George Boyd of Stichill

Thanks to Brian Boyd, I know that George Boyd, father of the millwright brothers William (my ancestor and father of William James Gibson Boyd) and George Boyd, was born at Earlston in Berwickshire in 1751 and was baptised there on 3rd February 1752. Earlston is not far from the villages of Stichill and Hume (combined as a parish) where George's son William was born on the 23rd February 1780. George had married Elizabeth Gibson on 12th October 1777 at Gordon, Berwickshire.

I believe that George was a farmer in Stichill. Searching the internet, I found that minutes from The Baron Court of Stichill has an entry dated 21st November 1795 as follows:

The which day a Head Baron Court was held by Alexander Linen Bailie of the Barony when tenants and cotters appeared and paid their usual fines for the penal statutes.

The same day George Boyd tenant in Eastfield was decerned to pay William Downie tenant in Running Barn the sum of one pound twelve shillings sterling for corn damaged and destroyed by his cattle in September and October bypast.

Also William Downie was decerned to pay George Boyd the sum of twelve shillings sterling for corns also destroyed by his cattle in September last.

Source: http://www.ebooksread.com/

Fifteen years later in 1810,according to Brian Boyd, the two sons, William and George, moved to England to set up a millwright business over North Bridge in Hull. Their father was by then 59 years old. He must have moved with his sons because on the 7th June 1818 he died at Sculcoates, Hull, East Yorkshire.