BAYNTON, John

This MP’s standing and wealth had their foundation in the marriage of his father to one of the two daughters of Sir John Roches and his wife Willelma, heiress to Sir Robert de la Mare. In 1401, the year after Roches’s death, his widowed mother-in-law arranged the marriage of one of these daughters, Joan, to Nicholas Baynton (the other, Elizabeth, being already the wife of (Sir) Walter Beauchamp†, the future Speaker). Baynton’s father agreed to settle on the couple in tail his own manors of Ashcombe, Somerset, and Nether Wroughton, Wiltshire, together with a rent of ten marks a year from that of Compton Chamberlayne, also in Wiltshire, and the reversion of the manor of ‘Tabelers Hall’ in Sussex. The bride’s jointure was also to include Compton Chamberlayne itself and the manors of Chilton Candover and Week ‘Daundeley’ in Hampshire.8 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 219; CAD, iv. A10413. However, Joan did not survive long after her marriage: when her mother Willelma Roches died in 1410 her heirs were her daughter Elizabeth Beauchamp and her grandson John Baynton, the future MP, who was aged only four. The Roches and de la Mare estates, worth at least £110 p.a., were to be divided between the two of them, with the Crown retaining young John’s part in wardship.9 CIPM, xix. 883-7, 937. That November the keeping of Baynton’s share of the inheritance was granted to John Burgh† the under treasurer, only for it to be leased three months later to the boy’s uncle Sir Walter Beauchamp, who had agreed to pay the Crown 80 marks p.a. for the concession. However, after Easter 1412 Beauchamp was allowed to cease payments, thereafter retaining custody of the lands free of charge until the ward came of age.10 CFR, xiii. 197, 204-5; CPR, 1408-13, p. 363; The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 158-9. When a partition was finally agreed, Baynton’s share of the former Roches estates included the Dorset manors of Hampreston and Long Critchell together with other properties in the east of that county.11 J. Hutchins, Dorset, iii. 434, 485-6, 488.

To his maternal inheritance Baynton was to add that coming from his father Nicholas, whose holdings in Hampshire and Wiltshire were said to be worth nearly £69 p.a. when assessed for the purposes of taxation in 1412. His principal manor, Faulstone, had been in the family since the early fourteenth century.12 Feudal Aids, vi. 454, 532; VCH Wilts. xi. 8. Nicholas, who was appointed surveyor of works at Clarendon manor and park in 1413 and also held royal office as verderer of Groveley forest,13 CPR, 1413-16, p. 59; CCR, 1419-22, pp. 185, 188. died on 15 Jan. 1422, leaving John, still not quite 16, as his heir. He had settled on his second wife, Joan Forster, four houses in Salisbury and the manor of Compton Chamberlayne to hold for her lifetime, arranging that if her stepson John died without issue the manor would pass in tail to their four daughters. His Sussex manor with lands in Shipley, West Grinstead and Thakeham he had placed in the trusteeship of John, Lord Arundell and Mautravers, and others, and it is uncertain when they came into our MP’s possession.14 CPR, 1416-22, p. 411; CIPM, xxi. 800-3. Subsequently, John’s stepmother married the Hampshire esquire Edward Cowdray*, who married his son and heir Peter to one of her Baynton daughters, and in his will of 1428 remembered another of her daughters with a bequest of livestock.15 Hants RO, Jervoise of Herriard mss, 44M69/C/526; Reg. Chichele, ii. 376. Baynton later acted as a feoffee for his brother-in-law Peter Cowdray, and Cowdray reciprocated with regard to Baynton’s manor in Suss. and other estates: Jervoise of Herriard mss, 44M69/C/457; CAD, v. A10511; C140/17/30. Joan took as her third husband, before February 1429, William Whaplode* of Chalfont St. Giles, Buckinghamshire. At that date the couple relinquished her jointure in the manor of Faulstone and land in Wroughton to our MP, who in return conveyed his Hampshire manors of Chilton Candover and Week to Joan to hold for life.16 Wilts. Feet of Fines (Wilts. Rec. Soc. xlix), 440; CP25(1)/207/32/26; VCH Hants, iv. 185. Baynton had made proof of age in the previous year, and had tardily received seisin of his Roches inheritance in December 1428.17 CIPM, xxiii. no. 307; Feudal Aids, v. 233, 251, 265, 278, 279; CCR, 1422-9, pp. 421-2. The annual income he derived from his estates is not now known, although he assessed himself for the tax of 1450 on lands worth over £100 annually in Wiltshire and inquiries held several years later, following the attainder of his son, estimated those in this county and in Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire and Somerset to be worth more than £193 p.a.18 E179/196/118; CIMisc. viii. 440.

