BOSTOCK HISTORY:

THE ANCIENT FAMILY AND TOWNSHIP

William de Bostock

A William Bostock frequently occurs in documents relating to the town of Middlewich and the salt industry between 1255 and 1295, in the latter year he is styled 'lord of Bostock' when he granted the site of a salthouse, containing four pans, to Hugh Bushell of Middlewich. From these deeds it seems that the Bostocks also held properties in the borough of Middlewich from the Vernons. With regards to the Croxton family mentioned in the above extract, it seems that they were related to the Bostocks, as at some time during the reign of Henry III (1216-1272) a John Croxton married Amice, a daughter of William Bostock.
 
In 1259 and 1260 a William Bostock appeared before the County Court charged with certain offences contrary to the strict forest laws. At this period of time there was much controversy as to the way in which men who contravened the laws should be dealt with and as to who should preside aver the courts and sit in judgement. The passages relating to William mention the arguments that were made. In 1249 the Lord. Edward, Prince of Wales and earl of Chester, appointed an escheator into the pattern of government of the County; the escheator was also made bailiff or warden of the forests and he therefore presided over the courts that heard forest offences. The people of Cheshire complained that such an official was novel and contrary to custom and that it should be the justiciar of the County who should hear such cases. When William�s case was being heard a letter from the Prince was read to all the barons, knights and freemen attending the court ordering them to obey Sir Thomas d'Orrebi, the escheator and warden of the forests. They refused to do so. Sir Thomas ordered that William Bostock�s property be seized by the sheriff as security for his eventual appearance at the court at a later date for trial, he having made a complete denial of the charges. The community, hearing of this decision objected, saying that only the justiciar could �attach� men to the court and take sureties. Nevertheless, at some time later, William probably did appear in court and was, in all probability, bound over to keep the forest laws. The outcome of the dispute was that the Lord Edward relented and, in September 1260 allowed forest offences to be heard by the justiciar sitting in the County Court.
 
In 1280 a William Bostock was a juror in a case heard to determine the extent of the manor of Frodsham upon the discovery of the treason of David, lord of Frodsham, the brother of Llewellyn, Prince of Wales. In the same year William appears as a juror at an inquisition post mortem. On 22 February 1289 William Bostock was the plaintiff in a case against Nicholas Hova concerning a piece of woodland in Moulton, a township that lies just west of Bostock: William lost the action. At the same time he claimed possession of another piece of woodland in the same township, this time against a cousin, Philip Bostock, who agreed with the claim and stated that in fact he was only claiming a pigsty in the wood which his father had held as part of his free tenement in Bostock. A little while later the case involving Hova arose again when William claimed that the origina1 jury was false sworn and that the case was wrongly decided against him. Hova insisted that in the time of his father Randle he was possessed of the entire wood, to do with as he pleased, assarting, taking pannage, taking honey, etc. A new jury of twenty-four local persons agreed with him and again found against William who was sent to the local gaol for making a false claim. He later paid a fine and was released.
 
According to the pedigree in Burke's Landed Gentry, a William Bostock fought at the battle of Evesham in October 1265. If that were true it would be the second William, who would then have been aged about thirty. He probably fought with the Lord Edward in that battle, and also at the siege of Beeston castle in an effort to rid it of the followers of Simon de Monfort. One of the commanders at the siege was Hugh d�Audley, lord of Stratton Audley, Oxfordshire, who had a daughter, Elizabeth, who is said to have married William Bostock. Others say that a William Bostock of this period married Elizabeth, daughter of James d�Audley, lord of Audley and Heleigh, Staffordshire. William may have married a second time, for in 1305 an Amice, described as his widow, sued John Arclid for dower. 

