Fay Sampson’s Family History
This site is a work-in-progress. There is a massive amount to cover. I have included both male and female lines, and some go back 30 generations. Keep coming back for more.
I have numbered the generations working backwards from my own as (1)
HENRY BURTON and ALICE DE BOYS (20)
HENRY BURTON was the son of Gilbert Burton and Isabell Dunn. [1] He was born in Halberton, 3 miles east of Tiverton, in 1352.
He had a brother Gilbert.
This was a critical time. The Black Death had ravaged the country in 1349, killing half the population. There was a desperate shortage of labour. Workers left their feudal lords without permission to seek higher wages in the towns. The landowners responded by strictly enforcing the Statute of Labourers in 1351, forcing the workers to accept pre-plague payment levels. It led to national unrest.
Henry was born into the landowning class.
Both his parents died young, his mother in 1356 and his father in 1357. Henry would only have known them for a few years.
ALICE DE BOYS was the child of John de Boys. Some family trees make her mother Eustace Sandeby, but it is more likely that she married a different John de Boys in Norfolk.
Alice was born in or before 1362. Some researchers give her birth date as 1356.
Her father was lord of the manor of Halberton. This manor had been in the hands of the de Boys (Bosco) family for six generations.
Alice was their only child and a wealthy heiress. Her parents were both considerable landowners.
When Henry and Alice married, it would have been thought that Henry had made an advantageous match.
St Andrew’s, Halberton [2]
Their lands brought them into contention with the parson of Moretonhampstead, who had holdings in the Halberton area.
Plea of Covenant. 1382. [3]
| County: | Devon. |
| Place: | Westminster. |
| Date: | The day after Ascension, 5 Richard [II] [16 May 1382]. |
| Parties: | Henry de Brokelond’, the parson of the church of Moreton’, querent, and Henry de Burton’ and Alice, his wife, deforciants. |
| Property: | The manor of Halberton’, 5 messuages, 1 carucate of land and 30 acres of meadow in Fennewallebeere and Brethenebottome and a moiety of the hundred of Halberton’. |
| Agreement: | Henry de Burton’ and Alice have acknowledged the manor, tenements and moiety to be the right of Henry de Brokelond’. |
| For this: | Henry de Brokelond’ has granted to Henry de Burton’ and Alice the manor, tenements and moiety and has rendered them to them in the same court, to hold to Henry de Burton’ and Alice and the heirs of their bodies, of the chief lords for ever. In default of such heirs, the manor, tenements and moiety shall remain to the right heirs of Alice. |
Two years later, their daughter Margaret was born in 1384.
Alice, and perhaps Henry, would have seen the installation of the pulpit in Halberton’s church around 1400. Pre-Reformation pulpits are rare, and Halberton’s is in a fine state of preservation.
The most commonly quoted death date for Alice is 1387, in the reign of Richard II.
We can be more certain about Henry. He died on 31 Jan 1396, aged 44.
[1]Dave Badley. https://gw.geneanet.org/belfast8?lang=en&n=burton&oc=0&p=henry
[2] https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04/59/01/4590179_f0c93749.jpg
[3] National Archives. CP 25/1/44/63, number 37
NEXT GENERATION: 19. PAULET-BURTON
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