Boynton Parish information from Bulmers' 1892.

BOYNTON:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1892.

Wapentake and Petty Sessional Division of Dickering - County Council Electoral Division of Burton Agnes - Poor Law Union and County Court District of Bridlington - Rural Deanery of Bridlington - Archdeaconry of the East Riding - Diocese of York.

This parish and township lies to the west of Bridlington, and is intersected by the Gypsey Race, which enters the sea at Bridlington Quay. The total area, according to the Ordnance Survey, is 2,612 acres; the rateable value is £2,714. and the population in 1891 was 128. The soil is loamy; subsoil, chalk, and gravel; and the chief crops are wheat, oats, and barley. Sir Charles William Strickland, Bart., is lord of the manor and sole proprietor.

The manor of Bovington (i.e., the ton or inclosure of the Bovings, an Anglian sept or clan) subsequently contracted into Boynton, was held in the time of Edward the Confessor, by Torchil, and a year or two later, when the survey was taken, it was in the possession of Bartholomew de Bovington, but whether this Bartholomew was a foreigner who had received a grant of the manor for his services at the battle of Hastings; or whether he was the son or grandson of the Anglian Torchil, who had managed to retain his patrimony, and was styled from the place de Bovington, is uncertain. His descendants resided here till the reign of Henry VII., when they acquired Barmston by marriage with the daughter and heiress of Sir Martin de la See, Knt., and subsequently, by another fortunate marriage, they obtained Burton Agnes, the present seat of the Boynton family.

The village, small but picturesque, is delightfully situated amidst luxuriant woods, 2½ miles west of Bridlington. The church, which is dedicated to St. Andrew, is a brick and stone edifice, consisting of chancel, nave, and embattled western tower, containing two bells. The nave and chancel were rebuilt in 1768, in an unecclesiastical style - a mixture of Greek and Gothic which prevailed during the last century. The tower belongs to the previous church, and is a very fine example of the Perpendicular style. The lower chamber forms a porch, and the the next storey a gallery. The space between the communion table and the east end is the mortuary chapel of the Stricklands, and on the walls are several monuments of the family. The oldest is that of Sir William Strickland, the first baronet, who died in 1673; another is that of Elizabeth, wife of Sir Thomas Strickland, who died in 1674. There were formerly some other and more ancient monuments in the church, but they have disappeared. They are mentioned by Dodsworth, in his MSS., who quotes the Latin inscriptions which they bore. One was the tomb of Sir Robert Newport and Margaret, his wife, both of whom died A.D. 1383. It bore a brass on which was the figure of a knight in armour, kneeling. Another stone recorded the burial of Thomas Newport and Elizabeth, his wife, daughter and heiress of John Boynton, son and heir of Sir Robert Boynton, who died in A.D. 1423. The east window contains some stained glass and also the year of the rebuilding of the church. The nave is fitted with oldfashioned high-backed pews, in which the people sit facing each other. On the outside of the tower, in a niche high up in the wall, is a statue of St. Andrew, the patron saint of the church. The register dates from the year 1573. The living is a vicarage, valued in the Liber Regis at £7 14s. 2d., and now worth £218 nett, in the gift of Sir Charles William Strickland, Bart. (the impropriator), and held by the Rev. Coleman Ivens. The tithe rent-charge is £140, and there are about 52 acres of glebe. The vicarage house is a commodious old mansion, standing within its own well-kept grounds on the north side of the church.

There is one name in connection with this church that will long be held in affectionate remembrance. It is that of Miss Mary Emily Simpson, daughter of the late Rev. Francis Simpson, vicar of the parish. She was an indefatigable coworker with her father, devoting all her time and her energies to the mental and spiritual improvement of the farm lads of Boynton and Carnaby. She not only gathered them together after the toils of the day were over, but might frequently be seen walking along with them while at work, over the ploughed fields, imparting to them good advice, and persuasively entreating them to attend her night-classes. She has given us an account of her labours in a work entitled, "Ploughing and Sowing; or the Annals of an Evening School in a Yorkshire Village, and the work that grew out of it: By a Clergyman's Daughter."

