Capt. Richard Bonython

• 'Full text of "The Bonython family of Maine"
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• Pedigree.
• 1. RALPH1 BONYTHON, of Bonython, Cornwall, paid a subsidy in the parish of Cury, 15 Henry VIII. He married twice, probably, (1) Elizabeth Downe, and (2) Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Erissey [Inq. Post. Mort. (James Erissey), 35 Hen. VIII. 62; comp. Coles Esch. Harl. Mss., No. 757, p. 38] and had issue:
  • 2. RICHARD2 BONYTHON (Ralph1), also paid subsidy as above at the same time, but died the next year (1535), as his wife Jane, daughter and heir of John Durant of Pensinans, Cornwall, was a widow 16 Henry VIII., at Bodmin, where she was taxed. He had issue:
    • 3. JOHN3 BONYTHON (Richard,2 Ralph1), paid a subsidy in the parish of Curry, 1559; he married Eleanor, daughter and co-heir of Job Myllayton of Pengerswick Castle, St. Breock, Kirrier ; Governor of St. Michael's Mount. [Lake, Parochial History of Cornwall, i. 134, 137.] The Myllaytons became possessed of Pengerswick Castle, temp. Henry VIII., and Job Myllayton was made governor of St. Michaels in 1547 in place of Humphrey Arundell of Helland, who was executed for treason. Issue :
      • 4. i. RESKYMER, son and heir.
      • '5. ii. RICHARD, the emigrant to Maine.
      • iii. EDMOND.
      • iv. WILLIAM.
      • v. JOHN, Captain of Pendennis Castle.
      • vi. ELIZABETH, m. Henry Pomeroy, Mayor of Tregony, 15 April, 1600.
      • vii. ANNE, m. Walter Roscarrock, 15 Oct. 1606.
      • 4. RESKYMER4 BONYTHON (John,3 Richard,2 Ralph1), was High Sheriff of Cornwall, 17 James I. [Tonkin, History of Cornwall, I. 287], and died 6 April, 1627 [lnq. Post Mort. 17 Chas. I. (pt. i.) No. 73] ; married Loveday, daughter of William Kendall of Lostwithiel [Carew, Survey of Cornwall (1602), p. 109], by whom he had issue : . . . . .
      • '5. RICHARD4 BONYTHON (John,3 Richard,2 Ralph1), was baptized at St. Columb Major, 3 April, 1580, the second son of John3 Bonython of Bonython. It is possible that he is the Richard Bonython who was Comptroller of the Stannaries of Cornwall and Devonshire, 1603 and 1604, and keeper of the Gaol at Lostwithiel in 1603 [Calender of State Papers, Domestic]. He came to Saco in 1631, bringing with him, as a copartner of Thomas Lewis, a patent, dated 12 February, 1629-30, for a large tract of land four miles by eight upon the East side of the Saco River, of which livery of seizen was given 28 June, 1631, following. His associate had " already been at the charge to transport himself and others to take a view of New England for the bettering his experience in the advancing a plantation," as is recited in the grant. I suppose that his emigration to this almost unknown land may be explained by recalling that he was not in the line of succession to the family seat and honors, his brother Reskymar having in 1620 a son and grandson to inherit the property. I judge also that he had been a soldier in some of the French wars, perhaps serving with Sir Ferdinando Gorges, from whom he imbibed some of the enthusiasm of " that grave knight" respecting the New England. This seems to be confirmed by his universal title of " Captain Bonython," as well as by a letter from Richard Vines to John Winthrop, 25 January, 1640, in which he says : "It seems the governor [Dudley] makes a question that Sir Ferdinando Gorges was not in the Ffrench wars in his tyme. Capt. Bonython intreats me to write a word or two thereof,"* and then he proceeds to detail the facts as stated by him. This martial career secured to him an authoritative position among the early settlers, and he was undoubtedly a local magistrate under the " combination " government of Richard Vines, before the arrival in 1635 of Deputy Governor William Gorges. When this new executive officer arrived, he organized his first court 25 March, 1635-6, at the house of Captain Richard Bonython, who was then appointed one of the Provincial Commissioners, and in 1640, under the first charter, he was appointed one of the Councillors to Deputy Governor Thomas Gorges. We have no means of estimating his character except through negative testimony, and it is a legitimate inference that he must have been a man of ability and honor to have retained the respect and confidence of his fellow citizens for so many years.
      • 'The court records are free from any charges impugning his moral,
        • * 4 Mas.". Hist. Coll. vii. Wintlirop Papers.
      • http://www.archive.org/stream/bonythonfamilyof00bank#page/5/mode/1up
      • 'social or political character, and to this is added the positive evidence that as a judge he spared not his own son from the utmost rigors of the law. One scrap of exemporaneous history affords us a sidelight into his character. Rev. Thomas Jenner, the Puritan minister at Saco [1640-6], writing to Governor Winthrop, says: "Mr Vines & the captaine [Richard Bonython] both have timely expressed themselves to be utterly against church-way, saying their patent doth prohibit the same." Parson Jenner's "church-way " did not suit loyal Captain Richard or Deputy Governor Vines, for the latter says : " I like Mr. Jenner his life and conversacion and also his preaching, if he would lett the Church of England alone ; that doth much trouble me to hear our mother church questioned for her impurity upon every occasion."* Richard Bonython served as Councillor through 1645, and died about 1650. [Folsom, Saco and Biddeford, 113] By wife, whose name I judge to be Lucretia, he had issue :
        • 9. i. JOHN, son and heir.
        • ii. ___, m. Richard Foxwell.
        • iii. ___, m. Richard Cummings.
        • 9. JOHN5 BONYTHON (Richard,4 John,3 Richard,2 Ralph1), born certainly before 1620, was the opposite of his father, for he lived a life of debauchery and outlawry during twenty years of his existence. The first court held at his father's house in 1636, brings him to view as the father of an illegitimate child, and his excesses developed to such a degree in 1645, that " threatening to kill and slay any person that should lay hands on him," the court, at which his father again sat, adjudged him "outlawed and incapable of any of his Majesty's laws, and proclaim[ed] him a Rebell." [York Court Records.] . . . .
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RICHARD BONYTHON of Saco 1636, a captain, and appointed assistant of the plantation there, 2 Sept. 1639, d. a. 1650. 

• Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire
• page 99
• ‡capt. Richard,patentee of what is now Saco and Old Orchard, s. of John Bonython and Elinor, d. of Wm. Myleinton. Although his father inherited the manor of Bonython in the parish of Cury, almost at Land's End, Richard was b. at the maternal est. in St. Columb Major on the Cornish north coast, bp. 3 Apr. 1580. As a younger son he was trained to arms and commanded a company in the wars with France. The Lewis and Bonython patent, 4 × 8 miles, was like several others except that it was taken more seriously. Mr. Lewis had been over before it was granted, came over with it and remained in charge here, while Capt. Bonython remained behind to send over the 50 people whom they were to send within seven yrs. Nothing indicates his earlier arrival here except that his house was ready for the first court held in the Province, 25 Mar. 1636, when William Gorges appar. gave place to him in the center of bench. See Doc. Hist. iii. 92, 96. P. & C. i. passim. Folsom's ‘Saco’ does full credit to his character and conduct under difficult circumstances. He sat in the court held 6 July 1646 after Mr. Vines left the country, and 14 July 1647 he exch. lands with Dr. Robert Child for a lot for his dau. Elizabeth on the other side of the river. He may not have d. here, and may have taken John with him, but cert. he was dead or away by 1654, when John was pulling down the buildings of his brothers-in-law. His grs., a child, Thomas Cummings, is termed ‘executor to Capt. Richard Bonython,’ but the will has not been found. Lists 235, 241, 242, 281. He m. Lucretia Leigh, d. of Wm. and Phillippa (Prest) of St. Thomas-by-Launceston. Living 1647. The bap. of their ch. are rec. in the parish of St. Breage: Grace, bp. Apr. 1610. Elizabeth, bp. Sep. 161-. List 235. M. ab. 1647 Richard Cummings(3). Susannah, bp. Feb. 1614, m. Richard Foxwell
• Volume 1
• Hide, blushing glory, hide Pultova's day.
• page 211
• Bonython, RICHARD, Saco 1631, was a capt. and magistr. andheld court 25 Mar. 1636, and d. a. 1650, paid as large a rate for support of min. as any one in 1636. His d. Sarah m. Richard Foxwell, and ano. m. Richard Codman. Bonython is the name of a place in Cornwall.

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===References 

* “Pomeroy Twigs: Boynthon” < link >