BAYNING, Paul (1616-38)

Bayning inherited his title, extensive estates in Essex and Suffolk, and a substantial money-lending business before his 14th birthday. His mother purchased his wardship for £18,000 in cash (and a further £2,000, which was deducted from the crown’s debt to her late husband), and, in June 1630, married Secretary of State Dudley Carleton^*, Viscount Dorchester.9 Essex RO, D/DRg 2/97; SP16/153/17; CSP Dom. 1629-31, p. 456. In April 1631 the dean of Christ Church Oxford, Brian Duppa^† (subsequently bishop of Chichester), wrote to Dorchester to inform him that preparations were well advanced for Bayning’s admission to that college; a tutor had been selected (the future royalist Richard Chaworth^‡) and only lodgings still needed to be found, which he thought could be obtained from William Piers^†, a canon of Christ Church who had recently been appointed bishop of Peterborough.10 CSP Dom. 1631-3, p. 8.

Bayning arrived the following month at Christ Church, where, as he later wrote, he ‘received the best part of my education’. However, he did not matriculate until June 1632. He took his BA in April 1633 and remained at Oxford until early the following year, though he also spent considerable time in London, where he frequently visited the theatre; the plays he saw included Ben Jonson’s The Tale of a Tub and John Fletcher’s The Loyal Subject.11 PROB 11/178, f. 100v; Al. Ox.; SP46/76, ff. 79, 81, 84, 137. His servants’ accounts include references to his gambling losses.12 SP46/77, ff. 7v, 9.

By May 1633 Bayning, now aged nearly 17, was courting the daughter of Sir Robert Naunton^‡, master of the Court of Wards. The following January he bought her ‘a diamond ring with a lion’s head of curious workmanship with a picture within’. It cost him £200, but he claimed that it had been valued by Oxford’s goldsmiths at £300.13 Ibid. ff. 4, 8v. In April 1634 Thomas Wentworth^*, Viscount Wentworth (subsequently 1st earl of Strafford), was informed that the match had been concluded and that Naunton, whose only son had died, had agreed to pay a substantial dowry.14 Strafforde Letters (1739) ed. W. Knowler, i. 227. Nevertheless, the marriage the following August seems to have taken Bayning by surprise, as he had to pay an additional 5s. for the hasty production of a wedding ring, set with 20 diamonds and priced relatively modestly at £18. The nuptials were celebrated with ‘great feasting, having all the daintiest fowl and best rarities that could be gotten’.15 SP46/77, ff. 13v-14.

Bayning had acquired a licence to travel the previous month, which may explain his surprise at the timing of the wedding, and consequently purchased several books for use while abroad. These included a French grammar, alphabet and liturgy, plus a map of France and works by John Donne^‡. He also bought Erasmus’ Colloquies, ‘Lord Cavendish[’s] observations’ (almost certainly Horae Subseciuae. Observations and Discourses (1620), often attributed to William Cavendish*, 2nd earl of Devonshire), Henry Peacham’s Complete Gentleman and his father’s funeral sermon.16 SO3/10, unfol. (July 1634); SP46/77, f. 82.

Bayning crossed to France in September, where he remained until the following March when, having obtained a fresh licence to visit Rome, he travelled to Italy accompanied by ‘so great a train’ that the transmission of sufficient funds from England was a constant concern.17 SP46/76, ff. 186, 273; SP46/77, f. 14; SO3/11, unfol. (1 Mar. 1635). His companions included two younger brothers of his sister’s husband, Henry Pierrepont^†, Viscount Newark (subsequently 1st marquess of Dorchester). In Tuscany he caught smallpox, but recovered sufficiently by November to move on to Rome, where he was entertained by the English College. Along with William Cavendish^†, 3rd earl of Devonshire, and Henry Parker^*, 14th Lord Morley, he attended the College’s traditional dinner for the English in Rome on the feast of St Thomas Becket (29 December). He also corresponded with Basil Feilding^*, Lord Newnham Paddockes (subsequently 2nd earl of Denbigh), then ambassador to Venice, which republic he visited in March before returning to France.18 HMC Denbigh, v. 17-18; Recs. of the Eng. Province of the Soc. of Jesus ed. H. Foley, vi. 612; SP46/77, f. 137. He was in Paris in May 1636, when he accompanied the English ambassador, Robert Sidney^*, 2nd earl of Leicester, to an audience with Louis XIII at Fontainebleau.19 Letters and Memorials of State ed. A. Collins, ii. 380-1. He arrived back in England the following month, the whole expedition having cost more than £6,000.20 Essex RO, D/DRg 2/98.

Bayning’s return to England did not necessarily mark the end of his education, as his tutor, Chaworth, took up residence in his household and bought books for him. On the back of a letter written to a London bookseller in March 1637, Chaworth requested a catalogue of suitable works for Bayning, including Spirituall Armour by Paul Baynes and The Soules Conflict by Richard Sibbes. However, there is no evidence that these works by puritan authors reflected Bayning’s own religious convictions.21 SP46/77, f. 447.

In April 1637, having recently come of age, Bayning was summoned before Star Chamber to answer an information exhibited against him and others by the attorney general. This may have related to the bounds of Essex forest, which the crown was seeking to extend, but if so there is no evidence that Bayning was fined for encroachment.22 Essex RO, D/DRg 2/99. The same month he received permission to construct a park at his Essex home of Little Bentley, which he had desired since his Oxford days, ‘whereby I may take a little more pleasure and delight … in that place’.23 SO3/11, unfol. (Apr. 1637); SP46/76, f. 102. However, he died at Bentley on 11 June 1638 after a short fever, apparently two years to the day after he had returned from his travels, and was buried in a vault on the north side of the parish church on 5 July. He left a one-year-old daughter, and though his wife was pregnant at his death, this second child too was female. Consequently his peerage died with him.24 CSP Dom. 1637-8, pp. 523, 556; Death Repeal’d by a Thankfull Memoriall Sent from Christ-Church in Oxford (Oxford, 1638), 2, 7.

George Garrard^‡ wrote that Bayning left a ‘foolish will’, in which he bequeathed ‘more than his personal estate comes to’.25 Strafforde Letters, ii. 180. The text certainly has peculiar features, for though it is dated 6 Dec. 1634 it mentions his daughter, who was not born until May 1637. It also refers to his sister Ann, who married in 1635, by both her maiden and married names. These irregularities suggest that the will was amended over a considerable period of time without being systematically revised. Bayning left his wife £30,000 and his daughter £20,000. Other substantial legacies were also assigned to family members. He further instructed that his executors build an almshouse like the one provided by his father in London, although he did not specify how it was to be funded, and gave £200 towards the repair of St Paul’s Cathedral and £300 for his Oxford College. Finally, he bequeathed several smaller sums to the poor of the London hospitals, poor prisoners and various parishes, mostly in Essex but also including Brightwell in Berkshire, where he had been schooled for four years.26 PROB 11/178, f. 100.

In 1638 a volume of verses in memory of Bayning by various writers connected with Christ Church was published celebrating his benefaction to their college. Aware that Bayning’s noble lineage was ‘not so old’, the authors celebrated his ‘genealogy of virtue’, arguing that he did not need to claim ‘antiquity’ because ‘virtue perpetuates thy nobility’ and his ‘hopefulness’ made up for his lack of aristocratic ‘blood’.27 Death Repeal’d, 1, 23, 45. His sister Ann was made Viscountess Bayning in her own right in 1674, but died without male heirs four years later. Her great-great-grandson, Charles Townshend^†, was created Baron Bayning in 1797.28 CP, ii. 35-6.