BOSON, Robert, of Sydenham, Som.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

m. Joan, da. and h. of John Sydenham* of Sydenham, wid. of Richard Cave and poss. of John Rawle,1 1s. 1da.

Offices Held

Biography

In March 1397, then described as ‘King’s esquire, of Somerset’, Boson received a grant of £25 from a bond forfeited in the Exchequer. He may have been a member of the royal household at this time, for earlier in the same month he had stood surety for Sir Simon Felbrigge (a knight of the Chamber and standard-bearer to Richard II), when the latter was granted custody of lands in his native Norfolk. Two years later, when Felbrigge accompanied the King to Ireland, Boson acted as his attorney at home. Contacts with the family were maintained, and in 1409 he served as proctor and attorney for Master John Felbrigge, prebendary of Wherwell (Hampshire). An explanation for this connexion may lie in a possible relationship to a Richard Boson, esquire, who later held property in Norfolk.2

It was in his wife’s right that Boson held the manor of Sydenham near Bridgwater, which gave him some influence in the locality and enabled him to secure election to Parliament. In 1417 he and his wife relinquished the manor to the father-in-law of Philip Cave, her son by a former marriage, and it remained with the Cave family. Boson, however, continued to hold some property in Sydenham and at ‘Kerdesbury’. In 1429 he and his wife settled their properties around Bridgwater, at Otterhampton, Brompton Ralph, Stockland Bristol and Cannington, on their son Ralph, their daughter Joan, and then, in default of heirs, on William Rawle and Philip Cave. Boson died within two years of this. His daughter married Martin Jacob*.3

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Notes

  • 1. J. Collinson, Hist. Som. iii. 87.
  • 2. CPR, 1396-9, pp. 108, 114, 554; 1408-13, p. 126; CFR, xi. 209; Norf. Fines ed. Rye, 409; F. Blomefield, Norf. xi. 205.
  • 3. Som. Feet of Fines (Som. Rec. Soc. xxii), 53, 77; Some Som. Manors (ibid. extra ser. 1931), 203; Feudal Aids, iv. 364, 434.