Sir John Boyd

John Boyd was a sugar merchant and vice-chairman of the English East India Company.

He was the only child of Augustus Boyd, a northern Irish merchant and sugar planter who settled in London. After he attended Christ Church, Oxford and traveled across the Continent in the manner of young nobleman, Boyd joined his father in family business. He settled in Lewisham and married Mary Bumpstead with whom he had four children.

In 1753 Boyd was appointed director of the East India Company, and served on the Company's court until 1764. In 1766 he married his second wife Catherine Chapone and inherited his father’s estate. In the following period Boyd was named a baron. Around 1770s his business in sugar started to decline and was ended with the French capture of St Kitts, West Indies in 1779. Impoverished and stricken by grief due to loss of his two sons, Boyd rarely left his estate Danson. He died there in 1800.