Boyd

Boyd, ZACHARY, born in Ayrshire about 1585, and educated at Glasgow and St Andrews, became a professor in the college of Saumur (q.v.). The persecution of the Huguenots having caused him to return to Scotland in 1621, he was two years later appointed minister of the Barony parish, Glasgow, and was thrice elected rector of the university. His principal prose work, The Last Battell of the Soule in Death (1629), was reprinted, with a life of the author, by Gabriel Neil, in 1831; of the quaint Zion's Flowers (1644)—mostly metrical versions of Scripture history, and commonly called 'Boyd's Bible'—a selection was reprinted in 1855; and the Four Letters of Comfort (1640) were reprinted in 1878. He died in 1653 or 1654, leaving numerous MSS. and his library, with a considerable legacy, to Glasgow University.