John Boyd

Who was John Boyd?

John Boyd was a businessman and the eighth Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick following Canadian confederation.

Born to a Protestant family in Magherafelt, Ireland, Boyd and his younger brother immigrated to New Brunswick with their mother in 1833, two years after the death of his father. He apprenticed at British and Foreign Dry Goods and eventually became a buyer and then, in 1854, full partner in the firm.

Boyd read and travelled widely overseas and became a popular lecturer at home. Politically he was a supporter of Samuel Leonard Tilley and was frequently his campaign manager after 1854 as well as a supporter of Confederation. He was also an advocate of temperance. He was also a supporter of the New Brunswick Common Schools Act of 1871 and its establishment of a non-sectarian school system. He served on the Saint John, New Brunswick school board beginning in 1871, becoming its chairman in 1874.

Boyd was appointed to the Canadian Senate as a Liberal-Conservative on February 11, 1880 and then to the position of lieutenant governor of New Brunswick on September 21, 1893 but served only a few months until his death on December 4, 1893.