BOYNTON HALL, the seat of Sir Charles William Strickland, Bart., is a large mansion of red brick in the Queen Anne style, beautifully situated in a wellwooded park. This family was originally seated at Strickland, in Westmorland, or Stirkland, as the name was anciently written, that is, pasture land for stirks or young cattle. They are said to have been settled there before the Conquest, and to have taken their name from the place. But Miss Strickland, authoress of "The Queens of England," offers a more fanciful origin. The first of the name, she says, was a Fleming, who came to England in the train of the Conqueror. He was the leader of a band of Norman bowmen, and when the vessels approached the English shore he leaped from the deck, and, reaching terra firma before his companions, struck the ground with his sword as a token of conquest - hence the name Strikeland. The earliest notice of the family on record occurs in 1216, when Gilbert, the fourth baron of Kendal, having joined the rebellious barons against King John, gave hostages for his future fidelity, and amongst them was the son and heir of Walter de Strickland. This Walter gave to St. Mary's Abbey, York, and to Wetheral Priory, Cumberland - an offshoot of that house - four acres of land and leave to grind corn at his mill in Stirkland, moulter free. Subsequently, by marriage with the heiress of Ralph D'Eincourt, of Sizergh Castle, Westmorland, they obtained possession of that estate, which thenceforth became the family residence. Several members of the family have distinguished themselves in the civil and military history of the country, and received the honour of knighthood. It was a Strickland who bore the banner of St. George at the evermemorable battle of Agincourt, in 1415. In the contentions which arose between the Houses of York and Lancaster, Walter Strickland, Esq., espoused the cause of the latter, and marched, with the Red Rose in his cap, at the head of 290 men from his various manors, half of whom were provided with horses, and the other half without.

The founder of the Boynton branch was William Strickland, who is supposed to have been descended from a younger branch of the Stricklands of Sizergh. He was a cadet under Sebastian Cabot in those voyages of discovery which resulted in revealing the existence of North America. After his return, he purchased Boynton and other estates, and was granted new armorial bearings in remembrance of his American discoveries, by the style of Strykeland of Boynton-on-theWolds, with the turkey for his crest, instead of the warlike holly of the elder line. This crest was assumed in allusion to his being the first to introduce the turkey into this country. He is supposed to be the same person that represented Scarborough in several parliaments, from 1558 to 1585.

His grandson, Sir William Strickland, Knt., was created a baronet by Charles I. in 1641, but he shortly afterwards transferred his allegiance to the usurper, Cromwell, by whom he was summoned to the Other House, as the House of Peers was then called, by the style of Lord Strickland.

Sir William, the third baronet, was a distinguished member of parliament in the reigns of William III., Queen Anne, and George I., and for some time represented the county of York. His son, Sir William, fourth baronet, was one of the Lords of the Treasury, and subsequently Secretary of War in the reign of George II.

Sir George, the late baronet, was the son of Sir William, the sixth baronet, and Henrietta, daughter and co-heiress of Nathaniel Cholmley, Esq., of Whitby and Howsham. He sat for some time as M.P. for the West Riding, and afterwards for Preston. He married Mary, only child of the Rev. Charles Constable, of Wassand, by whom he had three sons and one daughter. He married, secondly, in 1867, Jane, eldest daughter of Thomas Leavens, Esq. He died in 1874, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir Charles William, the eighth and present baronet.

The hall contains a small collection of marble statuary, and amongst the pictures are the portraits of Cabot's lieutenant and Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I., who visited the hall during her stay at Bridlington, and carried away the plate, probably for coinage.

On an eminence between Boynton and Carnaby is a lofty pavilion, known as Carnaby Temple. It was built by the late Sir George Strickland, on the model of the Temple of the Winds at Athens. (See also Carnaby Parish.)

The poor have the interest of £60, left by an unknown donor, and they also participate with those of Carnaby in the interest of £60 left by Elizabeth Letitia u Strickland in 1803.

[Description(s) from Bulmer's History and Directory of East Yorkshire (1892)]

Directories

• Transcript of the entry for the Post Office, professions and trades in Bulmer's Directory of 1892.

Scan, OCR and html by Colin Hinson. Checking and correction by Peter Nelson.