Baynton’s career had properly begun in 1427 when he attained his majority. In November that year, as ‘of Wiltshire, gentleman’, he had stood surety at the Exchequer for John Paulet*, at that time representing the county in Parliament, and this association with Paulet is an early indication of political affiliations which were to govern the rest of his life.19 CFR, xv. 204. It might be supposed that Baynton would follow one of two paths: to take advantage of the influential connexions of his stepmother’s husband, Whaplode, who was a retainer of Cardinal Beaufort, or of those of his uncle and former guardian Sir Walter Beauchamp and the latter’s son Sir William Beauchamp*, who successively occupied positions of considerable importance in the Household of the young Henry VI. Yet he chose a different patron, by, like Paulet, joining the intimate circle of Sir Walter Hungerford†, Lord Hungerford, the distinguished diplomat and soldier, executor of Henry V and leading member of the minority council. This connexion, hinted at by his links with Paulet, was confirmed by his association in substantial recognizances in May 1429 with Hungerford, currently treasurer of England, and the rising lawyer John Fortescue*,20 CCR, 1422-9, p. 459. and from the autumn of that year Hungerford regularly called upon him to witness his landed transactions.21 CCR, 1429-35, pp. 43, 44, 51; 1435-41, p. 61; Hungerford Cart. (Wilts. Rec. Soc. xlix), 117-18. Evidently having won Lord Walter’s trust, early in 1430 Baynton was made a feoffee of various of his estates in Wiltshire.22 CCR, 1429-35, pp. 54-56, 248, 252; 1435-41, pp. 50-52, 126; Wilts. Feet of Fines, 384-5; CPR, 1485-94, pp. 147-9. Nor was that trust ever misplaced, for Baynton was to remain attached to Hungerford and his family for the rest of his life. It was while Hungerford was treasurer that Baynton began to serve on ad hoc royal commissions, to take a leading role in the parliamentary elections held in their home county, and to be appointed sheriff for the first time. Doubtless his introduction to local government was owed to his mentor.

Baynton’s appointment as sheriff came in February 1430 when the King was preparing to cross to France for his coronation, leaving the administration of his English realm in the capable hands of Treasurer Hungerford and other members of the Council. The King was still overseas when Parliament was summoned for 12 Jan. 1431, and Baynton, having recently completed his term as sheriff, was elected as knight of the shire for Wiltshire for the first time. He was accompanied to the Commons by the much more experienced William Darell*, who was currently serving as Hungerford’s under treasurer. Nothing is known about his activities in the Commons, although that same Hilary term, probably while he was up at Westminster, he was fined for failing to take up knighthood according to the proclamation.23 E159/207, recorda Hil. rot. 15. Nevertheless, he proved to be not completely averse to accepting the honour, for by the time he attested the Wiltshire elections held in June 1433 he had been knighted.24 C219/14/4. It seems likely that this elevation had taken place while he was overseas: he is not recorded in England in 1432, and it may be speculated that he travelled to France with Hungerford in July that year, remaining abroad with him for the next four months, although the names of those who served in Lord Walter’s sizeable retinue at that time are no longer known. Sir John was among the landowners of Wiltshire required in the spring of 1434 to take the generally administered oath not to maintain those who broke the peace,25 CPR, 1429-36, p. 370. and he was returned to the Commons again by this county in 1437. Not long after the dissolution of this Parliament he purchased a royal pardon, one of many granted by King Henry after attaining his majority.26 C67/38, m. 19.

Throughout the 1440s Baynton continued to be close to Lord Hungerford. Most notably, in 1442 he was made a feoffee with Gilbert Kymer, dean of Salisbury cathedral, of three Wiltshire manors which were to provide an income for the hospital Hungerford had founded at Heytesbury, Baynton making ‘feith and promyse’ to fulfil Lord Walter’s wishes.27 Tropenell Cart. ed. Davies, ii. 264-6, 270. He was also a feoffee of the Hungerford manor of East Harnham, and of lands which Thomas Drew* relinquished to Hungerford and his associates in 1445.28 Ibid. 196, 200; Wilts. Feet of Fines, 553; Hungerford Cart. 354; CCR, 1447-54, pp. 147-8. While Lord Walter was alive Baynton served another term as sheriff and sat in two more Parliaments for Wiltshire, but following his lord’s death in 1449 he took a much less prominent part in the county’s affairs, and was not returned to the Commons again.29 A suit in the Exchequer in 1445 brought against Baynton as former sheriff concerned payments due from Wilts. lands for which Hungerford was responsible: E13/143, rot. 33.

