection with the verb "to boycott".
in the 1947 film Captain Boycott about his conflict with the Land League.
Land agent
Land agent may be used in at least three different contexts.Traditionally, a land agent was a managerial employee who conducted the business affairs of a large landed estate for a member of the landed gentry of the United Kingdom, supervising the farming of the property by farm labourers and/or...
whose ostracism by his local community in Ireland as part of a campaign for agrarian tenants' rights in 1880 gave the English language the verb to boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
, meaning "to ostracise". Boycott's service in the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
39th Foot
39th (Dorsetshire) Regiment of Foot
The 39th Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, formed in 1719 and amalgamated into The Dorsetshire Regiment in 1881.The regiment was raised by Colonel Richard Coote in Ireland in August 1702...
brought him to Ireland, where he later worked as a land agent for Lord Erne (John Crichton, 3rd Earl Erne
John Crichton, 3rd Earl Erne
John Crichton, 3rd Earl Erne KP was an Anglo-Irish peer and politician.Erne succeeded his uncle as third Earl Erne in 1842. In 1845 he was elected an Irish Representative Peer in the House of Lords, which he remained until his death. He also served as Lord Lieutenant of County Fermanagh from 1845...
), a landowner in the Lough Mask
Lough Mask
Lough Mask is a limestone lough of 22,000 acres in County Mayo, Ireland, north of Lough Corrib. Lough Mask is the upper of the two lakes, which empty into the Corrib River, through Galway, into Galway Bay. The lake is visited for its trout fishing...
area of County Mayo
County Mayo
County Mayo is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the village of Mayo, which is now generally known as Mayo Abbey. Mayo County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county is 130,552...
.
In 1880, as part of its campaign for the "Three F's
Three Fs
The Three Fs were a series of demands first issued by the Tenant Right League in their campaign for land reform in Ireland from the 1850s. They were,...
" (fair rent, fixity of tenure and free sale), the Irish Land League under Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell was an Irish landowner, nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, and the founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party...
and Michael Davitt
Michael Davitt
Michael Davitt was an Irish republican and nationalist agrarian agitator, a social campaigner, labour leader, journalist, Home Rule constitutional politician and Member of Parliament , who founded the Irish National Land League.- Early years :Michael Davitt was born in Straide, County Mayo,...
withdrew the local labour required to save the harvest on Lord Erne's estate and began a campaign of isolation against him in the local community. Neighbours would not talk to him. Shops would not serve him. Local labourers refused to tend his house, and the postman refused to deliver his mail.
The campaign against Boycott became a cause célèbre in the British press after Boycott wrote a letter to The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
about the situation, with newspapers sending correspondents to the West of Ireland to highlight what they viewed as the victimisation of a servant of a peer of the realm
Peer of the Realm
Peer of the Realm is a term for a member of the highest social order in a kingdom, notably:...
by Irish nationalists. Fifty Orangemen
Orange Institution
The Orange Institution is a Protestant fraternal organisation based mainly in Northern Ireland and Scotland, though it has lodges throughout the Commonwealth and United States. The Institution was founded in 1796 near the village of Loughgall in County Armagh, Ireland...
from County Cavan
County Cavan
County Cavan is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Cavan. Cavan County Council is the local authority for the county...
and County Monaghan
County Monaghan
County Monaghan is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Monaghan. Monaghan County Council is the local authority for the county...
travelled to Lord Erne's estate to save the harvest, while a regiment of troops and over 1,000 men of the Royal Irish Constabulary
Royal Irish Constabulary
The armed Royal Irish Constabulary was Ireland's major police force for most of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. A separate civic police force, the unarmed Dublin Metropolitan Police controlled the capital, and the cities of Derry and Belfast, originally with their own police...
were deployed to protect the harvesters. The entire episode was estimated to have cost the British government and others over £10,000 to harvest approximately £500 worth of crops.
Boycott left Ireland on 1 December of the same year. In 1886, he became land agent for Hugh Adair
Hugh Adair
Sir Hugh Edward Adair, 3rd Baronet was a British Liberal Party politician who served from 1847 to 1874 as a Member of Parliament for Ipswich in Suffolk....
's Flixton estate in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
. He died on 19 June 1897 in his home in Flixton after an illness earlier in that year, aged 65.
