Heraldic Visitations of Yorkshire

Who? When? What? After a century of fighting, the fifteenth, it was difficult to trace family connections -- land and heraldry. So, two Henrys and Mary instructed their officials, the kings of arms, to head for the countryside to: register the descents, marriages, and issue of noblemen and gentlemen residing within their province, to record their arms, to correct false heraldry, to confirm the arms of rightful claimants thereto, to grant new arms to 'any person of ability to have armes by reason of office, authority, wisdome, substance, good manners, sadd govenance,' and to devise and grant crests, cognizances, differences and mottoes. [Dendy (1912) p. xiv]

They were called visitations -- heraldic visitations; the kings of arms visited the counties several times during the sixteenth century searching out family lineages and coats of arms. The information was recorded by hand, and when you needed another copy that had to be done by hand as well. Hence, copies were scarce and prone to error.

The records of five visitations were found and published in the nineteenth century. By early twentieth century additional collections of pedigrees and new copies were found. The publications we have found are listed in chronological order of the visit; the earlier the visit to Yorkshire the earlier on our list.

1480-1500 -- Blair, C. H. Hunter, ed. (1930) A Visitation of The North of England circa 1480-1500, Visitations of the North, Part III., The Publications of the Surtees Society vol. 144. It has a pedigree of the Christopher Boynton family and two cross references to other families.

1530 -- Longstaffe, W. Hylton  Dyer, ed. (1863) Heraldic Visitation of the Northern Counties in 1530, by Thomas Tonge, The Publications of the Surtees Society, vol. 41. It has a Henry Boynton [of the Christopher line] pedigree.

1552, 1558, 1560-61 -- Dendy, Frederick Walter, ed. (1912) Visitations of the North or Some Early Heraldic Visitations of, and Collections of Pedigrees Relating to The North of England, Part I., The Publications of the Surtees Society, vol. 122. There is no Boynton pedigree; Boyntons appear only in pedigrees of other families.

1563-1564 -- Norcliffe, Charles Best, ed. (1881) The Visitation of Yorkshire in the Years 1563 and 1564, Made by William Flower, Esquire, The Publications of the Harleian Society, vol. 16. There are two Boyntons pedigrees: 1) The Acklam to Barmston line; 2) The Christopher Boynton line. There are many references to Boyntons in other family trees.

1563-1564, 1567 -- Dendy, Frederick Walter, ed. (1920) Visitations of the North or Some Early Heraldic Visitations or, and Collection of Pedigrees Relating to the North of England, The Publications of the Surtees Society, vol. 133. There are no Boynton pedigrees; Boyntons are listed in the pedigrees of other families.

1575 -- Blair, C. H. Hunter, ed. (1932) Visitations of Yorkshire and Northumberland in A.D. 1575 and a Book of Arms From Ashmole Ms. No. 834: Visitations of the North Part IV, The Publications of the Surtees Society, vol. 146. There is no Boynton  pedigree in this volume; there are only a few references to marriages of Boynton women.

1584-1585, 1612 -- Foster, Joseph, ed. (1875) The visitation of Yorkshire, made in the years 1584/5, by Robert Glover, Somerset herald; to which is added the subsequent visitation made in 1612, by Richard St. George, Norroy king of arms, with several additional pedigrees, including "The arms taken out of churches and houses at Yorkshire visitation, 1584/5," "Sir William Fayrfax' booke of arms," and other heraldic lists, with copious indices. Private publication. There is a Boynton of Sedbury account and an Acklam to Barmston account.

1664-1665 -- Davies, ed. (1859) The Visitation of the County Yorke, Begun in Ao DNI MDCLXV. and Finished in Ao DNI MDCLXVI. By William Dugdale, Esqr., The Publications of the Surtees Society, vol. 36. There are two Boynton pedigrees: 1) The Acklam to Barmston line; 2) Boyntons of Sadbery to Rawcliffe. Cross references are not indexed.

Now for the bad news. After wandering around wills and deeds a pedigree/family-tree produced by the family seems just what you are looking for. Not so. Imagine being asked about your family -- of 300 years ago. Most of us could not do that. Neither could the English families of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. At least they could not do it very well. These are interesting accounts. They are ancient. And they do provide information that is not otherwise available. But they can hardly be considered definitive. There are no dates. There are mistakes; they are inconsistent when comparing one and another. There are no sources. They are not as much to be trusted as documents of the time that Boyntons were living. However, they are much better in filling in not-heir sons and daughters than other sources.

So, they are interesting social/family history, and you might find something useful. But searcher beware!