Boynton of Sedbury

In 1855, James Raine observed that "Hardly one of the Yorkshire pedigrees is more confused and more inaccurate in its earlier descents than that of Boynton." (Test. Ebor., ii, 249n). Unfortunately, in the 160 or so years since Raine made this statement, nothing much has changed.

Most of the information concerning the Boynton family in print and online still follows the muddled antiquarian pedigrees which Raine criticised. I have endeavoured to use contemporary documents to try and trace the Boynton genealogy, which is not easy, as with a few exceptions there are no published inquisitions and very few wills in print. Firstly, I want to look at the Boynton family who resided at Sedbury in the parish of Gilling, since their pedigree is for the most part correct.

How this branch of the Boynton family came to hold the manor of Sedbury (or more correctly Over Sedbury) is a bit of a mystery. Sedbury was held by the Scropes of Masham in the fourteenth century Sir Henry Scrope was holding Sedbury at his death in 1392, and his son Stephen when he died in 1406. In 1427, Thomas Clarell, the younger of Aldwark (d. 1450) held Sedbury in right of his wife, Elizabeth Scrope, daughter of John Scrope, a younger brother of Stephen Scrope. [1] The manor then passed to the Boyntons, but by what means is not clear. Christopher Boynton was residing there in April 1444 when he made an agreement concerning a loan at Sedbury. [2]

Christopher Boynton (c. 1385 – 1451)

Christopher Boynton, the second son of Sir Thomas Boynton of Acklam, Yorkshire and his wife Margaret, sister of Sir John Conyers of Hornby, was probably born about 1385.

In Sir Thomas Boynton’s will, dated 18 July 1402, he mentions his sons Henry and Christopher, his wife Margaret, and her brother John Conyers. [3] After the death of Sir John Conyers of Hornby in early 1412, John’s feoffees granted the manor of Sowber (Solberge) to his younger son Richard, with remainders to his male relatives in tail. Among these relatives were his two nephews Christopher Boynton and John his brother, sons of his sister Margaret. [4]  Christopher Boynton was one of the executors of the will of John Conyers of Hornby. [5] Christopher first appears in official records on 30 January 1410 when he was appointed to a commission to enquire into illegal salmon fishing in Yorkshire rivers, together with his uncle, John Conyers. [6]

Christopher Boynton married firstly, before March 1420, Elizabeth. By a deed dated 1 March 1420, Joan, formerly wife of John Hasilbache, daughter of William St. Martin, of Hollym, and sister and heir of Thomas St. Martin, remitted and quit-claimed to Christopher Boynton, son of Thomas Boynton, knight, and Elizabeth, his wife, all her claim to the manor of Hollym in Holderness. [7] The connection of Elizabeth and the St. Martin family of Hollym is not clear. In June 1422, Christopher Boynton, donsel, and Elizabeth his wife, damsel, of the diocese of York, had papal licence for a portable altar. [8] Elizabeth was living in May 1435 [9],  but probably died soon afterwards.

Christopher’s second wife was Joan, who he married in 1436-7. In some pedigrees she is said to be a daughter of Robert Strangways of Ketton, Durham, or of Skelton but I doubt that he was of either place. Robert made his will at Sutton-on-Derwent, Yorkshire on 2 October 1444 and wished to be buried in the choir of the church of the Friars Preachers at York, next to Maud [Cheswick] his wife. He mentions his sons, Thomas, Robert, George and John, Eleanor his daughter, and makes James Strangways his executor. [10] Unfortunately, no daughter Joan is mentioned in the will, so there is no direct evidence that Christopher’s wife was a daughter of Robert. Robert was most probably a younger brother of James Strangways, Justice of the Common Pleas. In 1446, Robert’s sons Thomas and Robert had a lease of the manor of Ketton from the prior and convent of Durham, [11] so the elder Robert Strangways was not “of Ketton.” Whilst there is no direct evidence, it seems likely that Joan was a daughter of Robert Strangways. He and Christopher Boynton are often found together on commissions and acting as justices in the palatinate of Durham.