Although Baynton took out another pardon, on 20 July 1452,30 C67/40, m. 20. this would not appear to have been connected with political events, for he retained the confidence of the Lancastrian government which he served for five years from 1453 as a j.p. In December 1455 he was among the knights sent letters commanding them to render aid to the duke of York (newly-made Protector) on his journey into Devon to bring order in the wake of the conflict between the earl of Devon and Lord Bonville*.31 PPC, vi. 270. A third pardon, granted him in January 1458, also applied to his wife, and was probably concerned with their private affairs.32 C67/42, m. 33. The later part of the decade saw Baynton’s appointment to commissions of array to restore order in the West Country in the increasingly troubled times and encroaching civil war. His continuing links with the Hungerfords no doubt predisposed him to support the house of Lancaster in the conflict, or perhaps left him with little option but to do so. Shortly before the death, early in 1459, of Robert, 2nd Lord Hungerford (who interestingly referred to him as his kinsman) Baynton was made a feoffee of various of his estates, some of which were settled in jointure on his wife Margaret, Lady Botreaux, and he took on similar responsibilities on behalf of the third lord, Robert, Lord Hungerford and Moleyns. He was pardoned in July 1459 for unlicensed transactions carried out for the latter, who in March 1460 confirmed him and his fellows in their possession of Hungerford lands. Then in May that year he joined a different group of feoffees who were given additional responsibilities in looking after the interests of Lord Robert and Eleanor Moleyns his wife.33 CCR, 1454-61, pp. 439-40, 451-2; CPR, 1452-61, p. 509; CP25(1)/293/73/451; Wilts. Feet of Fines, 644; E40/670; Hungerford Cart. 361, 661, 663; Tropenell Cart. ii. 201. These transactions had been bound up with mortgages of the estates intended to raise Lord Moleyns’s ransom after his capture at Chatillon, and to pay the family’s rapidly increasing debts.

The difficulties of the Hungerford feoffees were compounded by the attainder of Lord Hungerford and Moleyns in Edward IV’s first Parliament in 1461. Significantly, as soon as the Yorkists came to power Baynton had been excluded from taking any part in local government, despite his purchase of a pardon from the new monarch in May 1462.34 C67/45, m. 22. In March 1463, Margaret, Lady Hungerford and Botreaux, was permitted to relinquish her interest in any profits from the enfeoffed estates, which the feoffees including Baynton were permitted to sell for up to £200 p.a. if they could find a purchaser. Baynton subsequently headed the list of witnesses to Lady Margaret’s conveyances to Bishops Neville of Exeter and Beauchamp of Salisbury (his own cousin) and others,35 CPR, 1461-7, pp. 283-4; CCR, 1461-8, p. 271. and joined her in bonds for £760, of which they paid £300 to Agnes, widow of Stephen Forster* the London merchant, and her son John in March 1464, as an instalment of the ransom payments.36 Harl. Ch. 52 A 27. Lady Margaret’s son Lord Robert was captured and executed that same year. His attainder had caused her and the Hungerford feoffees considerable trouble, especially when commissions of inquiry wrongly found that they had held certain estates to his use, rather than to that of his mother. Similarly, although the feoffees had held other estates for settlement on her grandson (Sir) Thomas Hungerford* and his wife, official inquiries found they were holding them in the disgraced lord’s interest. They had to petition the Crown for redress.37 CIMisc. viii. 316-24, 326-7, 329-30, 332-5; CPR, 1461-7, pp. 363-6, 368. To add to Baynton’s problems in his final years, he was himself subjected to a suit in Chancery brought by Lord Moleyns’s widow.38 C1/28/111.

