BONER, Henry

In January 1403 the Crown licensed Alice atte Marche and others to convey certain lands held in chief at Bromham (just to the west of Bedford) to Henry Boner and his wife, another Alice. Nearly 40 years later the couple obtained licence to enfeoff these properties on Richard Gervays and his wife and John Fyssher the elder of Pavenham, a transaction completed in the following year. Yet it is unclear whether this Henry, presumably the Henry Boner of Bromham, husbandman, sued for debt in the court of common pleas in the early 1420s, was the MP. Elsewhere, there were Boners living at Whipsnade, Bedfordshire, during the fifteenth century.3 CPR, 1401-5, p. 187; 1436-41, p. 472; CP40/647, rot. 212; CAD, i. C243, 291, 399, 2735; C146/895; CPR, 1461-7, p. 174; CP25(1)/6/80/20.

As for Henry Boner of Bedford, a local subsidy roll from Henry V’s reign indicates that he was one of the wealthier inhabitants of the town, since the sum which he was obliged to contribute to the Crown (2s. 6d.) was greater than that expected from most of his fellow residents.4 Beds. and Luton Archs., Bedford bor. recs., subsidy roll 1416-17, BorBD1/6. He served at least two terms as bailiff of Bedford, both of them alongside Robert Plomer*, his fellow MP in the Parliament of 1426.