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(March 12, 1832—June 19,
1897
Charles
Cunningham Boycott was born in Norfolk, England on 12th March 1832,
in 1850 joined the 39th Regiment of Foot (later the Dorset's) as
an Ensign, and served for a short time with the Regiment in Ireland.
After this period in the army he came to Ireland to work as a land
agent for The 3rd Earl of Erne (John Crichton,), the local landowner
in the Lough Mask area of County Mayo
Captain Boycott's name entered the English
language as a word meaning to ostracize, it was first coined by
The Times newspaper (London) in November 1880. Boycott was land
agent for absentee landlord Lord Erne in County Mayo, he lived at
Loughmask House on the eastern shore of Lough Mask.
In September 1880 tenants on the estate demanded
a rent reduction, Boycott refused their demands and preceded to
evict them from their property. Previously on 21st October 1879,
in The Imperial Hotel, Castlebar,
County Mayo The Land League had been founded, Charles
Stewart Parnell was elected president, A. J. Kettle, Michael
Davitt, and Thomas Brennan were appointed as honorary secretaries.
In a speech delivered in Ennis,
County Clare, Charles Stewart Parnell advocated a non violent approach
to the problem encouraging everyone to refuse to have any dealings
with Boycott. This action was eminently successful, all Boycott's
workers both on the land and in the house refused to do any work,
local businesses refused to supply him and his post was not delivered.
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All this coincided with the harvest, Boycott was
unable to find anyone to harvest the crops, eventually some fifty Orangemen
from Cavan and Monaghan volunteered. They had to be escorted to the estate
by about one thousand police and soldiers. This is said to have cost the
government £10,000, while the valve of the potato crop harvested
was put, according to Boycott's estimate £350.
The story quickly spread across the country and
to England, the word Boycott was first used in the Times newspaper on
20th November 1880 as a term of organized isolation, “The people
of New Pallas have resolved to 'boycott' them and refused to supply them
with food or drink.”. Michael Davitt's
in his book “The Fall of Feudalism in Ireland” attributes
the adoption of the word to Fr. John O'Malley from County Mayo to "signify
ostracism applied to a landlord or agent like Boycott". Other papers
soon followed The Time's example, The Daily News reported on December
13, 1880: “Already the stoutest hearted are yielding on every side
to the dread of being 'Boycotted'.”
After the harvest the "Boycott" was successfully
continued on December 1, 1880 Captain Boycott together with his family
left Ireland for England. The Boycott's story was portrayed in the 1947
film Captain Boycott.
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