Captain Boycott, Ballinrobe Landlords

Captain Boycott

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Captain Boycott

The word, Boycott, meaning to join with others in refusing to have any dealings with some other individual or group, is derived from an incident that occurred at Lough Mask House near Ballinrobe, County Mayo, Ireland in 1880.

Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott was an unpopular English landlord who moved to the Ballinrobe area in 1873 after an inheritance allowed him to take a thirty-one year lease on three hundred acres near Lough Mask. He also became an agent on the nearly one thousand five hundred acres estate of Lord Erne. There were 38 small tenant farmers on Lord Erne"s estates near Lough Mask and Castlebar.

Captain Boycott was reportedly very strict with his tenants. Locally he was considered a petty tyrant who curtailed privileges that had previously been enjoyed, like collecting wood and taking short cuts across the farm. He showed no leniency when rents were in arrears.

Times were hard in 1879 and 1880 and there was again famine. Boycott, with instructions from Lord Erne, was prepared to allow a 10% reduction in the rents. Most of the tenants insisted on a 25% reduction. Boycott obtained eviction notices against eleven tenants for failure to pay their rent. On September 22, 1880 the local process server, David Sears*, accompanied by an escort of "constabulary" succeeded in serving several notices. Then some local women started to harass Sears and his escort by throwing mud and manure at them while yelling and shouting at them. The ladies managed to intimidate them to the point that they took shelter in the Boycott house and were unable to serve the rest of the notices. The next day Sears was preparing to make another attempt to serve the notices but a large group of people gathered and marched towards Lough Mask House. Egged on by Father John O'Malley, the parish priest at the Neale, they arrived on the Boycott farm and "advised" all of Boycott's servants and farm workers to leave and not return. By the evening of September 23 Boycott and his family were alone on the farm.

Note: Father O'Mally was the only priest in the area who was active in the Land League.

Once the process started it did not stop. The letterboy refused to deliver the mail. The shopkeepers of Ballinrobe refused to wait on the Boycott family. All of the local Catholic population refused to provide any services. Whenever any member of the Boycott household tried to leave the property they were booed and hissed. Boycott applied and was granted police protection. This, in and of itself, was not uncommon in parts of Ireland where there was unrest. The issue at this point remained a local one.

The tenants appealed to Lord Erne to dismiss Boycott and replace him with another agent. Lord Erne, who was elderly and perhaps senile, refused. The locals kept up their isolation of Boycott. A letter from Captain Boycott to the "Times" drew attention to his dilemma. In part he said:

".....people collect in crowds upon my farm and order off all my workmen. The shopkeepers have been warned to stop all supplies to my house. My farm is public property, 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"

The situation became an item in the English Press and in response a group of about 50 Ulster Loyalists volunteered to come to Boycott's aid and bring in his crops.

The Ulster volunteers took the train as far as Claremorris where they had expected to be met by carts that would take them to Ballinrobe. The local cart drivers refused to provide their services and the volunteers, escorted my military troops, were forced to march the fourteen miles from Claremorris to Ballinrobe. They did not set off until late in the afternoon and darkness fell early at that time of the year. Hindered by driving rain and various delays it was only after fives hours of marching that they reached Ballinrobe where they were greeted by crowds of cat calling, jeering, and booing locals and where there was basically no shelter or food for them.

The little town of Ballinrobe was completely overrun with outsiders including at least a 1,000 soldiers, newsmen from around the world and the Ulster volunteers.

On the morning of November 12, the troops, with swords raised, escorted the volunteers out of town as all the locals again turned out to jeer. The crowds thinned as they left town and they continued on through the drizzling rain the three miles to Lough Mask House.

Over the next two weeks, tortured by continuous cold and torrential rains, the volunteers brought in the harvest of turnips, mangolds¹, potatoes and corn². On Saturday, November 27 they were escorted back to Ballinrobe where they again spent the night. The next day they were escorted to Claremorris to take the train back to Ulster.

Boycott himself quietly decided go to England. Captain Boycott, his wife and niece were forced to ride in an Army ambulance as no local drivers could be found to take them to the train in Claremorris.

See Ballinrobe Chronicles for local coverage of the event.

The name boycott was given to this form of social and economic isolation by the American journalist, James Redpath, who covered the story for the American press. He credited Father O'Malley with having come with the idea of using the word.

¹Mangolds are a beet like root crop fed to cattle.

² What the English call corn and Americans call wheat.

*David Sears

In October 2008 John C Sears wrote:

My great-great grandfather was David Sears, the local process server from Ballinrobe. It was he who was pelted with "gutter" when attempts to serve eviction notices were refused. I've worked hard to gather the newspaper articles extant which described the scene and the following day. There aren't many as you've no doubt realized also.
That "Davy" continued to reside in Ballinrobe until his death (aged 74) in 1894. In accordance with THE BALLINROBE CHRONICLE (sometimes known as the MAYO ADVERTISER), David had been elected the Process Server since at least as early as 31 October 1867. He is identified as such, in every edition up to and including 22 December 1894. He died just prior.
His son, also named David Sears (my great grandfather) had emmigrated in 1891 and was resident in NYC at that time. Although I know a great deal about the incident now, no mention was ever made within the family nor were any hints passed down. David (the son) was married in 1895 and my grandfather was his first child. He died very young (aged 39), in 1911.
When I learned of the boycott incident, I had conflicted feelings. My perception of anyone involved in the "eviction process" was negative. I am and have always been proud of my Irish heritage and was ashamed of what had happened. As I began research into the details, I learned that my SEARS ancestry also included people who had materially affected the cause of Irish Independence as well. I was obviously happy about that.
William Frederick Sears was elected as the South Mayo member of the First Irish Dail in 1918. He continued as such until June 1927. Peter Sears was killed on 28 June 1920 in Solon, India while participating in a Mutiny against the English Army in protest of England's treatment of the Irish. This was at the height of the Black and Tan War. In October 1970, his body was returned to Ireland and was re-interred in a Republican grave in Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin. Edward I. Sears attended Trinity College and after immigrating to NYC, he started a very successful publishing concern (The National Quarterly). This publication exposed many of the problems involving England's control of Irish lands.