BOUN (BOWINE), Edward (by 1518-58), of Nuthall, Notts.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. by 1518, s. of William Boun of Holme, nr. Bakewell, Derbys. by Joanna, da. of William Goodwin. educ. L. Inn. m. Isabel, da. and coh. of Edmund Hunt of Hockerton, Notts., 3s. 2da.1

Offices Held

Escheator, L. Inn 1539-40, steward 1551-4; j.p. Notts. 1547; commr. relief 1550.2

Biography

Edward Boun was a member of a family which had held lands in or near Bakewell, Derbyshire, from at least the early 15th century, but which appears to have been unconnected with the Nottinghamshire family of Boun or Bozoun whose chief estates lay in Car Colston and Screveton. Edward Boun’s translation to Nottinghamshire followed his marriage to Isabel Hunt, one of three sisters who shared the manor of Hockerton, near Southwell: to his wife’s portion Boun added in 1550 her sister Isabel’s, which he and his brother-in-law Robert Alvey purchased, and his son John was later to reunite the estate. Boun settled at Nuthall, some five miles from the borough which he represented in the Parliament of 1558.3

Boun was a lawyer who, although never an official at Nottingham, acted as attorney for the sheriffs of the borough and of the shire. He perhaps stood in a similar relationship to the 2nd Earl of Rutland, who was beginning to exert his influence in the town: in 1547 the 3rd Lord Conyers had written to Rutland on Boun’s behalf, when a former servant of Conyers’ was suing Boun for unlawful possession of land, in terms which imply that Boun was at that time being of service to the earl.4

It is likely that Boun died a comparatively young man, perhaps of the epidemic then widespread, as his sons were all under age. In his will made two months before his death, Boun made detailed provision for their education. The eldest, John, was to pursue the study of the common law after leaving Oxford, at the discretion of Boun’s cousin Harington and other lawyers; he was to have the reversion of all his father’s lands after his mother died and to inherit all his books. The second son, George, was also to go to Oxford when he left the local grammar school: he would receive 20s. a year until he reached the age of 24, this being half the yield of Boun’s stewardship of Lenton which was left to his fellow-Member Francis Colman for the purpose, and would then enter the priesthood. For the youngest son, Edward, Boun’s intention was that after leaving school he should have six months or so at Cambridge and then be apprenticed to a merchant of the staple or a wealthy draper: his upkeep was to be met by the sale of land. Boun made bequests of money and household goods to his daughter Frances, to other members of his family and to servants. As executors he appointed his wife and son John, although the son was not to interfere until he had completed his studies.5

Boun died on 12 Dec. 1558 and was buried, as he had asked to be, in the chancel of Nuthall church between his own pew and the tomb of John Askew. After his wife’s death in 1562 his instruction for a memorial slab to them was also carried out, with figures of his five children, one of whom had not been mentioned in the will. A daughter of Edward Boun’s grandson Gilbert married the Nottinghamshire antiquary Thoroton.6

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: C. J. Black

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Thoroton, Notts. ed. Throsby, iii. 126.
  • 2. CPR, 1547-8, p. 88; 1553, p. 357.
  • 3. Thoroton, i. 247; iii. 126; Notts. RO, Torre ms, Nuthall church 7.
  • 4. C. J. Black, ‘Admin. and parlty. rep. Notts. and Derbys. 1529-58’ (London Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1966) 185-6; HMC Rutland, i. 43.
  • 5. York wills 15(3), f. 431.
  • 6. Torre ms, Nuthall church 7, 8; Trans. Thoroton Soc. x. 6.