In recent posts I’ve explored the family of my 11th great grandmother Agnes Byne née Fowle, discussing first the family of her father Magnus Fowle and latterly that of her mother Alice Lucke. In this post I’m returning to Agnes and her husband, my 11th great grandfather Edward Byne. I provided an outline of Edward’s life in an earlier post, in which I noted that he and Agnes had five sons who survived them: Magnus, born in 1576; William, in 1579; Edward in 1581; Stephen in 1586; and John in 1599 I’ll write about Stephen, who was my 10th great grandfather, in a separate post, but in this post I want to share what I’ve discovered about his three brothers.
Magnus Byne of Framfield
Magnus was the eldest son of Edward and Agnes Byne. Named after his grandfather Magnus Fowle, he was the first of a confusing number of Byne family members to bear that name. Magnus was baptised at Burwash on 4th November 1576, a little over a year after his parents’ marriage, and in the seventeenth year of the reign of Elizabeth I. In 1595, when Magnus was just nineteen, his maternal grandfather Magnus Fowle appointed him co-executor, with his mother Agnes, of his last will and testament. Although Magnus Fowle decreed that, on his death, his son-in-law Edward Byne should have the profits of his various properties, he also stated that after five years these should pass to his grandson Magnus Byne, and also that following the death of his mother Agnes, all of the property left to her should pass to him.
Renshaw’s history of the Byne family (pages 107-8) notes that in 1602, when Magnus was twenty-six years old, ‘Cortelands in Ticehurst were mortgaged by John Humfrey to Magnus Byne to secure £54 10s. made payable at the house of “Edward Byne the father in Burwash”.’
Two years later, in 1604, Magnus married Elizabeth Polhill of Burwash: in the licence he is described as a gentleman of Burwash. One of the sureties named in the licence was Hamond Hardiman of Cliff, near Lewes. Hardiman, a glover by trade, was married to Mary Harman, daughter of John Harman, the Lewes merchant who married Agnes, sister of Magnus Fowle: in other words, he was Magnus Byne’s second cousin. His name on Magnus’ marriage licence, and his involvement with Magnus in a bond mentioned elsewhere by Renshaw (page 109) suggests a continuing close relationship between Magnus and his mother’s family.
I assume that Elizabeth Polhill was related in some way to the family of that name who would later be linked with others in my Byne and Manser family trees. For example, Edward and John Polhill would both be named as witnesses to the will of Magnus Byne’s brother Stephen, while the 1674 will of Nicholas Manser of Hightown refers to Edward Polhill as a cousin. Edward Polhill was almost certainly the eminent Puritan author of that name, and he and John were the sons of Thomas Polhill and his wife Faintnot – the latter being a popular Puritan name.
According to one source, the author Edward Polhill was born in 1622:
He entered Gray’s Inn on 16 June 1638–9, and was called to the bar, but he chiefly divided his time between the care of his family estates in Burwash, Sussex, where he was justice of the peace, and the compilation of religious tracts, somewhat Calvinistic in temper, but supporting the established church.
If, as seems likely, the Elizabeth Polhill who married Magnus Byne was a member of the same family, then their marriage is interesting in providing possible evidence of a shift from Catholic sympathies to Puritanism in two generations.
Magnus and Elizabeth Byne had a daughter named Elizabeth who died in infancy and was buried at Burwash on 22nd June 1606. Magnus’ wife Elizabeth would die, perhaps in childbirth, just over a year later and be buried on 28th July 1607.
Renshaw states that in July 1606 Magnus Byne was admitted to Croxted and other ‘extensive copyholds’ of the manor of Framfield, which was about twelve miles to the west of Burwash. In the following year he was plaintiff and his father Edward was deforciant in a fine levied as to lands in Ringmer. Perhaps these were lands bequeathed by Magnus Fowle, but it’s unclear whether this case is evidence of a disagreement between father and son.
On 23rd August 1608 Magnus Byne married for a second time, at Kingston Bowsey (now Kingston By Sea) to Bathshua Newington, daughter of Morgan Newington of that parish and his wife Elizabeth Stephens. Bathshua’s first name hints at her parents’ religious sympathies. Two of Bathshua’s brothers married daughters of Goddard Hepden of Burwash with even more obviously Puritan names: Samuel Newington married Hopestill Hepden, and Thomas Newington married her sister Fearnot; another relative, Zabulon Newington, married a third sister, Goodgift. Morgan Newington’s will of 1610 mentions his daughter ‘Bathshua Byne’ while his widow Elizabeth’s will of 1622 bequeaths ‘to the four children of Magnus Byne my sonne in law 10s. each’ (Renshaw, page 108).
Magnus’ father Edward Byne died in 1614. Edward’s will divides his household effects between his sons and also bequeaths them sums of money, but makes no mention of his land holdings. This may mean that he had made provision for these properties elsewhere.
Parish church of St Thomas à Becket, Framfield, Sussex (via wikipedia)
In 1611 Magnus Byne, ‘gent.’ was a churchwarden at Framfield. His second wife Bathshua was buried there on 22nd July 1620. Eight years later, on 17th June 1628, Magnus married for a third time, to Elizabeth Manser, widow of Abraham Manser of Wenbourne. Abraham was the younger brother of my 11 x great grandfather John Manser of Wadhurst, whose daughter Mary had married Magnus’ brother, my 10 x great grandfather Stephen Byne, in 1611. Elizabeth Manser had been born a Byne: her father was a certain John Byne of Burwash (Renshaw, pages 194 & ff) whose precise connection with my Byne ancestors I’m still trying to establish.
