Portrait: Charles Boycott, an English land agent in Ireland

Wednesday, 22 March 2023 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: Portrait
Reading Time:  3 minutes

Caricature of Charles Cunningham Boycott in Vanity Fair, 1881 © Vanity Fair magazine

Caricature of Charles Cunningham Boycott in Vanity Fair, 1881 © Vanity Fair magazine

Charles Cunningham Boycott was an English land agent whose ostracism by his local community in Ireland gave the English language the term boycott. He had served in the British Army 39th Foot, which brought him to Ireland. After retiring from the army, Boycott worked as a land agent for Lord Erne, a landowner in the Lough Mask area of County Mayo.

In 1880, as part of its campaign for the Three Fs (fair rent, fixity of tenure, and free sale) and specifically in resistance to proposed evictions on the estate, local activists of the Irish National Land League encouraged Boycott’s employees (including the seasonal workers required to harvest the crops on Lord Erne’s estate) to withdraw their labour, and began a campaign of isolation against Boycott in the local community. This campaign included shops in nearby Ballinrobe refusing to serve him, and the withdrawal of services. Some were threatened with violence to ensure compliance.

The renovated former house of Charles Boycotts on Achill Island © Night of the Big Wind/cc-by-sa-3.0-nl Caricature of Charles Cunningham Boycott in Vanity Fair, 1881 © Vanity Fair magazine St Mary's church at Burgh St Peter in Norfolk, where Charles Boycott is buried © geograph.org.uk - Evelyn Simak/cc-by-sa-2.0
<
>
St Mary's church at Burgh St Peter in Norfolk, where Charles Boycott is buried © geograph.org.uk - Evelyn Simak/cc-by-sa-2.0
Opposition to the campaign against Boycott became a cause célèbre in the British press after he wrote a letter to The Times. Newspapers sent 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 harvest the crops, while a regiment of the 19th Royal Hussars and more than 1,000 men of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) were deployed to protect the harvesters. The episode was estimated to have cost the British government and others at least £10,000 to harvest about £500 worth of crops.

Boycott left Ireland on 1 December 1880, and in 1886, became land agent for Hugh Adair‘s Flixton estate in Suffolk. He died at the age of 65 on 19 June 1897 in his home in Flixton, after an illness earlier that year.

Read more on Wikipedia Charles Boycott (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.




Recommended posts:

Share this post: (Please note data protection regulations before using buttons)

Malia on Crete

Malia on Crete

[caption id="attachment_231078" align="alignnone" width="590"] Malia and Bay of Malia © Taxiarchos228[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Malia or Mallia is a coastal town and a former municipality in the northeast corner of the Heraklion regional unit in Crete, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reforms it is part of the municipality of Hersonissos, of which it is a municipal unit. It lies 34 kilometres (21 miles) east of Heraklion, the Cretan main city. The town (pop. 3,224 in 2011) was the seat of the municipality of Mália (pop....

[ read more ]

Manhattan Beach in California

Manhattan Beach in California

[caption id="attachment_219143" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Manhattan Beach Pier © Jake Rome/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Manhattan Beach is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, on the Pacific coast south of El Segundo, and north of Hermosa Beach. As of the 2010 census, the population was 35,135, and in 2019 the population was estimated to be 35,183. Manhattan Beach is one of the three Beach Cities, along with Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach, that make up the South Bay region of L...

[ read more ]

Capernaum on Sea of Galilee, the town of Jesus

Capernaum on Sea of Galilee, the town of Jesus

[caption id="attachment_221509" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Catholic church, built over the house of Saint Peter © Herwig Reidlinger/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Capernaum was a fishing village established during the time of the Hasmoneans, located on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. It had a population of about 1,500. Archaeological excavations have revealed two ancient synagogues built one over the other. A house turned into a church by the Byzantines is believed to have been the home of Saint Peter. T...

