BONNINGTON, John

John’s father was a draper and leading citizen in Canterbury in the early fifteenth century, serving as jurat for four terms between 1402 and 1409. In his will, proved in the city court on 26 Mar. 1410, he left his messuage and shop, called ‘Le Surcote on the Hop’ in St. Andrew’s parish to his elder son, John, with remainder to his other son, Richard, provided that his widow, Agnes, was given an annuity of four marks.2 Canterbury burghmote reg. 1298-1503, CCA-CC-O/A/1, f. 27v. The future MP was admitted to the freedom of the city by inheritance on the following 20 Oct. He does not, however, appear in the city records again until 1424 when he was elected as one of the 12 jurats.3 CCA-CC-F/A/1, ff. 94, 170v. He occupied this office until Michaelmas 1426 and an apparently promising career in the higher echelons of civic society was marked on 28 Jan. 1426 when, along with Robert Bartelot*, he was returned as burgess to sit in the Leicester Parliament. He received wages for 99 days spent in the Commons, 13 days longer than his colleague and considerably longer than the two sessions lasted.4 Ibid. f. 180v; C219/13/4.

Yet, even before his first election to Parliament, Bonnington had entered the service of John Langdon, bishop of Rochester. In May 1425, called ‘esquire’, he had witnessed the payment of a rent by the vicar of St. Nicholas’s church, Rochester, and this was just the first of many occasions that he was recorded in the bishop’s presence.5 Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone, Reg. Langdon DRb/Ar 1/8, ff. 45v-46. It was to the interference of the bishop in the electoral procedure that he owed his seat in the Parliament of 1429. The citizens of Canterbury assembled in the burghmote elected in the usual manner John Sheldwich* and William Rose*; and this they duly certified to the sheriff of Kent, William Scott I*. Nevertheless, Scott, at the instigation of Langdon, returned Bonnington’s name in the indenture, forcing the recall of Rose from Westminster after he had spent five days there. The city, unsurprisingly, took offence at this blatant breach of its privileges. The cofferer’s accounts record a flurry of activity related to this incident, with men riding between London, Rochester and Canterbury on the city’s behalf. But any protest proved futile: Bonnington was paid parliamentary wages of 53s. 4d. ‘at the special request of the said bishop’ and in recognition of Langdon’s previous friendship to the city.6 CCA-CC-F/A/1, f. 198. The following year one of Canterbury’s MPs, Richard Prat I*, visited the chancellor of England, Archbishop Kemp, at Leeds castle, and the sheriff of Kent at Rochester, presumably to insure that Bonnington’s return did not establish any precedent.7 Ibid. f. 206.

This incident appears to have put paid to Bonnington’s further involvement in civic government, even though he retained property in Canterbury worth at least £2 p.a. He was generally in attendance upon Bishop Langdon (for instance being present in his chapel in October 1431 at the abjuration of a heretic).8 Feudal Aids, iii. 58; Reg. Langdon, f. 75v. At an unknown date he married Elizabeth, who as his widow brought an action in Chancery in the early 1460s against his feoffees. She alleged that Bonnington had enfeoffed Geoffrey Langbroke, clerk, and two members of Canterbury’s elite, Hugh Brent and John Bartelot, of his property, instructing them in his will to pay her an annuity of four marks from the issues. The only surviving feoffee, Brent, countered that Bonnington had ordered that his lands be delivered to his elder daughter, Joan, when she reached 20 years of age, and had not made any such provision for the widow. In her replication, Elizabeth stated that in a second will, made on 27 Dec. 1440, Bonnington had provided that the annuity should be paid before any fulfillment of the terms relating to his daughters, but Brent’s rejoinder denied knowledge of any second will. The date of Bonnington’s death is unknown but the disputed wills discussed in this case suggest that he may have died sometime in 1441. After he died Elizabeth married one William Goold.9 C1/19/218-21. Bonnington’s elder daughter Joan married Edmund Fynkell before September 1461, but nothing further is known of his other child, Agnes.10 Canterbury chamberlains’ accts. 1445-1506, CCA-CC-F/A/2, f. 66v.