Family and Education

b. c.1571, 2nd but 1st surv. s. of Edward Baynton by his 1st w. educ. L. Inn 1588. m. Lucy, da. of Sir John Danvers of Dauntsey, 1s. Edward^† 1da. suc. fa. 1593. Kntd. 1601.2

Offices Held

J.p. Wilts. by 1594, sheriff 1601-2.

Biography

In addition to their main seat at Bromham, near Calne, the Bayntons had estates near Devizes and Chippenham, and Henry, like his father, his uncle, and his son Edward, could rely on representing one of these boroughs if the county seat was not available. It is not clear whether the uncle or the nephew was the Henry Baynton who sat for Devizes in 1593. Although he is not mentioned in the surviving records of the House, Baynton might have served on a cloth committee (15 Mar. 1593) as burgess for Devizes, and on the following committees as knight for Wiltshire in 1597: enclosures (5 Nov.), poor law (5 Nov., 22 Nov.), armour and weapons (8 Nov.), penal laws (8 Nov.), monopolies (10 Nov.) and the subsidy (15 Nov.).

Baynton was a typical country gentleman, playing a full part in the administration of his county. Through his wife, a grand-daughter of John Neville, 4th Lord Latimer, he acquired property in Yorkshire and Northamptonshire, but no evidence has been found of his visiting it. Everything known of his career is connected with Wiltshire, where he increased his estates by buying a number of manors: the last of his land purchases, from Sir William Throckmorton, was completed not long before he made his will in July 1616. He resided at Bromham or at Bromhill House, his other mansion in the country. In his will he made three several bequests of £30 for the poor of Calne, Chippenham and Devizes. The exact date of his death is not known, but on 14 Oct. 1616 Sir John Wynn reported to his son Sir Richard the death of ‘that worthy knight Sir Henry Baynton’. Lady Baynton was buried in Westminster abbey on 14 June 1621.3

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: J.C.H.

Notes

• 1. C219/31: ‘Henry Bainton, esquire, son and heir of the right worshipful Edward Bainton, knight’.
• 2. C142/234/59; Wilts. Vis. Peds. (Harl. Soc. cv, cvi), 7-8; Burke, Commoners, iv. 685.
• 3. D’Ewes, 501, 552, 553, 555, 557, 561; Chippenham Recs. ed. Goldney, 44; PCC 116 Cope; Cal. Wynn Pprs. 125; Rylands, Eng. ms 311.