Notes |
- Eventually mentally deranged. Eldest son.
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Tim Powys-Lybbe writes:
I have a copy of the National Trust guide to Beningbrough Hall, nr York, England. The Bourchiers used to own the Hall and the guide has a family tree at the end. This tree shows:
(a) That William Bourchier (1559-1584) married Katherine Barrington, daughter of Sir Thomas Barrington.
(b) They had a son Sir John Bourchier (d.1659) who was a parliamentarian and regicide.
(c) That the ownership of the estate passed through Sir John's son Barrington Bourchier and continued in the Bourchier family until the mid 1750s when the male Bourchier line died out.
The regicide Bourchier would have escaped any punishment because he died just before the Restoration.
There is absolutely no sign or possibility of the Bourchiers changing their name.
It may be worth adding that the Barringtons were also a strong Parliamentarian family. Sir Thomas' great-grandson, Sir John Barrington, was undoubtedly invited to join in the trial of Charles I but retired from politics rather than do this.
But Sir Thomas' son Francis married Joan Cromwell, aunt of the Protector who very definitely did sign the execution warrant.
And is it worth mentioning that politics apart, the first of these Sir Thomas Barringtons married Winifred Pole, an unfortunate lady who had had her father, her grandmother, her great-uncle, her great-grandfather all executed in the Tower by the order of various sovereigns. And her only brother was undoubtedly imprisoned in the Tower as a boy of around 10 and either died or was also executed there. Might not she have harboured some bitterness that was passed on to her descendants and relatives?
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Tim Powys-Lybbe
For a patchwork of bygones: www.powys.org
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