Early life and family
Charles Cunningham Boycott (formerly Boycatt) was born in 1832 to Reverend William Boycatt and his wife Georgiana. He grew up in the village of Burgh St Peter in Norfolk, England. The Boycatt/Boycott family had lived in Norfolk for almost 150 years. They were of HuguenotHuguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
origin, and had fled from France in 1685 when Louis XIV revoked civil and religious liberties to French Protestants. In 1841 the family changed the spelling of its name from Boycatt to Boycott.
Boycott was educated at a boarding school in Blackheath, London
Blackheath, London
Blackheath is a district of South London, England. It is named from the large open public grassland which separates it from Greenwich to the north and Lewisham to the west...
. He was interested in the military, and in 1848 he entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich in hopes of serving in the Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners. However, he was discharged from the academy in 1849 after failing a periodic exam. In 1850, his family bought him a commission in the 39th Foot regiment for £450.
Shortly after he joined the regiment, it was transferred to Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
. Six months later, it was sent to Newry
Newry
Newry is a city in Northern Ireland. The River Clanrye, which runs through the city, formed the historic border between County Armagh and County Down. It is from Belfast and from Dublin. Newry had a population of 27,433 at the 2001 Census, while Newry and Mourne Council Area had a population...
, then marched to Dublin, where it spent a year. In 1852 Boycott married Anne Dunne in St Paul's Church, Arran Quay, Dublin. He was ill for seven continuous months between August 1851 and February 1852 and decided to sell his commission the following year.
After selling his commission, Boycott decided to remain in Ireland. He leased a farm in County Tipperary
County Tipperary
County Tipperary is a county of Ireland. It is located in the province of Munster and is named after the town of Tipperary. The area of the county does not have a single local authority; local government is split between two authorities. In North Tipperary, part of the Mid-West Region, local...
, where he acted as a landlord on a small scale.
Life on Achill Island
After receiving an inheritance, Boycott was persuaded by his friend, Murray McGregor Blacker, a local magistrateMagistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
, to move to Achill Island
Achill Island
Achill Island in County Mayo is the largest island off the coast of Ireland, and is situated off the west coast. It has a population of 2,700. Its area is . Achill is attached to the mainland by Michael Davitt Bridge, between the villages of Gob an Choire and Poll Raithní . A bridge was first...
, a large island off the coast of County Mayo
County Mayo
County Mayo is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the village of Mayo, which is now generally known as Mayo Abbey. Mayo County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county is 130,552...
. McGregor Blacker agreed to sub-let 2000 acres (809.4 ha) of land belonging to the Irish Church Mission Society on Achill to Boycott and he moved there in 1854. According to Joyce Marlow in the book, Captain Boycott and the Irish, Boycott's initial life on the island was difficult, and in Boycott's own words, it was only after "a long struggle against adverse circumstances" that he became prosperous. After receiving another inheritance, and due to his success in farming the land, he built a large house near Dooagh
Dooagh
Dooagh is a village located on Achill Island in County Mayo, Ireland. It is best known for the nearby Keem Bay, a Blue Flag beach.-Facilities:...
.
Boycott was involved in a number of disputes during his time on Achill. Two years after he arrived there, he was unsuccessfully sued for assault by Thomas Clarke, a local man. Clarke said that he had gone to Boycott's house because Boycott owed him money. He said that he had asked for repayment of the debt, and that Boycott had refused to pay him and told him to go away, which Clarke refused to do. Clarke alleged that Boycott approached him and said: "If you do not be off, I will make you". Clarke later withdrew his allegations, and said that Boycott did not actually owe him any money.
Both Boycott and McGregor Blacker were involved in a protracted dispute with Mr Carr, the agent for the Achill Church Mission Estate, from which McGregor Blacker leased the lands, and Mr O'Donnell, Carr's bailiff
Bailiff
A bailiff is a governor or custodian ; a legal officer to whom some degree of authority, care or jurisdiction is committed...
