Family and Education

bap. 17 Nov. 1664, 1st s. of Sir Edward Bayntun† of Spye Park by Stuarta, da. of Sir Thomas Thynne† of Richmond, Surr.  educ. ?travelled abroad, 1678–?9.  m. 1 Sept. 1685, Lady Anne, da. of John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, coh. to her bro. Charles, 3rd Earl, 1s. 1da.  suc. fa. 1679.1

Offices Held

Free burgess, Devizes 1682–1684, May 1689–d.2

Biography

Bayntun was descended from one of the most prominent gentry families of north Wiltshire, with estates concentrated in Bromham, Bremhill and neighbouring parishes. He was related to other local gentry families, including the Thynnes and the Danvers, and through his grandmother to Lord Carmarthen (Sir Thomas Osborne†). In 1674 a contract was drawn up for his marriage to Sophia, daughter of James, Lord Somerville, but the marriage did not take place. In 1678 he was granted a licence to travel abroad for three years with one Dr Brunel. It is not known whether he left England, but in the following year he was at Spye Park, having succeeded to his father’s considerable properties. To these Bayntun later added £4,000 and several manors in Somerset secured through his marriage to the daughter and co-heir of John, Earl of Rochester. In addition, his family ties now encompassed the St. Johns of Lydiard Tregoze, Wiltshire, and the Hungerfords of Farleigh Castle.3

The Wiltshire properties guaranteed the Bayntuns parliamentary service in one of several local constituencies. Most conspicuous of these were Calne, Chippenham and Devizes, in at least one of which a Bayntun had sat for the previous five generations. Although his father had been one of the more radical MPs of the Long Parliament, Bayntun was classed as a Tory, and perhaps as a Court supporter, by Carmarthen in March 1690 after having been elected at Calne following a contest. In Robert Harley’s* list of April 1691 he was classed as a Country supporter. He was not recorded as making a speech.4

On 2 July 1691 Luttrell reported Bayntun’s death as having ‘lately’ occurred. He was buried the same day at Bromham. Leaving debts of at least £22,000, to satisfy his creditors he raised £42,000 by mortgaging his ancestral estates of Bromham and Bromham Bayntun together with the Farleigh estate which he had bought from Sir Edward Hungerford* only four years previously for £56,000. Despite these debts, Bayntun was able to settle his widow with a £3,000 jointure and bequeath £4,000 to his sister, Lucy. A petition for a private bill to secure a portion for his daughter and establish a trust for his only son, a minor, was presented on 10 Dec. 1692, and despite a petition against it from his widow and young son, it duly passed. Farleigh and other properties were devised to his executors, Walter Grubbe* and Sir Edmund Warneford†. These properties were sold to repay interest on loans running to £1,000 p.a. Bayntun’s will also specified that should his son die without a male heir then his remaining estate was to descend to his daughter, Anne, on the condition that she married a Bayntun ‘kindred of the fourth degree’ or that her husband assume the Bayntun name. Anne, who married Edward Rolt†, duly inherited the larger part of the Wiltshire properties, and her son, also an MP, assumed the name Bayntun Rolt.5

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Authors: D. W. Hayton / Henry Lancaster

Notes

• 1. Bayntun Commonplace Bk. ed. Freeman (Wilts. Rec. Soc. xliii), 35; Burke, Commoners, iv. 685; The Ancestor, xi. 24–25; Bromham Par. Reg.; Wilts. Arch. Mag. iv. 248; Mar. Lic. Vicar-Gen. (Harl. Soc. xxiv), 176.
• 2. B. H. Cunnington, Annals of Devizes, 166; Devizes bor. recs. G20/1/18, 19.
• 3. PCC 405 Vere, 361 King, 365 North; Bayntun Commonplace Bk. 21, 33; VCH Som. vi. 96; Wilts. RO, 445/1, 415/134; Vis. Wilts. (Harl. Soc. cv–cvi), 168.
• 4. Wilts. Arch. Mag. xvi. 80; Hoare, Wilts. Downton, 7; Bath mss at Longleat House, Thynne pprs. 24, f. 164; G. Yule, Independents in Eng. Civil War, 131; Egerton 3359, ff. 27–28.
• 5. Luttrell, Brief Relation, ii. 259; Wilts. RO, Goldney mss 473/377, funeral bill 2 July 1691; VCH Wilts. vii. 72, 183; C. Clay, Public Finance and Private Wealth, 179–80; Wilts. Arch. Mag. iv. 248; xiii. 234; Collinson, Hist. of Som. lii. 356.