Andrew Bayntun was born in 1515, however it is not certain where. The Bayntun family had been settled in Faulston House, but when John Bayntun (his grandfather) moved from there to old Bromham Hall in 1508, it is possible that John's eldest son, Sir Edward Bayntun, may have remained at Faulston until his father's death in 1516 and if that were the case, Andrew Bayntun would most likely have been born there.

He was the eldest son and heir, and inherited the title Lord of the Manor of Bromham, upon the death of his father, Sir Edward Bayntun, in 1544. Like his father, Andrew became one of Wiltshire's leading landowners and was also a Member of Parliament. Andrew Bayntun is mentioned in many manoral deeds and indentures as Andrew Baynton, but from the beginning of the 17th century the family changed the spelling of their surname to Bayntun.

He studied French under the Rev. John Palsgrave (d1554) one of the King's chaplains and a distinguished linguist, who was in great demand as a teacher of French and Latin among the English nobility and gentry. Princess Mary, the sister of King Henry VIII, and later Queen of France was also one of his pupils. John Palsgrave was educated at Oxford and at the University of Paris. He wrote a preface to the Palsgrave's book Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse (1530), a vast work of over 1000 pages, written to instruct the English in the rules of French grammar - the first bilingual dictionary of the two languages.

Sir Andrew Bayntun was married twice – first, by Special Licence, to Philippa Breylewte, with whom he had a daughter, born 1552, called Anne. Philippa was the daughter of Guillaume Breylewte, of France who is said to have been an Embroider in the service of King Henry VIII. She was from Seine-et-Marne – a department in the Île-de-France region in Northern France. This marriage displeased his father greatly as an arranged match with Catherine Basseett, step-daughter to Viscount Lisle, then fell through and angered his father as a marriage to the daughter of the court embroiderer was probably reckoned disparaging. His second marriage took place some time after 1562 to Frances Lee, the daughter of Ralph Lee.

Guillaume Breylewte was an Embroiderer at Henry VIII's Court and was one of three Chief Embroiderers who served many of Henry's Queens. He was owed £10 - 4s - 8d by Anne Boleyn at the time of her execution. It is not known if Anne's Vice-Chamberlain, Sir Edward Bayntun, paid this account after her execution, as his son Andrew Bayntun was married at the time to Breylewte's daughter. Guillaume was also the Chief Embroiderer for Anne of Cleves and for Catherine Parr where two quite substantial payments were made to him listed in her accounts recorded as part of her 1547 inventory. He continued to work for the Royal family after the death of Henry VIII, where he was listed as working for Elizabeth I's Coronation. Guillaume Breylewte of Normandy, France, was listed in the "Letters of Denization" – Aliens in England 1509 - 1603, dated the 9th May 1524 when he was granted a licence to have alien servants and apprentices. Quite possibly, this was when he was able to bring his daughter from France to work with him and most likely where Andrew Bayntun courted her before they married.

Andrew's love of the French language obviously took him to France, as a 20 year old, and on the 1st February 1535 he wrote a letter to Thomas Cromwell from Paris, which contained an interesting account of the troubles there at the time. He began the letter by excusing his boldness in writing to him directly and goes on to say that he had always found the greatest condenscention in those highest in authority, indicating that Cromwell possessed that virtue more than anyone. He thanked him on his knees for benefits done to himself and his parents. He goes on to say: "Paris is full of heretics, both men and women, with 20 already been burned and thousands in hiding, or who have already fled. Francis, the King of France, in his speech asked God to forgive his slackness in persecuting heretics over the previous two years and swore henceforth to burn all he could find". To do this, Andrew suggests, the king would have to shut the gates of Paris and set fire to the city. The horror of what he saw made a deep impression on him. In his letter he offered his services to the Minister. The offer was evidently accepted for by 1538 he was one of Cromwell's servants recommended to the royal household, where his father was already an established figure.

A deed dated the 11th November 30 Henry VIII (1538) by Sir Edward Bayntun, six years before his death, gave to Andrew Bayntun, his eldest son and heir apparent, all his estate, term, title, and interest in the Manor of Bromham Battle, with the advowson of the Church of Bromham, and the Manor of Clench, as leased to him by the Abbot and Convent.

On the 20th March 1539, Andrew Bayntun – a protégé of Thomas Cromwell – was concerned that his absence from Court had caused Cromwell concern and wrote to him, outlining his misfortunes on the matter. It appears Andrew was part of Cromwell's escort party and must have rode regularly with him, however on this occasion he was not required and Andrew was absent for some time due to an illness and as a result his father, Sir Edward Bayntun, had disowned him for his actions, fearing Cromwell would take offence to his sudden disappearance from his duties.

