Scotland than any other presbyterian divine of his day. He had friends among the leaders of the English clergy and men of letters, and his writings were widely read in America. Soon after settling in St. Andrews Boyd urged the question of an improved ritual in the services of the national church, and in 1866, on the initiative of his presbytery, a committee was appointed by the general assembly to prepare a collection of hymns. The hymnal compiled by the committee, with Boyd as convener, was published in 1870, and enlarged in 1884. This work made Boyd prominent, and St. Andrews University conferred on him the degree of LL.D. in April 1889. In May 1890, he was appointed moderator of the general assembly. He performed his duties assiduously and well, and, as was said at the time, "with archiepiscopal dignity." His closing address was published as Church Life in Scotland: Retrospect and Prospect (Edinburgh, 1890). One of his last public services was the reopening, on 11 July 1894, of the renovated church of St. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh – one of the oldest ecclesiastical edifices in Scotland – his address on the occasion being adequately archaeological, and graced with a fine literary flavour. Early in 1895, he was seriously ill, but recovered, only to lose the devoted wife who had nursed him back to health. In the winter of 1898–1899, he had a recurrence of ill-health and went to Bournemouth to recuperate. Here he resumed work on sermons and essays, but in the evening of 1 March 1899 he died by misadventure, having taken carbolic lotion (a 1-in-40-parts mixture of carbolic acid in water) in mistake for a sleeping-draught. He was interred in the Eastern Cemetery of St Andrews (south of the cathedral), against the south wall, with his first wife. Family Boyd married, in 1854, Margaret Buchanan, eldest daughter of Captain Kirk (71st regiment) of Carrickfergus in Ireland. She predeceased him in 1895. Their sons included Frank Mortimer Boyd a journalist and author, Rev Herbert Buchanan Boyd and Charles Walter Boyd secretary to Cecil Rhodes and of the Rhodes Trust. In 1897, he married, following Margaret's death in 1895, Janet Balfour, daughter of Mr. Leslie Meldrum of Devon House near Clackmannan. She survived him, with five sons and one daughter of his first wife's family. Assessment Clear, precise, and definite in his habits, Boyd, both professionally and socially, was entirely unconventional