Edward Bayntun

Sir Edward Bayntun (c.148027 November? 1544), of Bromham, Wiltshire, was a gentleman at the court of Henry VIII of England. He was vice-chamberlain to Anne Boleyn, the King's second wife, and was the brother-in-law of Queen Katherine Howard, Henry VIII's fifth wife.

Early life Edward Bayntun was born around 1480, a son of Sir John Bayntun of Bromham. Some medieval and Tudor accounts record the name as "Baynton", though the spelling around the Tudor period was often "Bayntun". In 1516, Bayntun inherited the manors of Bromham and Faulston (Bishopstone, near Salisbury) after the death of his father. Faulstone manor had been owned from 1328 by an ancestor named Thomas Benton, but lost in 1475 after Sir Robert Bayntun supported Henry VI at the Battle of Tewkesbury, then regained by his son John (Sir Edward's father) in 1503.

Career at court Edward was a soldier and a courtier, and would be a favourite of Henry VIII, as well as a champion of religious reform. to Bromham House reconstructed as a gift to Sir Edward. "It bears the royal arms of the Tudors beneath the oriel window in the upper storey, and in the spandrels of the arch forming the gateway, those of Sir Edward Bayntun, the original builder and his first wife Elizabeth Sulliard, the daughter of Sir John Sulliard, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. Today this landmark is known to locals as Spye Arch."

In 1532, he was named Justice of the Peace for Wiltshire. In 1533, he became vice-chamberlain to Queen Anne Boleyn. He retained the position of vice-chamberlain to Henry VIII's queens for the rest of his life. In June 1535, the King and Queen went on progress through Gloucestershire and Wiltshire and visited houses of nobles engaged in religious reform; they visited Bromham House from 27 August to 3 September. Anne's household was ready and waiting for her upon her arrival at Greenwich. Sir Edward continued to serve in this office to Queen Katherine Howard, who was the half-sister to his own wife, Dame Isabel. Through her close blood tie to Katherine, Dame Isabel became one of Katherine Howard's Ladies of the Privy Chamber upon her marriage to Henry VIII. When Queen Katherine was banished from court in 1541, Isabel was one of the four ladies-in-waiting she was allowed to take with her. An inventory made of the queen's jewels following her arrest noted that as queen, Katherine had given a "girdle of gold" to the Lady Bayntun. Bridget Bayntun (1505–1545), married James Stumpe of Malmesbury, and had issue. Andrew Bayntun (1515–1564), married first, Philippa Brulet, and secondly Frances Lee, and had issue. Edward Bayntun (1517–1593), married Agnes Ap Rhys, and had issue. Henry Bayntun (c. 1520), married Dorothy Mantell, and had issue. Anne Bayntun Jane Bayntun (1523–1549), married Sir William St Loe, of Chew Magna, Somerset, who later married as his third wife, Bess of Hardwick. Dame Jane and Sir William had issue. Ursula Bayntun.

Bayntun married Isabel Leigh (born c. 1495/7), the daughter of Joyce Culpepper and thus the half-sister of Katherine Howard on 18 January 1531. They had three children.

T. F. T. Baker in The History of Parliament writes: "... it was Sir Edward who so raised his family above its neighbours that in Wiltshire for a century after the Reformation Bayntons ranked, with Hungerfords and Thynnes, below only the Seymours and the Herberts".