44.

[313] So named, in compliment to Sir Alexander Macdonald of Slate, or
rather to his wife, Lady Margaret, the friend of Flora Macdonald.

[314] This alludes to the attention paid him when young, and under the
care of Mr. Mackenzie, by that gentleman and his family.

[315] The late Sir Alexander Muir Mackenzie of Delvine, Bart.

WILLIAM BOYD, EARL OF KILMARNOCK.

The unfortunate nobleman who is the subject of this Memoir, could boast
of as long line of ancestors as most families in Europe. Among his
forefathers were men eminent for loyalty, and distinguished for bravery,
and of honour as untainted as their blood; but when William, fourth Earl
of Kilmarnock, succeeded to his title, there was little except this high
ancestry to elate him with pride, or to raise him above dependence upon
circumstances.

The Earl of Kilmarnock derived his title from a royal borough of the
same name, in the shire of Cunningham in Ayrshire; and, in former times
when the chieftainship was in repute in that part of Scotland, that
branch of the family of Boyd, or Boyde, from whom the Earl was
descended, claimed to be chiefs.

The greatness of the Boyd family commenced with Simon, the brother of
Walter, first High Steward of Scotland, and founder of the Monastery of
Paisley, in 1160. Robert, the son of Simon, is designated in the
foundation church of that monastery, as nephew of Walter, High Steward;
and is distinguished on account of his fair complexion, by the word
Boyt, or Boyd,[316] from the Celtic Boidh, signifying fair, or yellow.
"He was," says Nisbet, "doubtless, predecessor to the Lords Boyd, and
Earls of Kilmarnock."[317]

The family of Boyd continued to flourish until, in the fifteenth
century, it was ennobled by James the Third, who owed to one of its
members, Sir Alexander Boyd of Duncow, esteemed to be a mirror of
chivalry, an inculcation into the military exercises, which were deemed,
in those days, essential to the education of royalty. But the sunshine
of kingly favour was not enjoyed by the Boyds without some alloy. Robert
Boyd of Kilmarnock, who was raised to the peerage, under the title of
Lord Boyd, and whose eldest son was created Earl of Arran, experienced
various vicissitudes. He died in England, in exile; and his brother, Sir
Alexander, perished in 1469, on a scaffold, erected on the Castle Hill
of Edinburgh. The fortunes of the family were, however, restored in the
person of Thomas, Earl of Arran, who