Boyton House

Boyton House was first occupied in November 1807 by the family of Robert Montgomery of Brandrim, who inherited the estate from their cousin, Sandy Montgomery of Convoy.

Sandy served for thirty-two years in Grattan’s Parliament, as a representative for Donegal. He spent part of his youth in America and was renowned for his love of duelling. He had two brothers, John of Lisbon and Richard, a general in Washington’s army, who fell at the Siege of Quebec in 1775. Sandy was a friend of Lord Edward Fitzgerald and a secret supporter of the United Irishmen; he voted against the Act of Union in 1800.

Boyton House once contained a letter, which Washington wrote, to the family on Richard’s death and also receipts for meat bought in Raphoe by the Montgomery family for distribution in Convoy during the Famine. The house passed, through marriage, to the Boyton family in the nineteenth century.