BAUNTON, William

Baunton probably hailed from the parish of Bude in the north-easternmost corner of Cornwall, where he held two messuages and 100 acres of land.2 C1/123/69. By the mid 1420s he had entered the service of the abbots of Newenham (near Axminster, Devon). The abbey held the duchy of Cornwall hundred of Stratton in fee, but the abbots customarily exercised their duties in their bailiwick by deputy, and it was in this capacity that they employed Baunton for a period of some 20 years. Baunton was serving as sub bailiff by the time of his return to the Commons as Member for Liskeard in 1427, and he was still in office in 1442 on the occasion of his only documented attendance at a parliamentary election.3 C219/15/2. He otherwise played only a limited part in public life, and his service as a juror at the inquisition post mortem taken after the death of (Sir) Richard Hankford* in 1431 was an isolated exception.4 CIPM, xxiii. 578; Devon RO, Hankeford mss, 47/5/1.

At times, Baunton’s attention to his official duties may have been less than meticulous, for in March 1427 the auditors of the duchy of Cornwall noted with dismay in their records that he had failed to appear to present his account.5 SC6/820/12, rot. 7d. It may have been to prevent similar dereliction of duty that he was forced to seal a bond for 100 marks to the abbot, Nicholas Wysbech, and to find a neighbour, John Derehill, who was prepared to stand surety for him for the same sum. Derehill would regret having agreed to assist Baunton in this way, when a later abbot of Newenham, Tristram Crukerne, sought to compel him to pay the full sum himself. Derehill petitioned the chancellor, claiming that Baunton had himself colluded in the unjustified litigation.6 C1/10/207.

Neither any details of Baunton’s family nor the date of his death have been discovered, but it is possible that he died childless, for before his death he sold his holdings at Flexbury to one Walter Crambery, who was for some time engaged in litigation against the lawyer John Penfoun to whom the deeds and muniments relating to the property had been entrusted.7 C1/123/69.