# Janet Boyd > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Janet_Boyd > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Janet_Boyd.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Boyd > Source revision: 1355278261 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|British suffragette (1850–1928)}} {{Use British English|date=November 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2025}} '''Janet Augusta Boyd''' (née '''Haig'''; 1850 – 22 September 1928) was a British [suffragette](/source/suffragette) and member of the [Women's Social and Political Union](/source/Women's_Social_and_Political_Union) (WSPU). In 1912 she went on [hunger strike](/source/hunger_strike) in prison for which she was awarded the WSPU's [Hunger Strike Medal](/source/Hunger_Strike_Medal). ==Family== She was born, as '''Janet Augusta Haig''', into an [upper middle class](/source/upper_middle_class) family in [Marylebone](/source/Marylebone) in [Middlesex](/source/Middlesex) in 1850,[https://www.suffrageresources.org.uk/database/1617/mrs-janet-augusta-boyd Mrs Janet Augusta Boyd - Women's Suffrage: History and Citizenship resources for schools] she was the daughter of George Augustus Haig (1820–1906), a merchant and landowner from [Pen Ithon](/source/Pen_Ithon), [Radnorshire](/source/Radnorshire), [Wales](/source/Wales), and his wife, Anne Eliza Haig ({{nee}} Fell; 1822–1894). Her father was of [Scottish](/source/Scotland) descent and was a cousin of [Douglas Haig](/source/Douglas_Haig%2C_1st_Earl_Haig). Her sisters and fellow suffragettes were Charlotte and [Sybil](/source/Sybil_Thomas%2C_Viscountess_Rhondda) (later [Viscountess Rhondda](/source/Viscount_Rhondda)), while her niece was the feminist and suffragette [Margaret Thomas](/source/Margaret_Haig_Thomas%2C_2nd_Viscountess_Rhondda), who herself became the second Viscountess Rhondda. ===Marriage and issue=== In 1874, she married the [armigerous](/source/armigerous){{cite book|title=Visitation of England and Wales|date=1900|editor-last=Howard|editor-first=Joseph Jackson|volume=8|pages=161–164|chapter=Boyd of Moor House, Co. Durham|editor-last2=Crisp|editor-first2=Frederick Arthur|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/visitationofengl08howa#page/160}} solicitor George Fenwick Boyd (1849–1909), of [University College, Oxford](/source/University_College%2C_Oxford), who was later [High Sheriff of Durham](/source/High_Sheriff_of_Durham), and whose industrialist father [Edward Fenwick Boyd](/source/Edward_Fenwick_Boyd) had built Moor House in the village of [Leamside](/source/Leamside) outside [Durham](/source/Durham%2C_England).{{Cite web|url=https://www.newmp.org.uk/person/ef-boyd-1914/|title=Entry for Lieutenant Edward Fenwick Boyd (d. 1914), North East War Memorials Project}}[Edward Walford](/source/Edward_Walford) [https://books.google.com/books?id=TuHIDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA149 ''Walford's County Families of the United Kingdom, or Royal Manual of the Titled and Untitled Aristocracy of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland''], London, Spottiswoode & Co., 1905, p. 149 With him, Haig had four daughters: Sybil Mary Boyd (1875–1954); Annie Boyd (1878–1966); Hester Boyd (1879–1971), and Janet Haig Boyd (1883–1956). When George Boyd inherited his father's house he and Janet and their four daughters took up residence there. The death of George Boyd in 1909 allowed his widow the freedom to join the fight for [women's suffrage](/source/women's_suffrage) ==Activism== ''The Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette'' of 12 June 1911 recorded that Janet Boyd had refused to pay her rates of £21 and to raise the money she held an auction at her home during which a member of the WSPU came to speak to the assembled crowd and which resulted in Boyd selling a Spanish [mantilla](/source/mantilla) which was bought by her gardener; the money to pay for this probably came from Boyd herself. In the same year Boyd joined the protest against the 1911 census return in which she is not named. Underneath is written, "14 females passed the night here. As women are not counted as voters, neither should they be counted on this census." left|thumb|suffragette window smashing campaign|alt= In November 1911, after the failure of the [Conciliation Bill](/source/Conciliation_Bills), anger spilled over into direct action and 223 suffragettes were arrested during a campaign of window smashing. Among the arrests were seven women with Welsh connections, including [Edith Mansell Moullin](/source/Edith_Mansell_Moullin), [Mildred Mansel](/source/Mildred_Mansel) (sister of [Ivor Guest](/source/Ivor_Guest%2C_1st_Viscount_Wimborne), MP), and Boyd,Ryland Wallace, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Mh9mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT87 ''The Women's Suffrage Movement in Wales, 1866–1928''], Cardiff: University of Wales Press (2009) - Google Books, pg. 81 who was arrested on 19 November 1911 for breaking a window in [The Strand](/source/Strand%2C_London) in London. During her appearance at [Bow Street Magistrates' Court](/source/Bow_Street_Magistrates'_Court) on 22 November, Haig stated "I don't consider I was guilty, because I was doing it for a good purpose." She was fined 10 shillings and three shillings for the damage and sentenced to seven days in prison. [[File:Holloway Prison.png|thumb|right|In 1912 Boyd was