BOYLE, originally BOYVIL, a surname belonging to a family settled at an early period in Ayrshire. Among the barons of that county who swore fealty to Edward I. in 1296, were Robert de Boyvil and Richard de Boyvil. The latter, proprietor of the lands of Raysholm, in Dalry, is thought to be the ancestor of the Boyles both of Raysholm and Wamphray in Annandale. The heiress of Wamphray, in the reign of King James IV., married a brother of the house of Johnstone. that the Boyles of Kelburn, which is in the district of Cummingham, are of great antiquity, appears from a charter in Anderson’s Diplomata Scotiae. In 1699, David Boyle of Kelburn was created Lord Boyle, and in 1703 earl of Glasgow. See GLASGOW, earl of.. From the Boyles of Kelburn, the great English Boyles, who became earls of Cork and Ossory in Ireland, are said to derive their origin.

      David Boyle, lord-justice-general of Scotland, born at Irvine 26^th July 1772, died at Shewalton, Ayrshire, 4^th February 1853, was the second son of the Hon. Patrick Boyle of Shewalton, and grandson of 2d ear of Glasgow. Passed advocate in 1793, he was appointed solicitor-general of Scotland and elected M.P. for Ayrshire in 1807; promoted to the bench in February 1811; became lord-justice-clerk in October of the same year; sworn a privy councillor in 1820, and appointed lord-justice-general of Scotland in 1841. These offices he resigned in May 1852. His eldest son, Patrick Boyle, Esq. of Shewalton, passed advocate in 1829, but never practised.