Victoria County History: East Riding, Vol. 2

Preliminary comments:

There is a potential confusion in this account of the history of holding land in Boynton;there are several inaccuracies, and it is unfortunately incomplete at various points.

The potential confusion results from the author not distinguishing between the two Boynton families who held land in Boynton. I have called them the Boynton Triangle Boyntons and the Boyntons of Boynton. The point is that they are two different lines of the Boynton family, and they held different land.

The author made a mistake in the descent in the Boynton of Boynton family. Elizabeth, who married Thomas Newport, was the granddaughter of the third Robert of Boynton and not his sister.

The characterization of Alice Meynell's place in the history of Boynton is too incomplete. She was married to John Bolton only briefly and had no heirs by him. A more complete account is included in the story linked below.

Manor and other estates.

Four estates are recorded in Boynton in 1086, comprising 4, 3, 2, and half a carucate respectively. The two smaller estates were soke of Bridlington manor.

The 4-carucate estate had been held in 1066 by Torchil and belonged to the count of Mortain by 1086. The count's lands were forfeited for rebellion in 1088 and passed to the Paynel fee, which was later granted to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop's overlordship is last mentioned in 1428. A mesne lordship under the Paynels and the archbishops was held by the Meynell family from at least the late 12th century until the death of Nicholas de Meynell in 1342. In 1352 two mesne lords are mentioned, John Darcy, whose wife Elizabeth was Nicholas de Meynell's daughter, and Robert of Bolton, whose wife Alice was a more distant Meynell heiress. The Bolton interest seems to have descended to William de Percy, Alice's son by a later marriage, and the Percy lordship was last mentioned in 1389. [A Boynton Story about Alice, Boltons, Boyntons and Percys: The Tangled Web of Castle Leavington]. In 1418 the mesne lordship was divided between Elizabeth and Margery, daughters of Philip Darcy. Margery married Sir John Conyers and the Conyers interest was mentioned until 1541. Elizabeth married Sir James Strangways and the Strangways retained half the lordship until 1541, when it was sold to William, Lord Dacre and Greystock. The apparently undivided mesne lordship was later acquired by Edward, earl of Rutland, who died possessed of it in 1587. It was last mentioned in the early 17th century.

The Meynells appear to have retained much of Boynton manor in demesne. In the early 14th century Nicholas de Meynell held 6 carucates in demesne and in 1316 he was returned as the sole lord of Boynton. By 1428 the estate had apparently passed to Thomas, Lord Swynford, who then held 5 carucates, and later in the 15th century it seems to have been acquired by the Newport family. In 1549 Thomas Newport sold the manor to William Strickland. During the 16th century Strickland bought other property from James Savage, Robert Hellard and Peter Ranson, and Thomas Boynton, and during the 18th century from Sir Griffith and Francis Boynton and Pocklington Grammar School. At inclosure in 1783 Sir Goerge Strickland was laloted all the land in Boynton except a few acres of glebe. [pp. 22-23]

The 3-carucate estate in Boynton had been held in 1066 by Ulf, Archil, and Chenut and in 1086 was in the possession of the king. It was later granted to the count of Aumale, whose overlordship was last mentioned in 1521. Before 1127 the estate was granted to Alan de Mounceaux, whose descendants retained a mesne lordship until the end of the 15th century.

Alan's son Ingram de Mounceaux granted a chief house and 3 carucates in Boynton c. 1200 to William of Boynton, and after the death of Ingram of Boynton c. 1320 the property passed to his eldest son Walter. It subsequently descended in the Boyntons of Barmston and later of Burton Agnes. In the 16th century Thomas Boynton sold some of the land to William Strickland and in 1755 the rest, including 16 bovates and known as Yate's farm, was conveyed by Sir Griffith and Francis Boynton to Sir George Strickland. It was thus incorporated in the capital manor. Other land, amounting to 15 bovates in 1428, was retained by the Mounceaux family until the later 15th century, when it passed of Sir Martin del See. In 1497 it was inherited by Sir Martin's daughter Margaret, widow of Henry Boynton, and so was presumably reunited with the rest of the Mounceaux property.

The two smaller Domesday estates were in the king's hands in 1086 and subsequently became part of the Gant fee, which later passed to the Tattershalls. A mesne lordship was held from at least the early 13th century by the Grindale family, descending in the early 14th century to Roger de Somerville. A second mesne lordship belonged to another branch of the Grindale family and was mentioned as late as 1352. Thirteenth-century tenants of the Grindales included Thomas of Caythorpe and Ralph de Wyerne. Various grants of land in the Tattershall fee were made to Bridlington priory, which retained 7 bovates in Boynton until the late 13th century when they were exchanged with Walter of Buckton for land elsewhere. In 1286 Walter sold 5 bovates to Robert of Boynton, and by 1352 the Boynton family had 15 bovates of the Tattershall fee, 8 of them held of Marmaduke Grindale and 7 of the prior of Bridlington.

The Boynton family thus had a substantial interest in both the Aumale and the Tattershall fees. It also acquired land in the Canterbury fee, amounting to 14 bovates in 1352, when Roger Boynton died possessed of it. The Boyntons' estate subsequently descended to Roger's great-grandson Robert Boynton, and thence to Robert's sister Elizabeth and her husband Thomas Newport. In 1428 Thomas still had 14 bovates of the Canterbury fee and 8 of the Tattershall fee. Later in the 15th century the Newports apparently acquired the Meynell's demesne land in the Canterbury fee and so became lords of the manor.

Another part of the Canterbury fee was held in 1428, when it comprised 10 bovates, by Thomas Lound. Another Thomas Lound apparently coveyed the property in the early 16th century to Richard Hill, who devised it in 1523-4 to John Dowman. In 1514 Dowman had founded the grammar school at Pocklington and he gave the Boynton land to support the schoolmaster and usher. At inclosure in 1783 the school exchanged the property, including 16 bovates, with Sir George Strickland for an estate in Pocklington.

Two bovates in the parish were given by Alice of Boynton to Nun Appleton priory. After the Dissolution the land was let by the Crown to Richard Young in 1567, William Strickland in 1578, and William Wilson in 1601. A land in Boynton belonged in the late 12th century to the Knights Templars and may have passed on their suppression in 1312 to the Hospitallers, who in 1539-40 had a cottage and garden in Boynton.

Boynton rectory, which belonged to Bridlington priory from the 12th century, was worth 10 pounds 13s. 4d. in 1291 and 1428. After the Dissolution it was let by the Crown to John Banaster and James Bourchier in 1538, to William Godolgham in 1546, to Richard Whalley in 1566, and to Walter Whalley in 1569. It was granted in fee in 1605 to John Lindley and one Starkey. By 1637 it had passed to William Hustler and it was held by his heirs in 1650, when the tithes were worth 50 pounds. By 1685 it belonged to Sir William Strickland and at inclosure in 1783, when the Stricklands became sole landowners, the tithes were extinghished. [pp. 24-25]

Pugh, R. B., ed. (1974) The Victoria History of the Counties of England; A History of Yorkshire East Riding, Volume II, The University of London Institute of Historical Research