Zachary Boyd  is  a name famous in Church and State and a descendant of the Boyds of Penkill and Trochrague.  Zachary Boyd,  is a cousin of Robert Boyd of Trochrague, the 2nd Laird, grandson of Adam Boyd  the first Boyd Laird of Penkill, and great- grandson of the  1st Lord    Robert Boyd was then Principal of Glasgow University, and previously a  Professor at Saumur the chief Pro-testant Seminary of France. 

Zachary Boyd lived in  the  last  ten  years  of James the I and VI and the early part of the reign of Charles I.  He  received  his  early education at the School of Kilmarnock, and being as it  was seen "A lad of pairts"  he soon proceeded to the University of  Glasgow. From there he went to France and became  a  student at the
great University of Saumur where his cousin, as before stated, was Professor of Divinity.  He remained in France for  about  14 years, but had to leave that country owing to  persecutions against all Protestants in France.
 

   In the year 1623 he became the minister   of the important charge of the Barony of Glasgow,  and remained the minister  of  that  Parish until his death in 1653.  In 1633 when Charles I visited Scotland to be Crowned, Zachary Boyd made  a  most laudatory address to him in Latin, which he delivered from the porch at Holyrood House.  Later
he saw fit to change his opinion of that King, and became a "stronger-than-ever"  Protestant.  Neither  did he approve of  Cromwell; and later when Cromwell came to Glasgow and had the appalling effrontery to stable his horses in the crypt of the
Glasgow Cathedral (that crypt acknowledged to be one of the finest in Europe) Zachary Boyd defied him to his face!  The story -one of the best known in  the Boyd annals is as follows.

When Cromwell came to  Glasgow  with all his Legions in the autumn of 1650, the ministers  and  magistrates  were in a state of  much alarm  when they heard  that  he  had  defeated  the  Scottish Presbyterians  at   Dunbar.  Cromwell had sent out an order that on Sunday there was to be no preaching in the pul-pits of Glasgow.  But
Zachary Boyd was not one to quail before a Cromwell, and was determined  to fulfill the services of the day.  The rest of the tale should be told in a graphic  article  by  Miss Dot Allan  which she contributed to the "Glasgow Herald"  of  April 8th 1933.  "On Sunday Cromwell  went  to  service in the Barony Church, accompanied by a
detachment of his  troops.  There  were  few townspeople  present, but in the pulpit was a man of fire,  whose spare scholarly features were ashen  pale as he  looked down on the Protector and his men occupying the places of his parishioners.  When he  began in his vibrant Scottish voice to speak of the "ram and the he-goat  as they
appeared  unto  Daniel", the English soldiers stirred uneasily in their seats.  In the  mellow  light of  the Cathedral the  white-bearded preacher  with  his long lean fingers curving over the    pulpit edge resembled -  to their thinking - an ancient prophet.  Heedless of the abusing torrent of words pouring from the preacher's
lips, Cromwell gazed steadfastly  up at the dim old rafters.  "Therefore the he-goat waxeth very great,  even  as the he-goat that hath entered this city waxeth great; but his power shall be broken and his pride shall be humbled to the dust." An ominus  mutter rising  from Cromwell's soldiers drowned Boyd's utterance.  Like the menace  of distant thunder it grew louder and louder, until it invaded his consciousness. Boyd stood stock still defying with his eyes the angry multitude.  In the pew immediately below, Thurlow, Cromwell's  Secretary  was  fingering  his  pistol and  whispering
in his Master's ear - Shall I shoot my Lord?" Slowly  the Protector levalled his gaze to meet that  of the Preacher.  For a full moment the  scales of life and death were being weighed in the balance.  They  were  being  weighed -not as was fitting in the House of God, but  by a  hulking English General with a swollen and reddish face.  At last Cromwell  broke  the silence so ominous.  "Put up thy weapon"  he commanded  "Thou art a greater fool than he himself."  Thurlow sank  back  in  his  seat -and Cromwell  lowered his head in silent prayer." The sequel is noteworthy.   After the service Boyd
was invited to dinner with the Protector. And the  Scottish minister  re-mained with Cromwell till well on in the night, and listened - we are told - to a prayer of three hours duration!

