Family and Education

b. by 1510. m. (1) by 1534, Esther, 3da.; (2) Margery.1

Offices Held

Manciple, St. Bernard’s Coll. Oxford by 1527; common councilman, Oxford 1533, bailiff 1539-40, alderman 1553-d., key keeper 1553-5, coroner in 1556.2

Biography

Edward Glynton’s family probably took its name from the Oxfordshire village of Glympton. The Edward Glynton of the parish of St. Giles, Oxford, who was to appear in the chancellor’s court in October 1548 in a suit involving a member of St. Bernard’s College, was presumably the Member, who owned property in that parish. St. Bernard’s had been a house for student monks of the Cistercian order until 1540, after which it continued as an ordinary hall of residence until granted to Christ Church in 1546; later it was bought by Sir Thomas White to form part of his endowment of St. John’s College. From the evidence given in a lawsuit dating from between 1538 and 1544 it appears that Edward Glynton then occupied a house outside the north gate of Oxford: this he claimed to have received from one Thomas Baker of London, but at what date is not clear. Glynton was a feoffee for Richard Wotton, superior bedel of theology, in 1534, and later bought property from Wotton’s son Edward; his daughter Joan was to marry James Good, fellow of Magdalen and a physician, in 1553.3

Glynton was admitted a freeman of Oxford during 1530-31. He was one of eight arbitrators named by the council to settle its disputes with the university in 1541, and ten years later he was appointed with William Tylcock to secure a confirmation of the city’s charter. On 26 Sept. 1553 the council accepted his payment of 40s. and a bullock for not having held a dinner on his election as an alderman. Perhaps his last public act was as coroner, when he defied the bailiff of Dr. George Owen by taking an inquisition within the nearby manor of Walton; depositions for the resulting lawsuit were made on 2 May 1556, five and a half months before Glynton’s will was proved. Between 1547 and 1551 Owen sued Glynton for a reserved rent of 6s.8d. on his house in St. Giles’s parish. As an overseer of Port Meadow, Glynton must also have crossed swords with Owen, who claimed it as parcel of his manor of Wolvercote.4

In 1547 Glynton was assessed for subsidy on goods worth £18 and in 1551 on goods worth £14, in the city’s suburbs. His will mentions several houses, including some in St. Martin’s parish and others, probably those in St. Giles’s, bought from Edward Wotton, as well as a farm which presumably is not included in the subsidy assessments for Oxford. His affluence and his civic prominence are enough to explain Glynton’s Membership. He married twice and his will of 7 June 1554 (which was to be proved on 16 Oct. 1556) shows that he feared dissension between his second wife Margery and the children of his first marriage. Margery was given the farm and commanded not to meddle with anything at the house where he then dwelt but ‘to take her raiment and go to her farm’ on his death, and to ‘be good to my daughters, as I have been to hers’. The property in Oxford was divided between his three daughters, while small gifts went to two kinsmen. His daughter Elizabeth, presumably the eldest child, was sole executrix and residuary legatee.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: T. F.T. Baker

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from admission as freeman. Liber Albus Civ. Oxon. ed. Ellis, no. 338; PCC 17 Ketchyn.
• 2. Oxf. Univ. Arch. T/S cal. chancellor’s ct. reg. GG, p. 53; Oxf. Recs. 117, 216, 221 227, 253, 260.
• 3. Oxf. Univ. Arch. T/S, GG, p. 53; Early Hist. St. John’s (Oxf. Hist. Soc. n.s. i), 36-37, 530; Oxf. Top. (ibid. xxxix), 110-12; C1/1017/17, 19; Liber Albus, nos. 337-8; Mill Stephenson, Mon. Brasses, 297.
• 4. Oxf. Recs. 103, 161, 209, 211, 215-16, 228 232-3, 253; C1/1251/60-2, 1346/16-18, 1371/77, 1395/15.
• 5. E179/162/261, 289; PCC 17 Ketchyn.