Joan’s first husband was Conan Barton of Whenby in Yorkshire. By him, she had five children who are mentioned in Conan’s will dated 8 April and proved on 24 April 1436. [12] By Joan, Christopher Boynton had at least four children, Christopher, his son and heir; Robert, god-son of Bishop Robert Neville of Durham who in 1444, gave Christopher an annual grant of 10 marks for Robert’s support; [13] Joan wife of Sir William son of William Neville of Thornton Bridge (d. 1484); [14] and Elizabeth wife of Sir Gerard Widdrington (d. 1471). [15]

Christopher Boynton died on 11 September 1451, holding in chief the manor of Castle Leavington, which he and Joan had been granted in 1444. [16] On 2 December 1455, Joan had licence to have masses celebrated in her oratory at Sedbury, and on 30 April 1463, she had licence to have masses celebrated submissa voce in the presence of her children and household. [17]  She lived her later years near Yarm, Yorkshire, probably in Castle Leavington. She made her will on 7 April 1486, which was proved on 7 February 1489, requesting burial in the choir of the Friars Preachers at Yarm, a house apparently favoured by the Strangways family. [18]  Her inquisition post mortem found that she died on 10 January 1489. John Barton, aged 21 and more, her grandson, was her next heir, and Henry Boynton, aged 21 and more, another grandson, was the next heir of the bodies of Christopher Boynton and Joan. [19]

Christopher Boynton (c. 1437 – 1479)

Christopher, son and heir of Christopher Boynton and Joan was probably born about 1437-8, so was aged about 14 at his father’s death. Unlike his father, he played little part in public life and there are few notices of him in official records.

Christopher married Agnes, daughter of Henry lord Scrope of Bolton (d. 1459) by his wife Elizabeth Scrope (of Masham). Most accounts of the family state that Agnes was a daughter of John, fourth lord Scrope of Bolton, but the will of John’s third wife, Anne Harling indicates that she was John’s sister.

Christopher Boynton, esquire, died shortly before 22 November 1479, when his inquisition post mortem was held in Durham, leaving a son and heir Henry, aged 8. [20] Agnes married secondly, Sir Richard Radcliff, K.G., a favourite of Richard III, who died with the king at the battle of Bosworth on 22 August 1485. The will of dame Joan Boynton of Yarm, dated 7 April 1486 mentions dame Agnes Ratclyff, her daughter [in law]. [21] Agnes was living on 28 August 1498 when Anne Harling, widow of John, fourth lord Scrope of Bolton mentions in her will, her sister [in law] Radcliff, to whom she bequeaths a "litell coffer of ivery." [22]

Henry Boynton (c. 1471 - 1531)

Henry, son of Christopher Boynton and Agnes was born about 1471 and was aged 8 at the death of his father. He married Isabel, only daughter and heiress of Bertram Lumley of Ravenshelm (now Ravensworth) and his wife Margaret, daughter of Thomas, lord Lumley. Henry and Isabel were married before 12 September 1482, when Christopher Boynton’s feoffees granted land and rents in Leventhorpe to Henry Boynton, esquire, son and heir of Christopher Boynton, esquire, deceased, and Isabel, Henry’s wife, daughter and heiress of Bertram Lumley, esquire. [23] Isabel was born about 1479, and was said to be aged 24 years in October 1503 at her mother’s inquisition. [24]

Bertram Lumley died before 15 March 1497, when Richard (Fox), bishop of Durham licensed Henry Boynton, esquire, and Isabel his wife, daughter and heir of Bertram Lumley, esquire deceased, to enter Bertram’s lands without proof of age.  In a similar document from William (Severs), bishop of Durham, dated 20 May 1502, Henry Boynton is called knight. [25]

Henry Boynton received a pardon on 4 July 1510, where he is described as, “Henry Boynton, knight of Over Sadbery, Sadbery, Castelleventon, Ingleby, Yorkshire, Ravenshelm in the bishopric of Durham, one of the executors of Agnes Radcliff, deceased.” [26]

According to his monumental inscription in Gilling church, Henry Boynton died on 7 January 1532. [27] He left an only daughter and heir Elizabeth. Isabel survived him and was living in September 1536. [28]

Elizabeth Boynton (c. 1500 - 1545)

Elizabeth, only daughter and heiress of Sir Henry Boynton was probably born about 1500. She married firstly, Henry Gascoigne, second son of Sir William Gascoigne of Gawthorpe, Yorkshire. Exactly which William Gascoigne was his father is unclear, but on chronological grounds it was probably the William Gascoigne who died in October 1551.

