Constituency Dates
Warwickshire 1679 (Mar.), 1679 (Oct.)
Family and Education
bap. 22 Sept. 1628, 1st s. of Sir William Boughton, 1st Bt., of Little Lawford by Abigail, da. and coh. of Henry Baker of South Shoebury, Essex. m. (1) 1655, Lady Anne Pope (d. 1662), da. of Thomas, 3rd Earl of Downe, s.p.; (2) settlement 27 May 1664, Anne, da. Of Sir John Heydon, gov. of Bermuda, s.p. suc. fa, 27 Oct. 1660.1B. G. Leigh, Mems. Warws. Fam. 58-59; Warws. RO, CK162/474-5.
Offices Held

J.p. Warws. July 1660 – d., dep. lt. c. Aug. 1660 – d., commr. for assessment Aug. 1660–80, oyer and terminer, Midland circuit July 1660; sheriff Warws. 1661 – 62, commr. for corporations 1662 – 63, loyal and indigent officers 1662.2Birmingham Arch. Soc. lix. 25.

Address
Main residence: Little Lawford, Newbold-on-Avon, Warws.
biography text

Boughton’s ancestor married the heiress of Little Lawford and sat for Warwickshire in 1453-4, but they were not a regular parliamentary family. His father was created a baronet on the eve of the Civil War and named to the commission of array, but he does not seem to have been an active Royalist. Boughton considered standing for the county in 1660, but, in the opinion of Sir Henry Puckering, he had little hope of success, since he had no considerable party in the county, only the ‘well-wishes’ of his neighbours. On the dissolution of the Cavalier Parliament he began to canvass the more important gentry even before the election writ had arrived, and at the county meeting he was adopted as court candidate. He was returned after a bitterly fought contest, and marked ‘doubtful’ by Shaftesbury. He was absent from the division on the exclusion bill on 11 May 1679. He was again returned in the autumn, but his name appears on no committee lists, and he is not recorded as having spoken. He died soon after the dissolution of the second Exclusion Parliament and was buried at Newbold-on-Avon on 2 Feb. 1681. His nephew, the 4th baronet, was returned for the county as a Tory in 1710.3Dugdale, Warws. 99; Cal. Comm. Adv. Money, 1285; Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Hewell mss, Puckering to Archer, 1 Mar. 1660; Add. 34730, ff. 34-35, 41; Leigh, 59.

Author
A.M.M.
Volume
Commons 1660-1690
Notes
  • 1. B. G. Leigh, Mems. Warws. Fam. 58-59; Warws. RO, CK162/474-5.
  • 2. Birmingham Arch. Soc. lix. 25.
  • 3. Dugdale, Warws. 99; Cal. Comm. Adv. Money, 1285; Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Hewell mss, Puckering to Archer, 1 Mar. 1660; Add. 34730, ff. 34-35, 41; Leigh, 59.