It it understood that Boyd left  the  General's  headquarters  with a completely changed opinion of the "Intruder".  To  Miss Dot Allan I  am most grateful for these details.

Zachary Boyd became  Dean of Faculty  of Glasgow, and three times over he was chosen for  this  honourable  post.  He  then  became Rector  of  the University, and also was elected for  that  post three  times.  He  had a great love for his "Alma Mater" and at his death in 1653 he left a consid-erable sum of money (large for that
day) to the University of Glasgow that it might be removed from the old High street to the much more advantageous position on Gilmour Hill on the West side of the city. That noble position it holds now, and is the  cynosure  for  miles around, standing high above the River Kelvin, and  with distant views of the beautiful River Clyde and blue mountains beyond.

Quite recently  fine  new iron gates wrought with great art, were added to the University Enclosure,  and  in  plaques  across the centre of the iron work in large gold letters is engraved the name:      "Zacharias Boyd"

Also in the doorway of  the  Hunterian Museum  close  to  the University, stands a statue of him, arresting  in  its  dignity,  as one  enters  the building.  He  bequeathed  all his books and MSS to that library. There is also a large portrait of him there,  which shows  a  man  of  refined and dignified appearance.

Zachary Boyd was a  prolific  writer  in  prose, and one of his best known works is   "The Last Battle of the Soul in Death."  "I live to die,  and I die to live" was his motto, and dedicated to "His most sacred  and  mighty Monarch, King Charles I", but being disappointed in  Charles  as  we  have seen, he became a strong Covenanter.

Another of his prose works is "Four letters of Comfort".  But  it is as a poet that he is most remembered,  though his poetry has been very unfairly dealt with and just the wrong quotations became current, and some couplets are made a laughing-stock.

But  if  any  one  will take the trouble to read the  poems  right through (which  critics  who  are out to laugh at important people never do)  they would perforce be struck (and perhaps silenced) by many beautiful passages which are well worth pondering over.  I, for one, feel that his poetry has never been given justice to on
account  of the ribaldry of those who fail to seek out the real poetry.  His  ambition  was  to  put the  whole Bible into verse, of course an impossible attempt;  and  undoubtedly  we  should not call it all poetry, but poetic prose.  But  those who take the trouble to read right through his  "Jonah" will be rewarded with many little
gems of  thought with a curious  directness of speech.  At any rate there is no room  for  dispute  over the beauty of his 23rd psalm so dear to us in the Church of Scotland.  He  was  deeply hurt by the criticisms of his poetry, and grieved over it very much.  It  is told  that when his dearly beloved wife  was  dying,  her  last
comforting  words were  -Never mind Zack!  I prophesy that wherever  there  is  a  Kirk of Scotland,  there will this version of your psalm be sung."  And was she not right?  "It appears" says an antiquarian  reviewer, "that  Ayrshire  is   entitled  to   claim  Mr.  Zachary Boyd  as  one  of  her  sons.  He  was descended from  the Boyds of Penkill -a Family of some standing in Carrick."  While he was in France he wrote to Principal Boyd in Scotland  "That  a  tax is imposed upon all who cannot evidence  their  descent  from  Noblesse  (Nobility)  and  therefore please send me descent
attested,  as  a  cadet  of  the  noble  Family  of Kilmarnock.  He himself claims kindred to the Lord Boyd.  Cousin  to  Mr.  Andrew Boyd, Bishop of Argyll."  One of his well-known books of poetry is "The Flowers of Sion"

February 24 1655; Deeds instituting Bursuries etc.  "The Moderators ordain that the statue of the said  Mr. Zacharias Boyd, done in marble, be set up in some convenient place of the new building, with an inscription in gold letters, bearing the munificience of the said  Mr. Zacharias Boyd towards this University of Glasgow." This statue  or  bust  was  erected  over the gateway within the College Court with the following inscription: