Family and Education

b. by 1525.1

Offices Held

Biography

Little trace has been found of Leonard Boldyng, apart from his Membership of Parliament. He lived in St. Owen’s ward, Hereford, and it was there that in 1546 he was assessed towards the subsidy on £7 3s.8d. in lands and fees. His election with William Smothye met the Marian regime’s preference for the return of townsmen, and perhaps the rider that they should be of the ‘wise, grave and Catholic sort’, but it did not comply with the request of 13 Oct. 1554 from Bishop Heath, president of the council in the marches, that Thomas Havard and Thomas Bromwich, who had sat for the city in the previous Parliament, should be re-elected. Although Heath’s interference may have been resented, Hereford’s response does not imply defiance, for on the following 20 Oct. Havard was elected a knight of the shire, and Bromwich may not have wished to sit again; the lateness of the election, two weeks after Havard’s return for the county and only seven days before the opening of Parliament, suggests that Heath’s approval was sought for the city’s choice of Members. In any case he can hardly have been disappointed in either Boldyng or Smothye, who were not among the Members who quitted this Parliament before its dissolution. If Boldyng made a will it has not been found, and no inquisition is known to have been held: he was perhaps dead by 1564 as he is not listed in Bishop Scory’s report of that year on the religious attitudes of the leading citizens at Hereford.2

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: P. S. Edwards

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference.
• 2. E179/117/62; HMC 13th Rep. IV. 319-20; Cam. Misc. ix(3), 14-15.