Charles Boycott

Uncommon card · No. 190345

Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott (12 March 1832 – 19 June 1897) was an English land agent whose ostracism by his local community in Ireland gave the English language the term boycott. He had served in the British Army 39th Foot, which brought him to Ireland. After retiring from the army, Boycott worked as a land agent for Lord Erne, a landowner in the Lough Mask area of County Mayo. In 1880, as part of a campaign for free sale, fixity of tenure, and fair rent, and specifically in resistance to proposed evictions on the estate, local activists of the Irish National Land League encouraged Boycott's employees, including the seasonal workers required to harvest the crops on Lord Erne's estate, to withdraw their labour, and began a campaign of isolation against Boycott in the local community. Shops in nearby Ballinrobe refused to serve him. Some were threatened with violence to ensure compliance. Opposition to the campaign against Boycott became a cause célèbre in the British press after he...

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