BAYNHAM, William (d.1597), of Farringdon, London and Boxley, Kent.

Baynham—‘an officer of her Majesty’s in good trust’—probably secured his repeated returns for Much Wenlock through being related to Richard Horde, formerly recorder there. No evidence has been found that he had any personal connexion with the borough. Baynham was known to the Earl of Leicester and other members of the Dudley family. He may have acquired his lease of the rectory of Budbrooke, Warwickshire, through the Earl’s influence with the town of Warwick, and the probability is that the lands he bought at Boxley, Kent, had at one time belonged to the Earl. As surveyor for Worcestershire, Baynham was paid £13 6s.8d. and for Kent and Sussex £36 13s.4d. In August 1596 he objected to paying ship money in London, though he clearly spent much of his time there, and it was there he died 5 Nov. 1597. He was buried at Boxley. Administration of his estate was granted to his widow and his son Edmund.1PCC 11 Wallop; PRO Index 6800, 16774, 17 Eliz. f. 12; APC, xii. 324; xxvi. 29; Vis. Glos. (Harl. Soc. xxi), 12-16; Vis. Herefs. ed. Weaver, 77; Vis. Salop (Harl. Soc. xxviii), 253; Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. Trans. vi. 133; P. H. Williams, Council in the Marches of Wales, 119-20; Req. 2/27/146, 34/79; E318/2414; Lansd. 19, f. 208; 61, f. 206; 81, f. 82; J. Cave Browne, Boxley, 160; PCC admon. 1597; C142/254/91, 255/141.