Hugh Bostock

William Bostock may have had a brother named Hugh who appears with him as a witness to a number of local deeds especially various grants made by members of the neighbouring Clive family in the mid-thirteenth century. In documents relating to the administration of Middlewich, Hugh is sometimes referred to as the bailiff of the town (ballio de Mediwico). Hugh also appears as a witness to a number of other deeds without William: about 1234 he witnesses a grant made by Gralam Lostock to Richard Grosvenor, and a deed made by a member of the Clive family in favour of the same Richard Grosvenor. About the year 1272 both William and Hugh witnessed a grant made by Robert Croxton to the Abbey of St. Werburgh. The most interesting document to mention Hugh can be dated 1269/70. It states that Alice, the widow of Richard Helsby, gave to Hugh an annual rent of two shillings issuing from property in Bridge Street, Chester, and that the grant was to continue to Hugh�s heirs born to him by Alice�s daughter, Hawise. The deed is witnessed by Alice�s brother, Peter Thornton, and by Joceramo fratre d�nis Phillipo filio Will�o de Bostoc. This tells us not only who Hugh married but also mentions two of William's sons. 

Philip Bostock

William's son, Philip Bostock, also appears in Middlewich charters and in some of them he is styled dominus (lord). This may not mean, as some have considered, that he was lord of Bostock for it may be a courtesy title as often used to describe clerics. He occurs mainly during the period 1259-1288 and on one occasion appears in a suit for dower dated 1259/60 which also mentions Amice, daughter of William Bostock.

Philip Bostock probably held lands in Bostock and also in nearby Moulton. He had a grandson named Adam, who in 1354 claimed to hold, along with a number of other persons, lands in Bostock, Moulton and Davenham from Adam son of Adam Bostock, his kinfolk and the senior line of the family, who held the lands from the heirs of the Vernon family. Therefore, the line of Adam son of Adam son of Philip was a junior line despite what some ancient pedigrees state.
 
Another William

It seems that there were two generations of a William Bostock which would account for the name occurring between 1213 and 1272 or else William lived a very long time! The first being born circa 1190 and the other circa 1230. The former had issue William, Philip, James, Hugh and Gilbert. There may also have been two generations with a Hugh Bostock, for the Hugh, who acted as a witness in 1234 must then have been of age and therefore born circa 1210 or earlier, whereas it is likely that the grant of 1269/70 was shortly after the marriage between Hugh and Hawise. William's last son, Gilbert resided in Tarporley from the which the Bostocks of that township are descended. He had a son William who married Margaret, daughter of Thomas Vernon of� Lostock, and his grandson, John, was a chaplain at Chester cathedral in 1330. From them descended a branch who resided at Maceray End, near Whethamstead, Hertfordshire. In 1420 John Bostock, surnamed 'de Whethamstead', became abbot of St. Albans and one of the most well known due to his writings about the Wars of the Roses. 

Some Alleged Marriages

Most pedigrees state that William and Elizabeth had a son named Edward, but there is no documentary evidence of a man of this name in the thirteenth century. Piers Leycester states that Edward married a daughter of the Trumpington family; an interesting suggestion as in the mid-fourteenth century a Roger Trumpington held the advowson of Davenham church through a marriage to one of the heiresses to the barony of Shipbrook. This Roger would be the son of the knight of the same name who is immortalised by the famous brass to he found in Trumpington church, Cambridgeshire. Ormerod states that one of the Vernon heiresses, Auda, married a William Stafford, alias Trumpwyn.

Before leaving this section on the early Bostock family some mention must be made of the various marriages that are alleged for these times. The alleged marriages between Warren and Hawise Quincy and between Edward and a Trumpington have already been mentioned. Another marriage for which there is no real evidence is that of a Ranulf Bostock to Margaret, daughter and heiress of Warren Vernon, baron of Shipbrook. Leycester says that she was the widow of Richard Wilbraham. In the Bostock pedigree such a marriage would have taken place during the middle years of the twelfth century - about one hundred years before the heiresses of Vernon divided up the barony amongst their husbands, one of whom was indeed a Richard Wilbraham. Once again the arms of the Vernon family which alluded to an alleged marriage was allowed to be incorporated in the Bostock arms in 1580. 
 
Ranulph and Margaret are supposed to have had a son named Henry, though there is no documentary evidence of him. The early pedigrees show him to have married Eleanor, daughter and heiress of Robert Poole of Poole w ho did die leaving a number of daughters to succeed him, but the Poole pedigrees do not show any as marrying a Bostock and the arms of the Poole family are not included in the Bostock achievement of arms allowed in1580.
 
In this next period the evidence of the descent of the family is on somewhat firmer ground, though to begin with it is still a little shaky.