. The dispute began when Boycott and Carr supported different sets of candidates in elections for the Board of Guardians to the Church Mission Estate and Boycott's candidates won. Carr was also the local receiver of wrecks for the area, which meant that he was entitled to collect the salvage
Marine salvage
Marine salvage is the process of rescuing a ship, its cargo, or other property from peril. Salvage encompasses rescue towing, refloating a sunken or grounded vessel, or patching or repairing a ship...
from all shipwrecks in the area, and guard it until it was sold in a public auction. Salvage was relatively big business at the time and the local receiver was entitled to a percentage of the sale and was entitled to keep whatever did not sell. In 1860 Carr wrote a letter to the Official Receiver of Wrecks
Receiver of Wreck
The Receiver of Wreck is an official who administers law dealing with wreck and salvage in some countries having a British administrative heritage.-Countries having a Receiver of Wreck:...
stating that Boycott and his men had illegally broken up a wreck and moved the salvage to Boycott's property. In response to this accusation, Boycott sued Carr for libel and claimed £500 in damages.
Life in Lough Mask before controversy
In 1873, Boycott moved to Lough Mask House, owned by Lord Erne, four miles (6 km) from BallinrobeBallinrobe
-Early history:Dating back to 1390, Ballinrobe is said to be the oldest town in South Mayo. The registry of the Dominican friary of Athenry mentions the monastery de Roba, an Augustinian friary whose recently restored ruins are one of the historical landmarks of the town today...
in County Mayo. Boycott agreed to become Lord Erne's agent, which meant that he had to collect rents from the tenant farmers on the land. The total rent due to Lord Erne was £500 annually, from which Boycott earned ten per cent, or £50, for being the agent. In his roles as farmer and agent, Boycott employed numerous local people as labourers, grooms
Groom (horses)
A groom is a person who is responsible for some or all aspects of the management of horses and/or the care of the stables themselves. The term most often refers to a person who is the employee of a stable owner, but even an owner of a horse may perform the duties of a groom, particularly if the...
, coachmen and house-servants
Domestic worker
A domestic worker is a man, woman or child who works within the employer's household. Domestic workers perform a variety of household services for an individual or a family, from providing care for children and elderly dependents to cleaning and household maintenance, known as housekeeping...
. Joyce Marlow wrote that Boycott had become set in his mode of thought, and that his twenty years on Achill had "strengthened his innate belief in the divine right of the masters, and the tendency to behave as he saw fit, without regard to other people's point of view or feelings".
In his time in Lough Mask before the controversy began, Boycott had become unpopular with the tenants. He had become a magistrate and was an Englishman, which may have contributed to his unpopularity. According to Marlow, his unpopularity was more due to his personal temperament. While Boycott himself maintained that he was on good terms with his tenants, they said that he had laid down many petty restrictions, such as not allowing gates to be left open, not allowing hens to trespass on his property, etc., and that he fined anyone who transgressed these restrictions. He had also withdrawn privileges such as collecting wood from the estate from his tenants. In August 1880, his labourers went on strike in a dispute over a wage increase.
Lord Erne
Lord Erne, the third Earl of Erne, lived in Crom CastleCrom Castle
Crom Castle is situated on the shores of the Upper Lough Erne in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, and set within a estate. The present structure was built in 1820 in the Victorian style and has been the home to the Crichton family, Earls of Erne for centuries...
in County Fermanagh
County Fermanagh
Fermanagh District Council is the only one of the 26 district councils in Northern Ireland that contains all of the county it is named after. The district council also contains a small section of County Tyrone in the Dromore and Kilskeery road areas....
. He was a wealthy landowner, and owned 40386 acres (163.4 km²) of land in Ireland, of which 31,389 were in County Fermanagh, 4,826 in County Donegal
County Donegal
County Donegal is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Donegal. Donegal County Council is the local authority for the county...
, 1,996 in County Sligo, and 2,184 in County Mayo. Lord Erne also owned properties in Dublin. Of the 2184 acres (8.8 km²) owned by Lord Erne in County Mayo, Boycott acted as agent for 1,500.
Historical background
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
commissioned a survey to find who owned the land in Ireland; it was found that almost all of the land was owned by just 10,000 people, or 0.2% of the population. The majority of these were small landlords, but the 750 richest landlords owned half of the country between them. Many of the richest landlords were absentee landlords, in that they lived in Britain or elsewhere in Ireland and paid agents like Charles Boycott to manage their estates.
