BYNE, John (1635-61), of Rowdell, Washington, Suss.

The Byne family had been resident in Sussex since at least the early thirteenth century, and had owned the manor of Rowdell since the reign of Henry VIII. Although not yet represented in Parliament, by the early seventeenth century Bynes were wealthy and prominent members of the county gentry. John Byne’s grandfather, Sir John Byne, was a long-serving county administrator and justice of the peace.11E101/589/10; E179/191/383, 384 377a; C181/4, ff. 46v, 53v; C181/5, f. 69v. In his will, proved in February 1641, he left a personal estate worth over £6,000.12PROB11/185/179. John Byne’s father, Edmund Byne, built the ‘fair house’ at Rowdell at a cost of £3,000, and in his will of December 1645 left a portion of £1,000 for his daughter Frances and land at Ashurst and Shipley to his younger son Henry, as well as many small bequests to members of the Byne and Goring families.13C7/400/45; PROB11/200/463.

A majority in the family circle appear to have been royalist in sympathy, if not necessarily in action. Sir John Byne’s trustees included Dr Laurence Pay, the Laudian archdeacon of Chichester.14PROB11/185/179. John Byne’s maternal grandfather and neighbour, Henry Goringe* of Highden, was widely suspected of supporting the king’s cause during the 1640s, although he avoided participation in the war. Byne’s father took the Protestation in 1642, but was similarly inactive, which in a predominantly parliamentarian county such as Sussex, may indicate closet support for the king; he still remembered Chichester cathedral in his will.15Al. Ox.; West Suss. Protestations Returns, 189; PROB11/200/463. Only 11 years old when his father died, John Byne may have been brought up in the household of his mother’s second husband Robert Leeves, ordained by Bishop Henry King in 1640, and after the Restoration rector of Woolavington.16Renshaw, ‘Bynes of Rowdell’, 7; Clergy of the C. of E. database; PROB11/413/431 (Robert Leeves). The most active royalist amongst the Byne family was his kinsman (or uncle) John Byne of Thakeham, who signed the 1648 Sussex petition calling for a lenient settlement with the king.17PA, Parchment coll. box 11. This man appears to have been imprisoned at the behest of the Derby House Committee in the summer of 1648.18CSP Dom. 1648-9, p. 94. He died in 1660, about a year before the MP, whom he named an executor and with whom he has sometimes been confused.19PROB11/300/485; Al. Ox.; Berry, Suss. Pedigrees, 186.

Little is known about the MP until December 1656, when a settlement was made for his marriage. His bride, Susanna or Susan, was the youngest daughter of a minor local gentleman, Goldsmith Hodgson (d. 1638), who was a brother-in-law of Harbert Morley*, the leading Sussex republican. With her two elder sisters, Susan was co-heir to their brother, who had died a ward, leaving three manors and significant other property in east Sussex. The settlement, which was witnessed by Morley’s political ally John Fagge*, included the conveyance of Cudham Manor and Rowdell Place to Morley in trust for Byne and his heirs.20E. Suss. RO, Glynde 173-4; Notes IPMs Suss., 124.

It was almost certainly through Morley and his friends that Byne entered Parliament in 1659, as a member for Bramber. Initially, the seat was secured by John Fagge, but he was subsequently returned as a knight of the shire, and opted to sit for the county. Byne was elected following the order for a new writ on 11 February 1659.21CJ vii. 602a. He played no discernible part in parliamentary proceedings.

By July 1659 Byne had been appointed to the commission of the peace.22ASSI35/100/6; C220/9/4, ff. 85v-88. But he did not make first appearance on the bench until May 1660.23E. Suss. RO, QO/EW3, f. 79. That month he signed the ‘humble address’ of the county gentry welcoming the return of Charles II.24SP29/1, f. 89. In the meantime he was also appointed a captain of militia horse.25SR. Byne retained his seat at Bramber in both the Convention and Cavalier Parliaments, probably through his connection to royalist gentry in the county such as the Goring family, his neighbours in Washington. Once more he left no mark on parliamentary records, although he was almost certainly a supporter of the court.26HP Commons 1660-1690. He also retained his place on the commission of the peace.27E. Suss. RO, QO/EW4, ff. 4, 13v, 17, 22v. However, his career was cut short by his early death, in December 1661, at the age of only 26.28C231/7, p. 150. He had evidently not prepared a will. The family estate had suffered during the civil war, and his two surviving daughters inherited manors and lands worth only £600 a year.29C33/278, f. 340; C6/192/59; C33/242, f. 596. Nevertheless, both made successful marriages, Susan to Sir George Walker, and Frances first to the son of Sir Robert Heath†, the royalist attorney-general, and later to the youngest son of Sir John Pelham*.30Vis. Suss. (Harl. Soc. lxxxix), 86; Berry, Suss. Pedgrees, 186; PROB11/413/431. Their mother had in the mean time married Sir Francis Guybon†, elected to Parliament for Thetford, Norfolk, in 1689 and 1690.