In 1873, Captain Boycott moved to Lough Mask House, owned by Lord Erne, four miles from Cong. Lord Erne, the third Earl of Erne, was a wealthy landowner who lived in Crom Castle in County Fermanagh.
Crom Castle
He owned 40,386 acres of land in Ireland, of which over thirty thousand 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.
Boycott agreed to be Lord Erne's agent for 1,500 acres he owned in County Mayo. One of Boycott's responsibilities was to collect rents from tenant farmers on the land, for which he earned ten per cent of the total rent due to Lord Erne, which was £500 each year. 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 living on Achill Island 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. During 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 you may think might have contributed to his unpopularity, but I can assure you it was due more to his personal temperament”.
Captain Boycott
“He had laid down loads of petty restrictions, such as not allowing gates to be left open and not allowing hens to trespass on his property, and then he fined anyone who broke the rules. He also withdrew privileges from the tenants, such as collecting wood from the estate. In August 1880, his labourers went on strike in a dispute over a wage increase. This was the beginning of the end for that rogue”.
Lough Mask House
THE LOUGH MASK AFFAIR
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
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.
The survey found that almost all land was the property of just 10,000 people, or 0.2% of the population. The majority were small landlords, but the 750 richest landlords owned half of the country between them.
Many of the richest were absentee landlords who 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 that they rented to tenant farmers.
Map of 19th Century Ireland
Farmers were an important group politically, having more votes than any other sector of society.
In the 1850s, some tenant farmers formed associations to demand the three Fs: 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 arrested and given a 15-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.
Michael Davitt
Charles Stewart Parnell
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 tenant farmers 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 SPEECH IN ENNIS
On the 19th of September 1880, Parnell gave a speech in Ennis, Co. Clare to a crowd of Land League members.
Parnell speech in Ennis
Parnell "What do you do with a tenant who bids for a farm from which his neighbour has been evicted?”
Crowd “Kill him, shoot him"
Parnell “I wish to point out to you a very much better way– a more Christian and charitable way, which will give the lost man an opportunity of repenting. When a man takes a farm from which another has been evicted, you must shun him on the roadside when you meet him– you must shun him in the streets of the town– you must shun him in the shop– you must shun him on the fair green and in the market place, and even in the place of worship. By leaving him alone, by putting him in moral Coventry, by isolating him from the rest of the country, as if he were the leper of old – you must show him your detestation of the crime he committed.”
This speech set out the Land League's powerful weapon of social ostracism, which was first used against Charles Boycott.
COMMUNITY ACTION
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.
The following month Lord Erne's tenants were due to pay their rents. He had agreed to a 10 per cent reduction owing to a poor harvest, but all except two of his tenants demanded a 25 per cent reduction.
CAPTAIN BOYCOTT SPEAKS OUT
Captain Boycott
“I had written to Lord Erne, but he had refused to accede to the tenants' demands. He then issued orders for the outstanding rents, and obtained eviction notices against eleven tenants. These tenants had bitten off more than they could chew. "
Three days after Parnell's speech in Ennis, a process server and seventeen members of the Royal Irish Constabulary began the attempt to serve Boycott's eviction notices. Legally, they had to be delivered to the head of the household or his spouse within a certain time period. The process server successfully delivered notices to three of the tenants, but a fourth, Mrs Fitzmorris, refused to accept the notice.
Tenants warn Ballinrobe businessman
Mrs. Fitzmorris “As soon as I saw those scoundrels coming, I began waving this red flag to alert other tenants that the notices were being served. Myself and some of the women of the area descended on the process server and the constabulary, and began throwing stones, mud, and manure at them. We drove them away to seek refuge in Lough Mask House. They came back the following day and got the same reception. Imagine, big burley men being driven out of the village by a bunch of women! The cowards”
The process server tried unsuccessfully to serve the notices the following day. News soon spread to nearby Ballinrobe, from where many people descended on Lough Mask House, where, according to journalist James Redpath, they advised Boycott's servants and labourers to leave his employment immediately.
Captain Boycott “It was horrific. Most of my servants were forced to leave under threat of ulterior consequences. Martin Branigan, a labourer who subsequently sued me for non-payment of wages, claimed he left because he was afraid of the people who came into the field where he was working. Eventually, all my employees left, forcing me to run the estate without help."
Saving the crops
Within days, the blacksmith, postman, and 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 Boycott, and he had to bring food and other provisions by boat from Cong.
NEWSPAPER COVERAGE
Before October 1880, Boycott's situation was little known outside County Mayo. On the 14th of October of that year, Boycott wrote a letter to The Times about his situation:
Captain Boycott “I gave my piece the title "The State of Ireland".
Sir, the following detail may be interesting to your readers as exemplifying the power of the Land League. On the 22nd of September a process-server, escorted by a police force of seventeen men, retreated to my house for protection, followed by a howling mob of people, who yelled and hooted at the members of my family. On the ensuing day, September 23rd, the people collected in crowds upon my farm, and some hundred or so came up to my house and ordered off, under threats of ulterior consequences, all my farm labourers, workmen, and stablemen, commanding them never to work for me again. My herd has been frightened by them into giving up his employment, though he has refused to give up the house he held from me as part of his emolument.
Another herd on an off farm has also been compelled to resign his situation. My blacksmith has received a letter threatening him with murder if he does any more work for me, and my laundress has also been ordered to give up my washing. A little boy, twelve years of age, who carried my post-bag to and from the neighbouring town of Ballinrobe, was struck and threatened on the 27th of September, and ordered to desist from his work; since which time I have sent my little nephew for my letters and even he, on the 2nd of October, was stopped on the road and threatened if he continued to act as my messenger. The shopkeepers have been warned to stop all supplies to my house, and I have just received a message from the post mistress to say that the telegraph messenger was stopped and threatened on the road when bringing out a message to me and that she does not think it safe to send any telegrams which may come for me in the future for fear they should be abstracted and the messenger injured.
