BONNINGTON, William

Bonnington obtained the freedom of Canterbury in July 1424 by his marriage to Christine, the daughter of John Cherche, a member of Canterbury’s elite who had served as jurat several times in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries.3 CCA-CC-F/A/1, f. 161. Shortly before, he and his wife had acquired property in the suburbs in Westgate and St. Dunstan’s.4 CP25(1)/114/297/76. In 1431, described as gentleman, he was assessed on property in Wingham, Canterbury and Westgate valued at £3 4s. p.a.5 Feudal Aids, iii. 57, 60, 62.

Having obtained the freedom of the city, Bonnington was soon involved in civic government. The following Michaelmas he was elected as one of the 12 jurats, in which position he served until Michaelmas 1426. It was not, however, until 1432 that he again served in civic government, when he was elected jurat for a third time. During this time he was active in affairs concerning the city and county: he witnessed the parliamentary election indenture for the county in 1432 and the following year he was elected, along with the experienced John Sheldwich*, to represent Canterbury in Parliament. He served for 112 days at Westminster, but donated 13s. 4d. to the city’s coffers to offset the charge of his wages for this unusually long Parliament.6 CCA-CC-F/A/1, ff. 223, 223v. The previous year, described as of Wingham, he had been one of the collectors of the fifteenth and tenth in Kent; this may have proved a burdensome task because in 1446 he and his fellow collectors received a general pardon and the Exchequer was ordered to not to pursue its action against them.7 E159/222, brevia Trin. rot. 17.

The pinnacle of Bonnington’s career in city government came at Michaelmas 1435 when he was elected to the first of two consecutive terms as bailiff. During his first term he was embroiled in the city’s dispute with St. Augustine’s abbey over the manor of Langport. In May 1436 along with his fellow bailiff, William Osbourne, and John Lynde*, he led a group of citizens who invaded the close of the abbey, ostensibly to make a pilgrimage to St. Lawrence’s hospital.8 KB27/706, rex rot. 29. Bonnington and the others were eventually acquitted. On 20 Oct. he and Osbourne entered a recognizance of £100 with the abbot to abide by the arbitration award of John Portington, John Fortescue*, William Tresham* and John Bamburgh*, in a settlement of the dispute engineered by Cardinal Beaufort.9 Canterbury city recs., Woodruff’s list, CCA-CC-WOODRUFF, 44/22. His usefulness to the city did not end with his formal office: in 1437-8 he lent £3 17s. 11d. towards the costs of the city’s legal dispute with St. Augustine’s and accompanied his fellow townsmen, John Lynde and William Billyngton* in obtaining an exemplification of a judgement concerning the matter made during the reign of Henry III.10 CCA-CC-F/A/1, f. 250.

Bonnington did not serve as mayor, bailiff or jurat during the 1440s but there is no explanation for his conspicuous absence from civic affairs. He certainly retained an interest in the city and in 1450 was assessed at an annual income of £20 for the subsidy, making him one of Canterbury’s wealthiest inhabitants.11 E179/124/218, rot. 3d. Meanwhile, in January 1444 he was amerced in the abbot of St. Augustine’s manorial court of Chislet and had his lands there seized over a dispute involving his entry fine on his father’s lands payable to the abbot. Bonnington pleaded that the abbot and his bailiff, John Sheldwich’s actions were illegal and claimed damages of 200 marks in King’s bench.12 Add. 32311, ff. 42-42v. It seems likely that the William Bonnington who was elected jurat at Michaelmas 1451 was our MP rather than his son, also William, who had been admitted to the freedom of the city on 6 Sept. that year.13 CCA-CC-F/A/2, f. 32v. The William Bonnington who served as jurat on six occasions between 1451 and 1462 was never styled ‘junior’ but when the younger Bonnington was the mayor’s bailiff in 1455-6 he was indeed so styled.14 SC6/1267/148. Apart from service as a jurat, there is no evidence of Bonnington’s participation in civic government during the 1450s but he clearly remained active in and around Canterbury. In Hilary term 1455 he brought an action of debt in the court of common pleas against four local men;15 CP40/780, rot. 235d. and between 1456 and 1460 he was sued in Chancery by one Richard Dunkyn of the suburbs of Canterbury. Dunkyn alleged that Bonnington had failed to transfer possession to him of a brewery in the city as promised, and had begun a malicious suit of debt for £40 in which Dunkyn was bound by his obligation to pay him for the property.16 C1/26/429.

Bonnington made his will on 10 Dec. 1463 and added a codicil concerning his lands on the following 20 Feb. He asked to be buried in St. Augustine’s abbey next to his late wife, Christine. Sums of money were left to his home parish of St. George and four other churches in Canterbury, and he ordered requiems to be sung in St. George’s and the abbey. He also provided for a mass to be sung in the abbey on the anniversary of his death for 52 years; and similar provisions were made for 20 years in memory of his parents, his late wife and her parents in St. Cross church, Westgate, and Littlebourne, Kent. Monetary bequests were also made to the city’s poor and the monks of St. Augustine’s, while his servants received items of clothing. Bonnington’s manor of Wolneston in Wingham and his other lands, debts and chattels were to be sold and the proceeds used to pay for the various masses and obits he had ordered and for gifts to local churches, hospitals and religious houses. The only lands that were to be disposed otherwise were a tenement in St. Gregory’s parish and lands in Chislet which were to be given to his grand-daughter and heiress, Joan (his son William having pre-deceased him at an unknown date) when she came of age. The date of Bonnington’s death is unknown but probate was granted on 20 Apr. 1464.17 Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone, Canterbury consist. ct. wills, PRC 32/2, ff. 137-9.