The Boynton family and the family seat of Burton Agnes/Introductory

by Carus Vale Collier

INTRODUCTORY

To write an account of a family like that of Boynton is by no means easy, from the fact that the members have lived for the most part the lives of quiet country gentlemen, thoroughly interested in, and enjoying country pursuits, leaving politics and other affairs that draw men into the light of public knowledge, more or less alone. With the exception of Henry Boynton who was opposed to King Henry IV, and Sir Matthew Boynton, the first Baronet, with his son Matthew, both of whom gained notoriety during the Civil War of the 17th century, we cannot call any of the family historic characters. All this makes it hard to identify the various members and their relationship one to another in the earlier generations.

Of Bartholomew de Boynton, who is claimed as the founder of the family, I find no contemporary evidence whatever; nor am I able to identify any members of the family before 1182, when I find Walter de Bovington buying land of Riches de Arnallia, in Arnallia^[1]

Adam de Bovington I find witnessing documents in the Chartulary of Guisbrough Priory, and also in that of Bridlington Priory, but I have been unable to say what relation he bears to his contemporaries, Walter the buyer of land in Arnold and Walter's brother William. The name of this family, I believe, is derived from the village of Boynton, in the East Riding of the County of York, but how it came to be derived from this place I am unable to say. The name appears under various forms thus—Bouington, Bouincton, Bouinctona, Bouicton, Boington, Bovington, Bovinton, Bovingtona, Bovintona, Boyngton, Boynton. Until the beginning of the 14th century, Bovinton, Bovington, or Bouyngton were the forms generally used, but as early as 1307, I find the name spelt Boynton, though the older forms occur until the 15th century.

There are several MS. pedigrees and accounts of the family preserved at Burton Agnes, namely:—

(1) An heraldically blazoned pedigree on three skins of parchment sewed together. This pedigree begins with Bartholomew de Boynton followed by fifteen generations to Francis Boynton who married Dorothy Place about 1585. The reference to Bartholomew de Boynton in this pedigree is the oldest reference to him that I have found. The pedigree itself probably drawn up towards the end of the reign of Elizabeth, or early in that of James I, is not suggestive of accuracy, and written on the back of it, in faded ink, are the words "This is false."

(2) An account of the family by Dade (?) (referred to in the following pages as MS. Acc. at B.A.) beginning with Bartholomew de Boynton and giving thirty-one generations to Sir Griffith Boynton, 6th Baronet (1743-1778).^[2]

(3) Notes on the Boynton family written by Mrs. Wickham-Boynton, 1908.

(4) Also an account of the family written by the Rev. William Eaton Mousley.

All these documents have been placed at my service, but unfortunately some of the facts do not coincide with contemporary evidence, though other facts do. It appears that some important papers quoted in Dade's (?) version were at Burton Agnes in his time, but so far I have not been able to find them.

I trust that what follows may be found quite accurate and trustworthy, though some statements rest on slight evidence.

1. Now Arnold in the E. R. Yorks.
2. There is a mutilated copy of this account in the possession of Mr. Harrison of Brandesburton, which gives rather more information relating to Sir Matthew Boynton, 1st Bart. than the Burton Agnes copy.