Landlords generally divided their estates into smaller farms which were let to tenant farmers. Tenant farmers were generally on one-year leases, and could be evicted by landlords even if they paid their rents. Some of the tenants were large farmers who farmed over 100 acre (0.404686 km²), but the majority were much smaller, on average between 15 and 50 acres (0.06–0.20 km2) . Many of the small farmers worked as labourers on the larger farms. The poorest sector of agricultural workers were the landless labourers, who worked on the land of other farmers. Farmers were a very politically important group, they had more votes than any other sector of society.
In the 1850s, some tenant farmers formed associations to demand "the three F's": fair rent, fixity of tenure and free sale. In the 1870s, the Fenians tried to organise the tenant farmers in County Mayo to resist eviction. They mounted a demonstration against a local landlord in Irishtown
Irishtown, County Mayo
Irishtown is a village in County Mayo, Ireland, located on the southern county border with County Galway about halfway between Claremorris and Tuam on the R328 regional road...
and succeeded in getting him to lower his rents.
Michael Davitt was the son of a small tenant farmer in County Mayo who became a journalist and joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood
Irish Republican Brotherhood
The Irish Republican Brotherhood was a secret oath-bound fraternal organisation dedicated to the establishment of an "independent democratic republic" in Ireland during the second half of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century...
. He was given a fifteen year sentence for gun-running. Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell was an Irish landowner, nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, and the founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party...
, then Member of Parliament for Meath
Meath (UK Parliament constituency)
Meath was a parliamentary constituency in Ireland, which from 1801 to 1885 returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.-Members of Parliament:-References:...
and member of the Home Rule League
Home Rule League
The Home Rule League, sometimes called the Home Rule Party, was a political party which campaigned for home rule for the country of Ireland from 1873 to 1882, when it was replaced by the Irish Parliamentary Party.-Origins:...
, arranged to have Davitt released on probation. When Davitt returned to County Mayo, he was impressed by the Fenians' attempts to organise farmers. He thought that the "land question" was the best way to get the support of the farmers for Irish independence.
In October 1879, after forming the Land League of Mayo, Davitt formed the Irish National Land League. The Land League's aims were to reduce rents and to stop evictions, and in the long term, to make the tenant farmers the owners of the land they farmed. Davitt asked Parnell to become the leader of the league. In 1880, Parnell was also elected leader of the Home Rule Party.
Parnell's speech in Ennis
On 19 September 1880, Parnell gave a speech in EnnisEnnis
Ennis is the county town of Clare in Ireland. Situated on the River Fergus, it lies north of Limerick and south of Galway. Its name is a shortening of the original ....
, County Clare
County Clare
-History:There was a Neolithic civilisation in the Clare area — the name of the peoples is unknown, but the Prehistoric peoples left evidence behind in the form of ancient dolmen; single-chamber megalithic tombs, usually consisting of three or more upright stones...
to a crowd of Land League members. During his speech, he asked the crowd: "What do you do with a tenant who bids for a farm from which his neighbour has been evicted?". The response from the crowd was: "kill him", "shoot him". Parnell replied:
This speech set out the Land League's powerful weapon of social ostracism which was first applied to Charles Boycott.
Social ostracism applied to Boycott
The Land League was very active in the Lough Mask area, and one of the local leaders, Father John O'Malley, had been involved in the labourer's strike in August 1880. In September 1880, Lord Erne's tenants were due to pay their rents. Lord Erne had agreed to a ten percent reduction due to a poor harvest, however, all but two of the tenants demanded a twenty-five percent reduction. Boycott said that he had written to Lord Erne about the situation, and that Erne had refused to accede to the tenants demands. Boycott then issued demands for the outstanding money, and obtained eviction notices against eleven tenants.Three days after Parnell's speech in Ennis, a process server and seventeen members of the Royal Irish Constabulary
Royal Irish Constabulary
The armed Royal Irish Constabulary was Ireland's major police force for most of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. A separate civic police force, the unarmed Dublin Metropolitan Police controlled the capital, and the cities of Derry and Belfast, originally with their own police...
began the attempt to serve the eviction notices against the tenants concerned. Legally, the notices had to be delivered to the head of the household or his spouse within a certain time period. The process server was successful in delivering notices to three of the tenants, but at the fourth occasion, a Mrs Fitzmorris refused to accept the notice, and began waving a red flag to alert other tenants that the notices were being served. The women of the area descended on the process server and the constabulary, and began throwing stones, mud, and manure
Manure
Manure is organic matter used as organic fertilizer in agriculture. Manures contribute to the fertility of the soil by adding organic matter and nutrients, such as nitrogen, that are trapped by bacteria in the soil...
at them, succeeding in driving them away to seek refuge in Lough Mask House.
