Family and Education

bap. 26 May 1563, 1st s. of Edward Baynard by his 3rd w. educ. Clare, Camb. 1580; M. Temple 1581. m. Ursula (d.1623), da. of Sir Robert Stapleton of Wighill, Yorks., 1da. suc. fa. 1576. Kntd. 1618.

Offices Held

J.p. Wilts. by 1595, capt. of musters 1597, sheriff 1629-30.

Biography

Baynard sat for both Chippenham and Westbury through his local family influence, Chippenham being some two and Westbury some 12 miles from Lackham. According to Aubrey the family had, by grant from Edward III, traditional rights of hunting in the forest of Pewsham. If the King killed a deer in the forest, near enough to the river Avon, the lord of Lackham had a customary right of challenging it for his own. This Baynard exercised against James I. ‘O my soul’, said that King in disgust, ‘he was a wise King that made such a grant’.

The bulk of his property lay in and around Lackham. In all, he possessed lands, tenements, pastures and woods in Lacock, Lackham, Notton, Bewley, Reybridge, Chippenham and Bowdon. Together with a further 217 acres of close and pasture within the parish of Lacock and the tithes of grain and hay from demesne land of Lackham manor, the estate was valued at £41 6s.8d. per annum on his death, which occurred in June 1636. Lackham passed to the Montagu family through the marriage of Baynard’s daughter and heir Mary with the third son of Henry, 3rd Earl of Manchester.

Wilts. Arch. Mag. iv. 5-7; xlix. 170; xxxvii. 614; xliv. 80-82; Wilts. N. and Q. iii. 52, 168, 170, 171; APC, xxviii. 104; C142/175/101; Wilts. Colls. 95; CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 530; 1623-5, p. 568; 1635, pp. 379-80.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: W.J.J.

Notes