My farm is public property; the people wander over it with impunity. My crops are trampled upon, carried away in quantities, and destroyed wholesale. The locks on my gates are smashed, the gates thrown open, the walls thrown down, and the stock driven out on the roads. I can get no workmen to do anything, and my ruin is openly avowed as the object of the Land League unless I throw up everything and leave the country. I say nothing about the danger to my own life, which is apparent to anybody who knows the country. Charles C. Boycott Lough Mask House, County Mayo, 14 October”
Becker “Personally he is protected, but no woman in Ballinrobe would dream of washing him a cravat or making him a loaf. All the people have to say is that they are sorry, but that they 'dare not. Boycott had been advised to leave, but he told me that he can hardly desert Lord Erne, and, moreover, he said his own property is sunk in this place.”
On the 29th October, the Dublin Daily Express published a letter proposing a fund to finance a party of men to go to Co. Mayo to save Boycott's crops. Between them, the Daily Express, Daily Telegraph, Daily News, and News Letter raised £2,000 to fund the relief expedition.
SAVING THE CROPS
In Belfast in early November 1880, The Boycott Relief Fund was established to arrange an armed 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 Railway for special trains to transport the expedition from Ulster to County Mayo. Many nationalists viewed the expedition as an invasion. The Freeman's Journal denounced the organisers of the expedition, and asked, "How is it that this Government do not consider it necessary to prosecute the promoters of these 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 of hundreds of men, as the committee was planning, and that 50 unarmed men would be sufficient to harvest the crops.
He said that the government would consider it their duty to protect this group.
On the 10th of November 1880, the relief expedition consisting of one contingent from Cavan and one from Monaghan left for Mayo. Additional troops had already 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.
He feared that a large number of Ulstermen would lead to sectarian violence. While 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 population did threaten violence against the expedition and the troops.
The expedition experienced hostile protests on their route through Co. Mayo, but there was no violence, and they harvested the crops without incident. Rumours spread amongst the Ulstermen that an attack was being planned on the farm, but none materialised.
THE AFTERMATH
On 27 November 1880, Boycott, his family and a local magistrate were escorted from Lough Mask House by members of the 19th Hussars.
Boycott leaves Lough Mask
A carriage had been hired for the family, but 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, where Boycott was received with some hostility.
The hotel he stayed in received letters saying that it would be boycotted if Boycott remained. He had intended to stay in Dublin for a week, but Boycott was advised to cut his stay short. He left Dublin for England on the Holyhead mail boat on the 1st of December.
The cost to the government of harvesting Boycott's crops was estimated at £10,000: In Parnell's words, "one shilling for every turnip dug from Boycott's land."
In a letter requesting compensation to William Ewart Gladstone, then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boycott said that he had lost £6,000 of his investment in the estate.
Boycotting had strengthened the power of the peasants, and 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 the 28th of December 1880, Parnell and other Land League leaders were put on trial on charges of conspiracy to prevent the payment of rent.
The trial attracted thousands of people onto the streets outside the court. A Daily Express reporter wrote that 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. Parnell and Davitt received this news as a victory.
After the boycotting, Gladstone discussed the issue of land reform, writing 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 Fs.
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 Fs introduced. The act set up the Irish Land Commission, a judicial body, that would fix rents for a period of 15 years and guarantee fixity of tenure. According toThe Annual Register, the act was "...probably the most important measure introduced into the House of Commons since the passing of the Reform Bill.”
THE WORD BOYCOTT
According to James Redpath, the verb "to boycott" was coined by Father O'Malley in a discussion between them on 23 September 1880. The following is Redpath's account:
I said, "I'm bothered about a word." "What is it?" asked Father John. "Well," I said, "When the people ostracise a land-grabber we call it social excommunication, but we ought to have an entirely different word to signify ostracism applied to a landlord or land-agent like Boycott. Ostracism won't do – the peasantry would not know the meaning of the word – and I can't think of any other." "No," said Father John, "ostracism wouldn't do" He looked down, tapped his big forehead, and said: "How would it do to call it to Boycott him?"
According to Joyce Marlow, the word was first used in print by Redpath in the Inter-Ocean on the 12th October 1880. The coining of the word, and its first use in print, came before Boycott and his situation was widely known outside Co. Mayo.
In November 1880, an article in the Birmingham Daily Post referred to the word as a local term in connection to the boycotting of a Ballinrobe merchant. Still in 1880, The Illustrated London News described how "To Boycott" has already become a verb active, signifying to "ratten", "to intimidate", to "send to Coventry", and "to taboo". In 1888, the word was included in the first volume of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (later known as the Oxford English Dictionary).
According to Gary Minda in his book, Boycott in America: how imagination and ideology shape the legal mind, "Apparently there was no other word in the English language to describe this dispute. “The word also entered the lexicon of languages other than English, such as Dutch, French, German, Polish and Russian.
IN POPULAR CULTURE
Cecil Parker in the Captain Boycott movie (1947)
Charles Boycott and the events that led to his name entering the English language have been the subject of several works of fiction. The first was Captain Boycott, a 1946 romantic novel by Phillip Rooney.
This was the basis for the 1947 film Captain Boycott — directed by Frank Lauder and starred Stewart Granger, Kathleen Ryan, Alastair Sim, and Cecil Parkeras Charles Boycott. More recently, the story was the subject of the 2012 novel Boycott, by Colin C. Murphy.
