Ancestors

William Boynton of Knapton

William Boynton, husbandman, of Knapton, a hamlet in the parish of Wintringham in the East Riding of Yorkshire. He made his will on 2 July 1615, describing himself as "sicke of bodie, but of good and pfet remembrance," and asked to be buried in the parish church ground at Wintringham.

The will divides his family in two. There are grown children: a son Francis, whose wife Anne gets five shillings, and a son Daniel, who gets ten. Then there are four who are not grown. He leaves his wife Margaret the lease of the house and farmhold "dueringe her widowhood, to bring up my children," and provides that if she remarries the lease is to be split equally between "my said children John Boynton, William Boynton, Anne Boynton, and Margery Boynton." Each of the four also gets a sheep hogg. The residue goes to a son William, whom he makes full executor. James Boynton and Francis Boynton witnessed it.

A John and a William of Knapton, young enough in 1615 to need bringing up, are taken to be the two brothers who sailed for New England twenty three years later in Ezekiel Rogers's company and settled at Rowley. The 1897 Boynton genealogy gives their births as 1605 and 1614. The Wintringham register, which runs through both years, has neither: it has a William baptised on 23 July 1613 and no John.

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Cite: Heirology, "William Boynton of Knapton (d. 1615)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/william-boynton-of-knapton-1615-e07a41.