William Bonville

Abt 1332 - 1408  (~ 76 years)

• Name	William Bonville  [1]
  Birth	Abt 1332	of Shute, Devon, England   [2, 3]
  Gender	Male
  Alternate birth	Abt 1340	of Shute, Devon, England   [4]
  Death	11 Feb 1408  [5]
  Alternate death	14 Feb 1408  [2]
  Burial	Newenham Abbey, Devon, England   [2]
  Person ID	I7365	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of AP, Ancestor of DK, Ancestor of LMW, Ancestor of TNH, Ancestor of TSW, Ancestor of UKL
  Last Modified	7 Jan 2018

  
  

  Father	Nicholas de Bonville,   b. Abt 1293, of Shute, Devon, England d. Abt 1354 (Age ~ 61 years)
  Mother	Joan de Champernon,   b. of Ilfracombe, Barnstaple, Devon, England
  Family ID	F5171	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Margaret d'Aumarle,   b. Abt 1347, of Woodbury, St. Thomas, Devon, England d. 25 May 1399 (Age ~ 52 years)
  Marriage	Bef 1365  [2]
  Children	+ 1. Elizabeth Bonville   d. Bef 1 Nov 1452 + 2. John Bonville,   b. Abt 1371, of Chewton, Somerset, England d. 21 Oct 1396 (Age ~ 25 years)
  Family ID	F2638	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	10 Apr 2020

  
  

  Family 2	Alice   d. 27 Mar 1426
  Marriage	Bef 6 Jun 1402  [5]
  Family ID	F2212	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Nov 2016

  
  

• Notes

  "[A]mong the most prominent west-country gentry in the late fourteenth century, serving as MP for Devon and Somerset on ten and seven occasions respectively, and receiving a large number of local offices and commissions. He was a liveried retainer of the leading regional magnate, Edward Courtenay, earl of Devon, a close political and family bond that was destined to be violently sundered in the mid-fifteenth century." [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry on his namesake grandson] According to the History of Parliament: MP for Somerset, 1366; Devon, 1371, 1376, 1378, 1379, Nov 1380, 1381, May 1382, Oct 1382; Somerset Oct 1383, Apr 1384; Devon Apr 1384; Somerset Nov 1384, 1386, Feb 1388, 1393, 1395; Devon Jan 1397, Sep 1397; Somerset 1399; Devon 1402. He was also elected for Devon in Oct 1377 but was on active service overseas, so his seat was taken by Thomas Pomeroy. Not counting this last, this comes to twelve times for Devon and nine times for Somerset. Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset 1 Nov 1381 - 24 Nov 1382; of Devon, 15 Nov 1389 - 7 Nov 1390. "The Bonvilles, of French origin, established themselves in Devon shortly after the Conquest and by the end of the 14th century their wealth and standing in the county had become second only to that of the Courtenays. The antagonism between the heads of the respective families in the mid 15th century, which expressed itself on the battlefields of the Wars of the Roses and ended in the extinction of the main Bonville line, was exacerbated if not caused by jealousy of the material prosperity of the Bonvilles, for which Sir William himself was largely responsible. At his death in 1408 he was holding some 40 manors, and extensive lands and rents, in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire, providing his grandson and heir with an income sufficient to justify his elevation to the House of Lords. Such material assets led Sir William into wide fields of public service and military enterprise. In 1369 he served under the duke of Lancaster at Caux and later at Boulogne, and in October 1377 he was again absent overseas and unable to take his seat in Parliament. His military career, however, was only an interlude in a remarkably active political life: beginning in 1366, Bonville sat, either for Devon or Somerset, in 20 out of the 33 Parliaments convened in the next 36 years. His position in the West Country, if not already evident from this near monopoly, may be gauged by the frequency of his appointments to royal commissions, some of which were of major importance." [History of Parliament]

  
  

• Sources

  [S790] The Parochial and Family History of the Deanery of Trigg Minor by Sir John Maclean. London: Nicholls and Sons, 1873. [S47] The History of Parliament. Some citations point to entries from the printed volumes not yet added to the online site. [S238] Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd Edition by Douglas Richardson. 2011., place only. [S145] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis and Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr. 8th edition, William R. Beall & Kaleen E. Beall, eds. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2004, 2006, 2008. [S238] Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd Edition by Douglas Richardson. 2011.