The progress of events soon caused him to flee, and the property of the firm of Boyd, Ker, & Co., of which he was the chief member, was confiscated in October 1793.
for Shaftesbury (1796–1802), which at the period of his election was a pocket borough of his partner Paul Benfield, who was returned along with him .
They obtained private help, and even assistance from government, but in 1799 the affairs of the company were put into liquidation, and Boyd found himself ruined.
He visited France in the brief interval of the Peace of Amiens (March 1802 – May 1803), was one of those detained, and was not released till the fall of Napoleon in 1814.
Walter Scott met him in April 1828, and gives an account, though not accurate, of his remarkable self-sacrifice on behalf of his creditors.