Author: BOYD, David
Biography:
BOYD, David (fl 1803-16)
No details of his birth or parents are known but the surname is Scottish so he may have been of Ulster Scot descent. Nothing is known of his education. He was appointed schoolmaster at the Belfast Poor-House and Infirmary (founded 1771) in Sept. 1803 on an annual salary of £20. His poem of 1306 lines, listed here, gives an account of the institution and recounts some of his experiences there. He may have been the David Boyd who later established an English and Mercantile School at 19 John Street, Belfast, around 1813, moving to 45 John Street around 1816. He does not appear in the various returns and reports of the Royal Commission on Education in Ireland/Irish Education Inquiry (1824-27) and his date and place of death have yet to be established. (Belfast News-Letter 25 June 1813, 25 Mar. 1814, 27 Dec. 1816; R.W.M. Strain, Belfast and its Charitable Society [1961], 103) AA