The next day, a second attempt was made to serve the notices, this was also unsuccessful. The news of this situation soon spread to the nearby Ballinrobe
Ballinrobe
-Early history:Dating back to 1390, Ballinrobe is said to be the oldest town in South Mayo. The registry of the Dominican friary of Athenry mentions the monastery de Roba, an Augustinian friary whose recently restored ruins are one of the historical landmarks of the town today...
; many people came from the Ballinrobe area to Lough Mask House, where, according to journalist James Redpath
James Redpath
James Redpath was an American journalist and antislavery activist.-Life:...
, they advised Boycott's servants and labourers to leave his employment immediately. Boycott said that many of his servants were forced to leave "under threat of ulterior consequences". Martin Branigan, a labourer who later sued Boycott for non-payment of wages, said that he left because he was afraid of the people who came into the field where he was working. Eventually, all of his employees left, forcing him to run the estate without help.
Within days, the blacksmith
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...
, the postman and the laundress were persuaded or volunteered to stop serving Boycott. Boycott's young nephew volunteered to act as postman, but he was intercepted en route between Ballinrobe and Lough Mask, and told that he would be in danger if he continued. Soon, shopkeepers in Ballinrobe stopped serving him, and he had to bring food and other provisions by boat from Cong
Cong, County Mayo
Cong is a village straddling the borders of County Galway and County Mayo, in Ireland. Cong is situated on an island formed by a number of streams that surround it on all sides...
.
According to James Redpath, the verb to boycott was coined by Father O'Malley in a discussion between them. The following is Redpath's account:
Boycott brought to public attention
Before October 1880, Boycott's situation was little known outside County Mayo. On 14 October 1880, Boycott wrote a letter to The TimesThe Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
about his situation:
After the publication of this letter, Bernard Becker, special correspondent of the Daily News
Daily News (UK)
The Daily News was a national daily newspaper in the United Kingdom.The News was founded in 1846 by Charles Dickens, who also served as the newspaper's first editor. It was conceived as a radical rival to the right-wing Morning Chronicle. The paper was not at first a commercial success...
traveled to Ireland to cover Boycott's situation. On 24 October, he wrote a dispatch from Westport with an interview with Boycott. He said in his report that Boycott had £500 worth of crops that would rot if help could not be found to harvest them. Becker's report was reprinted in the Belfast News-Letter
The News Letter
The News Letter is one of Northern Ireland's main daily newspapers, published Monday to Saturday. It is the oldest English language general daily newspaper still in publication in the world, having first been printed in 1737....
and the Dublin Daily Express
Daily Express (Dublin)
The Daily Express of Dublin was an Irish newspaper published from 1851 until June 1921, and then continued for registration purposes until 1960.It was a unionist newspaper. From 1917, its title was the Daily Express and Irish Daily Mail...
. On 29 October, the Dublin Daily Express published a letter proposing a fund to finance a party of men to go to County Mayo to save Boycott's crops. Between them, the Daily Express, Daily Telegraph, Daily News, and News Letter raised £2000 to fund the relief expedition.
Saving Boycott's crops
In Belfast in early November 1880, The Boycott Relief Fund was established to arrange an expedition to Lough Mask. Plans soon gained momentum, and within days, the fund had received many subscriptions. The committee had arranged with the Midland Great Western RailwayMidland Great Western Railway
The Midland Great Western Railway was the third largest Irish gauge railway company in Ireland. It was incorporated in 1845 and absorbed into the Great Southern Railway in 1924. It served part of Leinster, County Cavan in Ulster and much of Connaught...
for special trains to transport the expedition from Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
to County Mayo. Many nationalists viewed the expedition as an invasion, and the Freeman's Journal
Freeman's Journal
The Freeman's Journal was the oldest nationalist newspaper in Ireland. It was founded in 1763 by Charles Lucas and was identified with radical 18th century Protestant patriot politicians Henry Grattan and Henry Flood...
denounced the organisers of the "warlike expeditions".