Of Baynton’s personal affairs only glimpses remain. Early in his career he had unsuccessfully challenged the title of William St. John*, the Sussex esquire, to the advowson of North Marden church and other family holdings in Sussex, resting his claim on his descent from Eve Dawtry (d.1354).39 CP40/661, rot. 327; 679, rot. 315; 687, rot. 302. His marriage to Katherine, widow of John Stourton I, the prominent Somerset lawyer who was also one of the Hungerford circle, occurred relatively late in his life, so it may be the case that she was not his first wife. The Lancastrian chief justice (Sir) John Fortescue (his long-term associate and fellow MP in 1437) headed the trustees who at his bidding settled on Katherine a jointure worth in excess of £103 p.a. in 1453.40 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 492; CIMisc. viii. 440; C140/17/30. In the absence of a will it cannot be shown that Baynton was an especially pious man, although he was prepared to fund works on churches near his property. In 1448, on learning that the parishioners of Wimborne Minster intended to build a bell tower for their church, he had granted them leave to quarry 200 cartloads of building-stone from the heath belonging to his manor of Hampreston for the works. The building was not completed by 1459, but the glazing was done in 1464, the year before his death.41 Hutchins, iii. 206.

In the late 1450s Sir John had become involved in litigation regarding an estate known as ‘Stapleham’ in Marden, Wiltshire, which had once belonged to the Romsey family. On 29 Jan. 1459 he allegedly entered this estate by force, taking livestock and crops from the royal lessee, Roger Wyke† (husband of the coheir to the Romseys), and was attached at the Exchequer to answer for contempt. However, by a writ dated 30 June he was permitted to make answer by attorney, since he was ‘so in sekenesse and disease of his body that he may not labour to appear personally’. The Exchequer’s suit continued unresolved until Baynton produced his royal pardon of May 1462, and even then he continued to employ legal counsel to argue his case against John Wyke II*, Roger’s son.42 E159/235, recorda Easter rots. 12-13; Stonor Letters, i (Cam. Soc. ser. 3, xxix), pp. lvi, 60. The purpose of enfeoffments of March 1463 whereby his cousin Bishop Beauchamp of Salisbury and others were put into possession of his manor in Sussex is uncertain, although it may have been to make settlements in favour of his younger children.43 CAD, v. A10511. The manor remained in the family, coming by 1484 to another John Baynton and his wife Margery: Suss. Feet of Fines (Suss. Rec. Soc. xxiii), no. 3244. This John may have been a yr. s. of the MP.

Baynton died on 20 June 1465. Bishop Beauchamp and others whom he had enfeoffed of property in Somerset and Hampshire 14 years earlier remained in possession of the same, while his widow Katherine retained her jointure in Dorset and Wiltshire.44 CFR, xx. 144-5; C140/17/30. The widow did not long remain single: she married before November 1468 William Carent*, a close associate of her first husband’s family, the Stourtons. The couple were granted a pardon of their trespass in marrying without royal licence.45 The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 480; CPR, 1467-77, p. 113; CCR, 1468-76, no. 22. Sir John’s heir was his son Robert, on whom he had settled as a marriage portion the Oxfordshire manor of Marsh Baldington and some 1,000 acres of land there.46 CFR, xx. 194; CPR, 1467-77, pp. 584-5. Yet while the father had seemingly stood back from military involvement in the civil war years of 1459-61, the son proved to be much less cautious, and disaster befell the Baynton family in 1471, when Sir Robert, as he had become, fought for the house of Lancaster at the battle of Tewkesbury. He was attainted in the Parliament of 1472-5,47 CFR, xxi. 4, 6; PROME, xiv. 300-3. and the very valuable estates he had inherited from our MP were forfeited and granted in tail-male to John Cheyne†, one of the esquires for the King’s body.48 CPR, 1467-77, pp. 524, 533-4. Sir Robert’s wid. protested that her jointure in Oxon. had been wrongly included in the grant: CPR, 1467-77, pp. 584-5. Furthermore, and most unfortunately for the Bayntons, although Cheyne later fell foul of Richard III and was also attainted, he joined Henry Tudor in Brittany and the Act of Resumption in Henry’s first Parliament in 1485 confirmed his interest in the Baynton estates.49 CPR, 1476-85, pp. 549-50; PROME, xv. 257. Accordingly, it was not until after Cheyne’s death in 1499 and the assembly of the next Parliament in 1504 that Sir Robert Baynton’s attainder was reversed, and his son John restored to his rightful inheritance. It had taken 33 years for the Bayntons to recover something of their former riches.50 PROME, xvi. 331-2; CPR, 1494-1509, p. 374.