sentenced to 6 months in [Holloway Prison](/source/HM_Prison_Holloway) - seen here c. 1896]] Boyd's second arrest was in March 1912. At her first hearing on 2 March 1912 she was committed for trial together with her cousin [Florence Haig](/source/Florence_Haig) for breaking two windows each at [D H Evans](/source/D_H_Evans) on [Oxford Street](/source/Oxford_Street)[https://suffragettestories.omeka.net/bio-florence-haig Florence Haig profile], Suffragette Stories website. Accessed 15 November 2022. valued at £66. Haig stated that if she was bound over to keep the peace she would feel like a soldier deserting in the middle of battle. At her subsequent trial at the London Sessions, on 19 March 1912, Boyd was sentenced to six months in [Holloway Prison](/source/HM_Prison_Holloway) where she went on [hunger strike](/source/hunger_strike) but was not [force-fed](/source/Force-feeding); she was released at the end of June 1912. She was awarded the [Hunger Strike Medal](/source/Hunger_Strike_Medal) by the leadership of the WSPU. To keep up morale in prison the women were forced to make their own entertainment. Some such as [Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence](/source/Emmeline_Pethick-Lawrence%2C_Baroness_Pethick-Lawrence) told stories; later [Emmeline Pankhurst](/source/Emmeline_Pankhurst) reminisced about the early days of the WSPU. On 10 June 1912 the three imprisoned grandmothers - Boyd, [Gertrude Wilkinson](/source/Gertrude_Wilkinson), and [Mary Ann Aldham](/source/Mary_Ann_Aldham) sang together.Glenda Norquay, [https://books.google.com/books?id=v4m-aqVKOqoC&pg=PA184 ''Voices and Votes: A Literary Anthology of the Women's Suffrage Campaign''], Manchester University Press (1995) - Google Books On another occasion some of the women performed a scene from ''[The Merchant of Venice](/source/The_Merchant_of_Venice)'' with [Evaline Hilda Burkitt](/source/Evaline_Hilda_Burkitt) as [Shylock](/source/Shylock) and the role of Narissa played by [Doreen Allen](/source/Doreen_Allen).Jane Purvis, [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09612029500200073 'The prison experiences of the suffragettes in Edwardian Britain'], ''Women's History Review'', (1995) 4:1, 103-133- pg. 112 Boyd was one of 68 women, among them [Emily Davison](/source/Emily_Davison), who added their signatures or initials to [The Suffragette Handkerchief](/source/The_Suffragette_Handkerchief) embroidered by prisoners in Holloway in March 1912, and kept until 1950 by [Mary Ann Hilliard](/source/Mary_Ann_Hilliard), and still available to view at the [Priest House](/source/The_Priest_House%2C_West_Hoathly) West Hoathly.{{cite web|url=https://sussexpast.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Priest-House-suffragette-handkerchief.pdf|title=The Suffragette Handkerchief|publisher=Sussex Past|access-date=16 January 2019|archive-date=13 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513063659/https://sussexpast.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Priest-House-suffragette-handkerchief.pdf|url-status=dead}} Boyd was one of two grandmothers to sign the handkerchief. ''The Durham Advertiser'' for 30 May 1913 reported on "Mrs Boyd's annual "votes for women" protest... The protest takes the form of the refusal to pay Government taxes demanded and the consequent execution of a distress warrant upon Mrs Boyd's goods." Another auction was held at Boyd's home attended by her friends and supporters as well as the tax collector. On this occasion 'One article, an Italian necklace, was put up for auction, and this was knocked down to Mrs Atkinson for the sum of £26, an amount sufficient to meet the demand and expenses'. Presumably, this item too made its way back into Boyd's possession.[http://ww1countydurham.blogspot.com/2018/02/up-women.html 'Up the Women!' - Durham at War: Mapping the story of County Durham and its people in the First World War] ==Later years== [[File:Eglwys Llanbadarn Fynydd 426116.jpg|thumb|right|Boyd is buried in the churchyard of St. Padarn's church in [Llanbadarn Fynydd](/source/Llanbadarn_Fynydd) in [Powys](/source/Powys), Wales]] Janet Boyd spent her later years at the family home of Moor House in [Leamside](/source/Leamside) near [Durham](/source/Durham%2C_England). She died on 22 September 1928 in Prescott House at [Gotherington](/source/Gotherington) near [Cheltenham](/source/Cheltenham) and is included in the Suffragette Roll of Honour.{{cite web |title=Janet Boyd - Suffragette Roll of Honour |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/ee5a777f-1d7c-416b-a249-c7cb64fcc0a8}} She is buried in St. Padarn's Churchyard, [Llanbadarn Fynydd](/source/Llanbadarn_Fynydd) in [Llandrindod Wells](/source/Llandrindod_Wells) in [Powys](/source/Powys), Wales. ==References== {{reflist}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Boyd, Janet}} Category:1850 births Category:1928 deaths Category:People from Marylebone Category:English suffragettes Category:English feminists Category:British women's rights activists Category:Women's Social and Political Union Category:Prisoners and detainees of England and Wales Category:People from County Durham (district) Category:Burials in Powys --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Janet Boyd](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Boyd) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Boyd?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.