William Edward Forster
William Edward Forster
William Edward Forster PC, FRS was an English industrialist, philanthropist and Liberal Party statesman.-Early life:...
, Chief Secretary for Ireland
Chief Secretary for Ireland
The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant, from the late 18th century until the end of British rule he was effectively the government minister with responsibility for governing Ireland; usually...
made it clear in a communication with the proprietor of the Dublin Daily Express that he would not allow an armed expedition consisting of hundreds of men, as was being planned by the committee, and that fifty unarmed men would be sufficient to harvest the crops. He said that the government would consider it their duty to provide protection to this group. On 10 November 1880, the relief expedition consisting of one contingent from County Cavan
County Cavan
County Cavan is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Cavan. Cavan County Council is the local authority for the county...
and one from County Monaghan
County Monaghan
County Monaghan is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Monaghan. Monaghan County Council is the local authority for the county...
left for County Mayo. Before this, extra troops arrived in County Mayo to protect the expedition.
Boycott himself said that he did not want such a large number of Ulstermen, as he had saved the grain harvest himself, and that only ten or fifteen labourers were needed to save the root crops. Boycott was afraid that a large number of Ulstermen would lead to sectarian violence. While the local Land League leaders said that there would be no trouble from them if the aim was simply to harvest the crops, more extreme sections of the local society did threaten violence against the expedition and the troops.
While there were a number of hostile protests on the expedition's route through County Mayo, there was no violence, and the crops were harvested without incident. There were rumours amongst the Ulstermen that an attack was being planned on the farm; however, no such attack occurred.
Aftermath
On 27 November 1880, Boycott, his family and a local magistrateMagistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
were escorted from Lough Mask House by members of the 19th Hussars. While a carriage had been hired for the family, no driver could be found for it, and an army ambulance and driver had to be used. The ambulance was escorted to Claremorris
Claremorris
Claremorris , is a town in County Mayo in the west of Ireland, at the junction of the N17 and the N60 national routes. The population of Claremoris in the 2011 Census was 3,979....
railway station, where Boycott and his family boarded a train to Dublin. Boycott was received with hostility by some in Dublin. The hotel he stayed in received letters saying that they would be boycotted if they continued to keep Boycott. While Boycott intended to stay in Dublin for a week, he was advised to leave sooner. On 1 December 1880, he left Dublin for England on the Holyhead
Holyhead
Holyhead is the largest town in the county of Anglesey in the North Wales. It is also a major port adjacent to the Irish Sea serving Ireland....
mail boat.
The cost to the government of harvesting Boycott's crops was estimated to have been £10,000, in Parnell's words, "one shilling for every turnip dug from Boycott's land". In a letter to William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
, then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
requesting compensation, Boycott said that he had lost £6,000 of his investment in the estate.
Boycotting had strengthened the power of the peasants in Ireland. By the end of 1880, there were reports of boycotting from all over Ireland. The events at Lough Mask had also increased the power of the Land League, and the popularity of Parnell as a leader. On 28 December 1880, the trial of Parnell and other Land League leaders on charges of conspiracy to prevent the payment of rent opened. The trial attracted thousands of people onto the streets outside the court; according to a Daily Express reporter, the court reminded him "more of the stalls of the theatre on opera night". On 24 January 1881, the judge dismissed the jury, it having been hung
Hung jury
A hung jury or deadlocked jury is a jury that cannot, by the required voting threshold, agree upon a verdict after an extended period of deliberation and is unable to change its votes due to severe differences of opinion.- England and Wales :...
ten to two in favour of acquittal. This news was received as a victory by Parnell and Davitt.
After the boycotting, the issue of land reform was discussed by Gladstone, who said in an 1880 letter: "the subject of the land weighs greatly on my mind and I am working on it to the best of my ability". In December 1880, the Bessborough Commission, headed by Frederick Ponsonby, 6th Earl of Bessborough
Frederick Ponsonby, 6th Earl of Bessborough
Frederick George Brabazon Ponsonby, 6th Earl of Bessborough was a British peer and cricketer. He was the third son of John Ponsonby, 4th Earl of Bessborough and his wife Lady Maria Fane...
