Boyd of Kilmarnock - revised ancestry

[John]

For those who may be interested, the current issue (Spring 2010) of
"The Genealogist" (TG) has a useful article by Andrew B. W. MacEwen
titled “The Boyd Tomb at Kilmarnock” which makes some substantial
revisions to the traditional pedigree of the Boyd family as shown in
SP and BP inter alia. In summary, MacEwen argues that the traditional
pedigrees omit one generation and split another generation into two.

The traditional pedigree for the early generations of the Boyd family
goes as follows:
1. Thomas Boyd, 2nd of Kilmarnock (living 17 Oct 1346)
2. Thomas Boyd, 3rd of Kilmarnock (living 1409); m. Alice, dau. of
Hugh Giffard of Yester
3. Thomas Boyd, 4th of Kilmarnock (d. 7 July 1432); m. Joan, dau. of
Sir John Montgomerie of Ardrossan
4. Sir Thomas Boyd, 5th of Kilmarnock (d. 9 July 1439) [wife
unknown]
5. Robert Boyd, 1st Lord Boyd

The pedigree as revised by MacEwen goes as follows:
1. Thomas Boyd, 2nd of Kilmarnock (living 17 Oct 1346); m. a sister of
Sir Malcolm Fleming of Biggar
2. Robert Boyd, 3rd of Kilmarnock (living 11 Nov 1372, d. by 15 Nov
1385); m. Margaret, dau. of Hugh Giffard of Yester [she m. (2) Sir
William Cunningham (the elder) of Kilmaurs]
3. Thomas Boyd, 4th of Kilmarnock (b. ca. 1370, living 1425); m.
perhaps a dau. of Robert, Duke of Albany (son of King Robert II)
4. Sir Thomas Boyd, 5th of Kilmarnock (d. 7 July 1439); m. Joan, dau.
of Sir John Montgomerie of Ardrossan
5. Robert Boyd, 1st Lord Boyd

I won’t go into the details of MacEwen’s argument (which is will
supported), except to indicate that his key point is that early
chroniclers misread the death date on the tomb of Sir Thomas Boyd (d.
1439) and later pedigree compilers, seeing Thomas Boyds with different
death dates, assumed that there were two men rather than one. An
interesting article….

[M Sjostrom]

I am thinking: is this really a new finding?

as I gather that effectively the same correction to the generations messed
by the duplicated man and the ghost deathdate, has been there in TG already
years and years ago:
http://fmg.ac/Projects/CharlesII/9-12/17/274.htm

I understand that already they had given the Montgomerie lady as the mother
of the 1st Lord Boyd (and not his paternal grandmother)

[John]

You're correct that parts of this revised Boyd pedigree have appeared
in the ongoing ancestry of Charles II by Neil D. Thompson and Col.
Charles M. Hansen, published in segments in TG since 1981. In segments
in 1998 and 2008, they refer to private correspondence with Andrew B.
W. MacEwen regarding this matter, and they indicate that MacEwen was
preparing an article for a future issue of TG. This is the article in
question, which puts the pieces together and provides the support.