The First Boyntons

The search for the first Boyntons seems founded in the same human propensity that leads us to search for the first moment of history. If you can trace the second, third, fourth ... moments of history there must be a first. If you can line up Boyntons in sequence -- Walter begat William, William begat Ingram, etc. -- there must be a first Boynton.

One candidate for first Boynton is Bartholomew. His story goes something like this. The time was 1066. Bart joined up with Bill, and they charged across the channel in search of fame and fortune. Bill was rather more successful in the fame department; he is still known as William the Conquerer. But Bart got the Boynton manor. That makes the first Boynton a conquering Norman, which would put the family in good company. There is only one problem with this story. There is no evidence that a Bartholomew de Boynton ever existed. Bartholomew appeared in a number of 19th century accounts of the Boynton lineage. But he always appeared without evidence, and assertions of existence in the 19th century seem a bit late. Poulson, for example, includes Bartholomew, and in a footnote acknowledges that there is no reason to believe that there ever was a Bartholomew.

A second candidate for first Boynton is Torchil. We do have evidence about Torchil. In the Doomsday book Torchil is listed as lord of the manor in Boynton. By that we know both that the village of Boynton was already there in 1066, and that Torchil was the lord of the manor before William arrived. There are two problems with making Torchil the first Boynton. First, Torchil was quite well to do. He held, either alone or in conjunction with others, more than 60 manors in north England. By the logic that would make him the first Boynton he would also be first of 60+ family lineages. Second, by 1088 William had thoroughly overturned the social structure of Yorkshire. Twenty years of bloody war with the northerners put his own people in place. Torchil did manage to escape with his head, which was better than most of the pre-William northern knights, but he only retained two of his manors. Neither was Boynton. So by 1088 Torchil had left Boynton behind and was off to Agglethorpe.

The third candidate for first Boynton is the village. The argument is: at the time persons in the village began to need to affix their names to documents they took the name of their village. In village Boynton there were few Walters or Adams. But as soon as Walter began to sign papers that were important beyond the village he needed another name to differentiate him from all of the other Walters in Yorkshire. What better name than Adam de Boynton or Walter de Boynton.

The earliest documents we can find are from the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century. What we find is three de Boyntons with no hint about their genetic connections. Walter is one of the de Boyntons, and we do know his lineage. But there is nothing about the family connections with the other de Boyntons. What they do have in common is being involved in transactions that were recorded. Often the transactions involved property in the parish Boynton, but that is only a minority of the transactions. Often several Boyntons were involved in the same transactions, but that is also a minority of the transactions. Who are these first Boyntons?

As far as we can tell Walter is the oldest and the busiest of the de Boyntons. He was witness on transactions as early as 1170. Even though he was located in York as senechal of St. Marys Abbey he also had land in Boynton and was involved in transactions concerning that land. He was also deputy sheriff of Yorkshire one year and served on the king's court one year that it met in Yorkshire. Walter was a public figure who required a differentiating last name. His sons William and Rabod were a second generation of public figures. Both were involved in affixing their names to documentation of transactions, though neither was as active a public figure as their father.

Adam de Boynton was a contemporary of Walter. We have ten documents with his name on them from the late 12th century as well as into the 13th century. Two of them were connected with village Boynton. He and Walter were both involved in four of the transactions. The only child of Adam that we know was Alan. Alan was involved in five transactions for which we have documents, and three of them concerned property in Boynton.

Gilbert de Boynton represented the Faulkenbergs in court in 1200. That is all we know about him.

Three de Boyntons. Three public figures who needed a last name to be public figures. Walter and Adam and their sons were all associated with the village of Boynton.

The first Boyntons:-- village Boynton becoming instantiated in public figures.