| Constituency | Dates |
|---|---|
| Tamworth | |
| Cambridge University | 1690 – 1705 |
| Westminster | 1705 – 1708, 1708 – 1710 |
Cornet, Queen’s Horse (later 1 Dgn. Gds.) 1685 – Nov. 1688; major 2 Life Gds. by 1691–2.
Commr. for assessment, Staffs. 1690; j.p. Westminster 1702–?d.; v.-adm. Yorks. 1704 – 15, custos rot. (N. and W. Ridings) 1704 – 15, ld. lt. (W. Riding) 1704–15.1Ind. 24557.
Chairman, committee of elections and privileges Jan. – Dec. 1695; commr. for public accounts 1695 – 97; ld. of the Treasury 1699 – 1701; chancellor of the Exchequer 1701 – 08; PC 27 Mar. 1701, ld. pres. 1721 – d.; ld. treas. [I] 1704 – 10; commr. for union with Scotland 1706; sec. of state (north) 1708–10.
Boyle was a serving officer at the Revolution, in which capacity he has sometimes been confused with his much older cousin, the younger son of Roger Boyle. He went over to William of Orange with Prince George of Denmark and the 2nd Duke of Ormonde on 24 Nov. 1688. He was returned for Tamworth on the family interest in 1689 at a by-election caused by the elevation to the peerage of Henry Sidney. Boyle was a Whig, though ‘without any party violence, and never engaged in mean things’. On 7 June he had leave to go to the army for two months, but in the second session of the Convention he became a moderately active Member, being appointed to 17 committees, of which the most important were to inspect war expenditure, to consider the mutiny bill and to examine the state of the revenue. He was listed as supporting the disabling clause in the bill to restore corporations and lost his seat at the general election. On his return to the House he made his mark as a commissioner of public accounts. He was the only Whig commoner to sit in the Cabinet under Anne, but he refused office in 1710, and was raised to the peerage at the coronation of George I. He died on 14 Mar. 1725 and was buried at Lanesborough.2HMC 7th Rep. 418; Clarendon Corresp. ii. 208; Macky, Mems. 126; G. A. Holmes, Pols. in Age of Anne, 224, 225, 379.