Richard Bonython

Richard Bonython (1580–1650) was an English magistrate and early settler and landowner in New England. The second son of a Cornish landowner, he served as a military officer before emigrating to the Province of Maine in 1630 with his family. He co-owned a portion of land adjacent to the Saco River and was appointed a magistrate. During his judicial career his son John was brought before the court and was eventually outlawed, for which he was mentioned in an 1830 poem of John Greenleaf Whittier. Bonython later served as a councillor to the deputy governor of Maine Thomas Gorges.

Early life

Bonython was born to John Bonython, a Cornish landowner, and Elinor Bonython née Myleinton in 1580. His father's estate was Bonython Manor, at Cury on the Lizard Peninsula, but Richard was born at the estate of his mother's family on the North Cornwall coast at St Columb Major.

Bonython was married to Lucretia Leight of St Thomas-by-Launceston and had a number of children. By one source these included Grace (baptised 1610 at St Breage's Church, Breage), Elizabeth (baptised sometime before 1614) and Susannah (baptised February 1614). Another source lists his children as John, Thomas, Gabriel, Thomas, Winefred & Elinor. This move may have been triggered by the birth of a son to his elder brother Resymar, who would then inherit the Bonython family estates. Whittier described Richard Bonython as "one of the most efficient and able magistrates of the Colony." Richard Bonython seems to have opposed the Puritan teachings of Saco's Reverend Thomas Jenner, favouring the Church of England. His son's line died out, but there are many descendants of his daughters in America, one of whom was the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.