[ read more ]

Theme Week North Frisian Islands - Sylt

Theme Week North Frisian Islands - Sylt

[caption id="attachment_152900" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Robby Naish during the Surf World Cup Sylt © Hoch Zwei[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Sylt is the northernmost island of Germany, known for its tourist resorts, notably Westerland, Kampen and Wenningstedt-Braderup, as well as for its 40 km long sandy beach. It is frequently covered by the media in connection with its exposed situation in the North Sea and its ongoing loss of land during storm tides. Since 1927, Sylt has been connected to the mainland by the Hindenburgd...

[ read more ]

Treasure Coast in Florida

Treasure Coast in Florida

[caption id="attachment_192689" align="aligncenter" width="590"] St. Lucie River and Stuart from Sewall's Point © DannyCush[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Treasure Coast is a region of Florida. It is located on the state's Atlantic coast, comprising Indian River, St. Lucie, and Martin, and in some definitions, Palm Beach counties. The region, whose name refers to the Spanish Treasure Fleet lost in a 1715 hurricane, evidently emerged from residents' desire to distinguish themselves from Miami and the Gold Coast region to the sout...

[ read more ]

Horizon 2020

Horizon 2020

[responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Horizon 2020 is a funding programme created by the European Union/European Commission to support and foster research in the European Research Area (ERA). It is the eighth of the Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development funding research, technological development, and innovation with the focus on innovation, delivering economic growth faster and delivering solutions to end users that are often governmental agencies. The programme's name has been modified to "Framework Programme for Research...

[ read more ]

Theme Week Washington, D.C. - Library of Congress

Theme Week Washington, D.C. - Library of Congress

[caption id="attachment_24928" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Thomas Jefferson Building © Carol M. Highsmith/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, the de facto national library of the United States of America, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in four buildings in Washington, D.C., as well as the Packard Campus in Culpeper, Virginia, it is one of the two largest libraries in the world by shelf space and numb...

[ read more ]

Jardins du Trocadéro in Paris

Jardins du Trocadéro in Paris

[caption id="attachment_27332" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Panorama from the Eiffel Tower at the sunset © flickr.com - Alexander Kachkaev/cc-by-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Jardins du Trocadéro (Gardens of the Trocadero) is an open space in Paris, located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, bounded to the northwest by the wings of the Palais de Chaillot and to the southeast by the Seine and the Pont d'Iéna, with the Eiffel Tower on the opposite bank of the Seine. The main feature, called the Fountain of Warsaw,...

[ read more ]

Theme Week East Jerusalem - The Dome of the Rock/Qubbat As-Sakhrah on Temple Mount

Theme Week East Jerusalem - The Dome of the Rock/Qubbat As-Sakhrah on Temple Mount

[caption id="attachment_27845" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Starbuck121/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Dome of the Rock is a shrine located on the Temple Mount/Haram Al-Sharif in East Jerusalem. It was initially completed in 691 CE at the order of Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik during the Second Fitna. The Dome of the Rock is now one of the oldest works of Islamic architecture. It has been called "Jerusalem's most recognizable landmark". Its architecture and mosaics were patterned after nearby Byzantine churches ...

[ read more ]

Theme Week East Anglia - King’s Lynn

Theme Week East Anglia - King’s Lynn

[caption id="attachment_151520" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Custom House © Alienturnedhuman[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]King's Lynn is a sea port and market town in the ceremonial county of Norfolk in the East of England. It is situated 97 miles (156 km) north of London and 44 miles (71 km) west of Norwich. The population of the town is 42,800. The town has two theatres, museums and other cultural and sporting venues. There are three secondary schools and one college. The service sector, information and communication technol...

[ read more ]

Return to TopReturn to Top
Town Hall © wx8
Theme Week Berkshire – Wokingham

Wokingham is a market town in Berkshire, England, 37 miles (60 km) west of London, 7 miles (11 km) southeast...

The main orangery buiding © Edison McCullen/cc-by-sa-4.0
Botanical Garden of Brussels

The Botanical Garden of Brussels (French: Jardin botanique de Bruxelles, Dutch: Kruidtuin van Brussel) is a former botanical garden in...

New College - Royal Military Academy Sandhurst © wyrdlight.com - Antony McCallum/cc-by-sa-4.0
Theme Week Berkshire

Berkshire is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth...

Schließen