, recommended major land reforms, including the three F's. William Edward Forster
William Edward Forster
William Edward Forster PC, FRS was an English industrialist, philanthropist and Liberal Party statesman.-Early life:...
argued that a Coercion Act
Coercion Act
The Coercion Acts, formally Protection of Person and Property Acts were Acts of Parliament to respond with force to popular discontent and disorder.-London:...
, which would punish those participating in events like those at Lough Mask, and which would include the suspension of Habeas Corpus
Habeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
, be introduced before any Land Act. This argument was eventually accepted by Gladstone. When Forster attempted to introduce the Protection of Person and Property Act 1881, Parnell and other Land League MP's attempted to obstruct its passage by using tactics such as filibuster
Filibuster
A filibuster is a type of parliamentary procedure. Specifically, it is the right of an individual to extend debate, allowing a lone member to delay or entirely prevent a vote on a given proposal...
ing; one such filibuster lasted for forty one hours. Eventually, the Speaker of the house intervened, and a measure was introduced whereby the Speaker could control the house if there was a three to one majority in favour of the business being urgent. This was the first time that a check was placed on a debate in a British parliament. The act was passed on 28 February 1881. There was a negative reaction to the passing of the act in both England and Ireland. In England, the Anti-Coercion Association was established, which was a precursor to the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
.
In April 1881, Gladstone introduced the Land Law (Ireland) Act 1881, in which the principle of the dual ownership of the land between landlords and tenants was established, and the three F's introduced. The Irish Land Commission
Irish Land Commission
The Irish Land Commission was created in 1881 as a rent fixing commission by the Land Law Act 1881, also known as the second Irish Land Act...
, a judicial body which would fix rents for a period of 15 years and guarantee fixity of tenure, was set up. According to The Annual Register, the act was "probably the most important measure introduced into the House of Commons since the passing of the Reform Bill".
Later life
After leaving Ireland, Boycott and his family visited the United States. His arrival in New York generated a great deal of media interest; the New York TribuneNew York Tribune
The New York Tribune was an American newspaper, first established by Horace Greeley in 1841, which was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States...
said that "The arrival of Captain Boycott, who has involuntarily added a new word to the language, is an event of something like international interest". The purpose of the visit was to see friends in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, including Murray McGregor Blacker, a friend from his time on Achill Island who had settled in the United States. Boycott returned to England after a number of months.
In 1886, Boycott became a land agent for Hugh Adair
Hugh Adair
Sir Hugh Edward Adair, 3rd Baronet was a British Liberal Party politician who served from 1847 to 1874 as a Member of Parliament for Ipswich in Suffolk....
's Flixton estate in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, England. He had a passion for horses and racing, and became secretary of the Bungay
Bungay
Bungay is a town in Suffolk, East Anglia, England.Bungay may also refer to:* Bungay railway station* Frank Bungay , former professional footballer* Stephen Bungay , British management consultant, historian and author...
race committee. Boycott continued to spend holidays in Ireland, and according to Joyce Marlow, he left Ireland without bitterness.
In early 1897, Boycott's health became very poor. In an attempt to improve his health, he and his wife went on a cruise to Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
. In Brindisi
Brindisi
Brindisi is a city in the Apulia region of Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, off the coast of the Adriatic Sea.Historically, the city has played an important role in commerce and culture, due to its position on the Italian Peninsula and its natural port on the Adriatic Sea. The city...
, he became seriously ill, and had to return to England. His health continued to deteriorate in June, and on 19 June 1897, he died at his home in Flixton at the age of 65. His funeral took place in the church at Burgh St Peter, and was conducted by his nephew, Arthur St John Boycott, who was at Lough Mask during the time of the first boycott. Charles Boycott's wife, Annie, was later sued over the funeral expenses and other debts, and a number of assets had to be sold off. A number of London newspapers, including The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, published obituaries of Boycott, mentioning his connection with the verb "to boycott".
In popular culture
Boycott was portrayed by Cecil ParkerCecil Parker
Cecil Parker was an English character and comedy actor with a distinctive husky voice, who usually played supporting roles in his 91 films made between 1928 and 1969....
in the 1947 film Captain Boycott about his conflict with the Land League.