Page:The Boynton family and the family seat of Burton Agnes.djvu/14

Rh The name of this family, I believe, is derived from the village of Boynton, in the East Riding of the County of York, but how it came to be derived from this place I am unable to say. The name appears under various forms thus—Bouington, Bouincton, Bouinctona, Bouicton, Boington, Bovington, Bovinton, Bovingtona, Bovintona, Boyngton, Boynton. Until the beginning of the 14th century, Bovinton, Bovington, or Bouyngton were the forms generally used, but as early as 1307, I find the name spelt Boynton, though the older forms occur until the 15th century.

There are several MS. pedigrees and accounts of the family preserved at Burton Agnes, namely:—

(1) An heraldically blazoned pedigree on three skins of parchment sewed together. This pedigree begins with Bartholomew de Boynton followed by fifteen generations to Francis Boynton who married Dorothy Place about 1585. The reference to Bartholomew de Boynton in this pedigree is the oldest reference to him that I have found. The pedigree itself probably drawn up towards the end of the reign of Elizabeth, or early in that of James I, is not suggestive of accuracy, and written on the back of it, in faded ink, are the words "This is fale."

(2) An account of the family by Dade (?) (referred to in the following pages as MS. Acc. at B.A.) beginning with Bartholomew de Boynton and giving thirty-one