BUFFKYN, Lewen (d.1617), of Gore Court, Otham, Kent.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

2nd but e. surv. s. of Ralph Buffkyn of Gore Court by his w. Alys. educ. G. Inn 1555. m. (1) Mary, da. of Christopher Roper of Lynsted, Kent, 3da.; (2) Anne, da. of Sir John Guldeforde, of Hempstead, Kent, 2s. 2da.; ?(3) Sibill.1

Offices Held

Biography

Buffkyn’s father, a resident of Dover in 1542, bought Gore Court in Otham parish, near Maidstone, in Edward VI’s reign. Buffkyn himself became the owner of a considerable amount of property in Kent, much of it in the Maidstone district, and by 1584 had acquired the lease of Maidstone parsonage, held of the archbishop of Canterbury. He also farmed various tithes for the archbishop. In 1595 he was among those requested in the will of a Maidstone merchant to supervise the administration by the mayor and jurats of a large charitable bequest to the poor of the town. It was clearly as a local man that he was returned to Parliament in 1593, together with his relation by marriage Sir Thomas Fludd. The Members for Maidstone were appointed to a committee concerning kerseys on 23 Mar. 1593.2

In his will, dated 14 Oct. 1616, Buffkyn asked for burial ‘without any pomp’. He left 40s. to the poor of Otham. To his wife he left £200 worth of goods, his property called Langley Park in Kent, an annuity of £20 from other lands in Langley parish and the profits of a messuage and some marshland on Romney Marsh. He provided for the children of his deceased eldest son from the profits of Maidstone parsonage. To his second son Ralph, sole executor, he left the lease of the site of Dover priory and some woodlands in Maidstone, and to his unmarried daughter Barbara an annuity of 100 marks. In a codicil he declared that, though he was convinced that there could be no ‘pretence’ of a wardship after his death, yet, as a safeguard, he had requested the master of the court of wards to grant any wardships that might be found to exist to his ‘loving friend’ Sir Thomas Walsingham, to his son Ralph Buffkyn, and to his grandson Sir Anthony Weldon. He considered them more suitable guardians of the property than the heir’s mother, who had re-married.3

Buffkyn died 24 Nov. 1617. There is a monument to him in Otham parish church.4

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: J.E.M.

Notes

  • 1. Vis. Kent (Harl. Soc. xlii), 83; (Harl. Soc. lxxv), 86-7; Harl. 1076, f. 31. His will (PCC 101 Weldon) calls his wife Sibill. This may have been an alternative christian name for his second wife.
  • 2. Vis. Kent (Harl. Soc. lxxv), 83; Arch. Cant. xi. 401; Hasted, Kent, passim; CSP Dom. 1598-1601, pp. 526, 553; Maidstone Recs. 43; PCC 54 Hudleston; D’Ewes, 507.
  • 3. PCC 101 Weldon.
  • 4. C142/377/87; Hasted, v. 518.