Renshaw mentions a purchase of land in Burwash made by Magnus Byne in 1629, and in 1642 a court case relating to properties in Battle and Ticehurst. Magnus Byne made his will on 7th May 1647. He died shortly afterwards and was buried on 13th May at Framfield.
Magnus Byne had four children. John, his firstborn, was mentioned in his grandfather Edward’s will of 1611, so must have been the child of Magnus’ first or second marriage, but I have no further information about him. His daughter Agnes was also mentioned in her grandfather’s will. She married John Bennett of Lewes in about December 1639.
Another son, Magnus Byne junior, married Mary Durrant in 1637. He seems to have inherited a considerable amount of property in Framfield from his father, so perhaps his older brother John died young leaving Magnus as the heir. Magnus and Mary Byne had a number of children, including yet another Magnus Byne, also a gentleman of Framfield, who married Constance, widow of John Osbaldiston, a recusant.
Little is known about Magnus Byne’s third son, Thomas, except that he seems to have inherited property in Ringmer and also to have owned land in East Hoathly. Renshaw suggests that he is probably the Thomas Byne who was buried at Burwash in August 1667 and who had children named Elizabeth, Thomas and William.
William Byne
William, the second son of Edward and Agnes Byne, was baptised at Burwash on 15th October 1579, He died a bachelor and was buried at Burwash on 28th August 1628. In his will of April that year, William made bequests to John and Magnus, the sons of his older brother Magnus; to Dorothy, Mary and Elizabeth, the daughters of his brother Edward; and to Magnus (my 9th great grandfather), son of his brother Stephen, to whom he left ‘my peece of silver of 5s. called George on Horseback’. William also left his Bible to John, another son of Stephen, and some household items to Stephen’s daughter Elizabeth and to Agnes, daughter of his brother Magnus.
The residue of his estate William left to his brothers Magnus and Stephen, whom he appointed executors. He divided his lands in Waldron, Burwash and Ticehurst between his brother Edward and his nephews Magnus (son of Magnus of Framfield) and John (son of Stephen), and bequeathed other property in Ticehurst to his brother Magnus and his heirs.
Edward Byne
Edward, the third son of Edward and Agnes Byne, was baptised at Burwash on 21st May 1581. In his history of the Byne family, Renshaw states that a number of records place Edward in Framfield (like his older brother Magnus) in the years 1609 and 1612. Intriguingly, one of these records relates to a bill which Edward filed in Chancery against Elizabeth, daughter of John Markwick of Heathfield, yeoman, to recover ‘one goulde ring of the value of 40s. or thereabouts’, which he had entrusted to her as an engagement ring (Renshaw, page 117).
On 4th May 1615 Edward married Dorothy Alchorne at Rotherfield. Afterwards he lived in Catsfield, where on a couple of occasions he got into trouble with the rector for not paying his tithes. Renshaw (page 118) mentions a number of legal cases which provide us with detailed information about Edward’s land holdings in Catfield.
Parish church of St Laurence, Catsfield (photo by Nick MacNeill, via Wikipedia)
Edward and Dorothy Byne had one son, Edward, who was born in 1616 and died when he was only a few months old, and three daughters: Dorothy, Mary and Elizabeth (all mentioned in the will of their uncle William: see above). Dorothy Byne the younger did not marry and was buried at Catsfield in 1629. Mary, baptised at Catsfield in 1617, married first in 1635 to Edmund Colvill, who died in 1637, leaving a son Thomas and daughter Mary, and secondly in 1637 to John Carpenter; she died in about March 1644. Elizabeth Byne married John Wimshurst, by whom she had a son named Richard and a daughter Dorothy.
Edward Byne made his will on 10th December 1647, appointing his wife Dorothy as sole executrix and his brother Stephen as one of the overseers. The will includes bequests to his daughter Elizabeth of properties in Catsfield known as Heardsbeake, Somerleas and Twiserly, which were all previously owned by his father Edward.
Dorothy, the widow of Edward Byne, made her will in March 1656, appointing her grandson Thomas Colvill as sole executor, and making bequests to her daughter Elizabeth Wimshurst and grandchildren Richard and Dorothy Wimshurst.
Richard Wimshurst and Thomas Colvill sold Heardsbeake, Somerleas and Twyserlye to James Markwick, citizen and clockmaker of London (Renshaw, page 122). The latter may have been a relation of Gregory Markwick of Wadhurst who had married Elizabeth, daughter of my 10 x great grandfather Stephen Byne, in 1632, and perhaps of the John Markwick of Heathfield mentioned above.
John Byne
John, the youngest son of Edward and Agnes Byne, was baptised at Burwash on 6th April 1589. Like his older brother William he never married. He was buried at Burwash on 7th February 1616. In his will John bequeathed land to his brother Stephen and money to his brothers William and Edward. He left his mother Agnes the residue of his goods and appointed her as his executor, making his brother Magnus and ‘cozen’ David Foster overseers. One of the witnesses was John Byne the elder, whom Renshaw identifies with John, the son of Thomas Byne and grandson of Richard Byne of Ticehurst who was born in 1576 and died in 1630, and was thus (I think) the second cousin of the testator. This John Byne’s brother Joseph is also mentioned in the will. The will also includes bequests to Ann Lucke ‘my kinswoman’ and to Rose Lucke, who must have been related in some way to Alice Lucke, John’s maternal grandmother.
Edward Byne died in 1611 and his wife Agnes in 1626. In the next post I’ll discuss what we can learn from their respective wills.