Henry Gascoigne died before June 1543 and Elizabeth married secondly, Sir Thomas Hilton of Hilton, as his fourth wife. She died on 23 May 1545, leaving a son and heir Henry Gascoigne, aged 28. [29]

The Gascoignes remained in possession of Sedbury till the time of Charles I, when the estates passed by marriage to the Wyvilles of Burton Constable.

---

[1] Feet of Fines: CP 25/1/280/155, number 34.

http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/fines/abstracts/CP_25_1_280_155.shtml#34

[2] William Brown, ed., Yorkshire Deeds, vol. 3, Yorkshire Archaeological Society, 63 (1922), 22.

[3] James Raine, ed., Testamenta Eboracensia, part 1, Surtees Society, 4 (1836), 286.

[4] William Brown, ed., Yorkshire Deeds, vol. 3, Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Record Series, 63 (1922), 133, no. 386.

[5] Durham Cathedral Muniments: Miscellaneous Charters, Misc.Ch. 6002.

[6] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry IV, vol. 4: 1408-1413 (1909), 179.

[7] G. Wrottesley, Pedigrees from the Plea Rolls (1905), 390.

[8] Calendar of Papal Registers Relating To Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 7: 1417-1431 (1906), 323.

[9] Feet of Fines: CP 25/1/280/157, number 28.

http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/fines/abstracts/CP_25_1_280_157.shtml#28

[10] James Raine, ed., Testamenta Eboracensia, part 2, Surtees Society, 30 (1855), 108.

[11] James Raine, ed., Testamenta Eboracensia, part 2, Surtees Society, 30 (1855), 128n.

[12] James Raine, ed., Testamenta Eboracensia, part 2, Surtees Society, 30 (1855), 216n.

[13] Thirty-Fourth Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (1873), 181.

[14] William Brown, ed., Yorkshire Deeds, vol. 1, Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Record Series, 39 (1909), 218.

[15] Josiah C. Wedgwood, The History of Parliament, 1439-1509 (1936), 947.

[16] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry VI, vol. 4: 1441-1446 (1908), 280.

[17] A. Hamilton Thompson, ed., "The Register of the Archdeacons of Richmond, 1442-1477," Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, vol. 30 (1931), 115, 130.

[18] James Raine, ed., Testamenta Eboracensia, vol. 4, Surtees Society, 53 (1869), 14.

[19] Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Series 2, Henry VII, vol. 1 (1898), 165, no. 387.

[20] Forty-Fourth Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (1884), 322.

[21] James Raine, ed., Testamenta Eboracensia, vol. 4, Surtees Society, 53 (1869), 14.

[22] James Raine, ed., Testamenta Eboracensia, vol. 4, Surtees Society, 53 (1869), 152.

[23] William Brown, ed., Yorkshire Deeds, vol. 3, Yorkshire Archaeological Society, 63 (1922), 74.

[24] Forty-Fourth Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (1884), 452.

[25] H. E. Bell. ed., "Calendar of Deeds given to the Society by Lord Ravensworth," Archaeologica Aeliana, Fourth Series, vol. 16 (1939), 65, 66.

[26] Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, vol. 1: 1509-1514 (1920), 210.

[27] William Page, ed., A History of the County of York North Riding, vol. 1 (1914), 71-84.

British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/north/vol1/pp71-84

[28] H. E. Bell. ed., "Calendar of Deeds given to the Society by Lord Ravensworth," Archaeologica Aeliana, Fourth Series, vol. 16 (1939), 67.

[29] Forty-Fourth Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (1884), 424.