[3] This appears to have been in revenge for the murder of James, 2nd Lord Boyd, in 1484, and the feud continued more or less until 2 May 1530, when Hugh Montgomerie, 1st Earl of Eglinton, proposed a settlement.
The parties agreed in Glasgow that Boyd should accept 2,000 merks for the killing of James, and should marry his son and heir to one of the Earl's "oos" [house].
[7] Robert Boyd had succeeded his father Alexander as Bailie and Chamberlain of Kilmarnock, and resigned that position on 5 May 1534, when his son was appointed in his place.
[8] In 1543 Robert Boyd protested against the reduction of the forfeiture of Sir James Colville of East Wemyss,[9] and early the next year he rendered material assistance to the Regent James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran, against the faction supporting Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox, at the Battle of Glasgow.
The property, however, was probably restored in 1543, as on 29 October that year he had a letter from the dowager queen, Mary of Guise, discharging the execution of any letters at the instance of the Master of Glencairn, charging the said Robert Boyd or "any otheris withholderis of the castle of Kilmarnock to deliver the same to him or any of his servants",[12] and on 11 March 1545 he was served heir to James Boyd, the son of his father's elder brother, in the lands of Kilmarnock, Dairy, Kilbride, etc., being thus acknowledged as head of the family.
[18] This was warmly resented, and the feud raged until 1560–61, when, in the time of his son the 5th Lord Boyd, peace was restored between the parties by a mutual compromise.