His explanation to Cromwell gave a full account of his absence:
"I beg you will take no displeasure for my long absence, nor for my departing. For when your Lordship rode from St. James's to the Court, my fellows told me that I was not appointed to ride with you, not having your livery. Considering how long you would be absent, I went to see my friend Master Hyde who was likely to die of his wound. The matter was before your Lordship not long ago, and he is bound to pray for you. I lost my way on the Downs beyond Reading and caught a great cold and ache which has just left me. My father (Sir Edward Bayntun) is sore displeased and threatens to disinherit me, which I think I never deserved. He cast me away for being absent from you, which was more a fault to you than to him. I am at your command, and I am as obedient a child to my father as can be". The letter was written from Compton, Thursday before the Annunciation of Our Lady.

Andrew Bayntun showed great promise and had moved to work for the King before Cromwell fell from grace. He survived the fall of Cromwell and in the early 1540's was evidently employed on Crown affairs in Europe. He accompanied Stephen Gardiner and Sir Henry Knyvet of Charlton, Wiltshire, on an embassy to Ratisbon, Germany in 1541. We was again abroad in the service of the Crown in 1543 when he was arrested in France which led to extensive diplomatic efforts by Sir William Paget for his release. However there were signs of some incompetence in his short diplomatic career, which he abandoned in 1546 in order to manage his large estates and fill local public offices.

In 1544 Andrew's father, Sir Edward Bayntun is said to have died on the 27th November in France, perhaps from wounds sustained in battle. No cause of death has ever been documented and Andrew inherited substantial estates but had to pay generous legacies and his father's debts. As a result of which, he fell into financial difficulties and was obliged to sell part of his estates. There are several indications that he may not have had a good head of business which almost ruined him.

In 1545, a year after his father's death, Andrew conveyed the Manor of Godswell and the Manor of Heywood to his brother, Sir Edward Bayntun. In 1547 he sold the Manor of Chelworth to Nicholas Snell. Chelworth was inherited by his grandfather, John Bayntun, in 1508 when it descended to him, along with the Manor of Bromham Roches. An Indenture, dated the 10th May 38 Henry VIII (1547), mentions that Andrew Bayntun had sold to Nicholas Snell of Michell Kynton, his right in a tenement in Blakedon called 'Morcombe', free of all encumbrances.

Between the years 1545 and 1549, Sir Andrew Bayntun made an extraordinary agreement with Thomas, Lord Seymour of Sudley, whereby the two men exchanged the whole of their properties in Wiltshire. Lord Seymour was then married to Catherine Parr, the widow and sixth wife of Henry VIII but had a reputation for the ladies, having made advances to the Princess Elizabeth – the future Elizabeth I, Queen of England – while he was married to Catherine. Both men were to enjoy their inheritance during their lifetime, but Bayntun's possessions, including Bromham and other manors, would go to Seymour and his heirs forever. In turn, Seymour's property, was after his death, to pass only to Bayntun and his direct descendants, with remainder to the heirs of Seymour. Each gave as security, £4,000, for the due performance of his share of the bargain, and in accordance with this, we find in the Patent Rolls 37 Henry VIII (1545), a licence given to Seymour and Bayntun jointly to convey to trustees, Bromham and other Bayntun properties. Seymour (pictured left) is said to have been a person of extraordinary persuasiveness and he must have been so, thus to succeed in ousting the rightful owner within the brief space of four years.

So when Seymour was attained and later beheaded for high treason on the 10th March 1549 and his estates forfeited to the Crown as did the manors and lands of Andrew Bayntun, and all estates that Seymour ever had therein, to the grave disinheritance of Andrew Bayntun. But he petitioned to the court for the recovery of his lands. The court ruled that Andrew Bayntun duly performed his share of the agreement, but Seymour performed nothing of his, nor paid any of the £4,000 which he had agreed to forfeit for such default. The petition was granted by Queen Mary, in the first year of her reign, and most of Andrew Bayntun's former lands, including the Manor of Bromham, were restored to him by 1553.

A deed from the Court of Chancery, Six Clerks Office, confirms the reversion of some of these manors, which previously belonged to Andrew, that were forfeited to the crown, when Seymour was attained for treason on the 2nd and 3rd years of Edward VI, including the Manor of Stanley and the Manor of Rowden. The above agreement sounds almost beyond belief, but every stage in it is supported by documentary proof. By what means did Seymour convince Bayntun to enter into an unequal bargain with him, and made him fulfill his share, while neglecting his own, yet finally managed to anticipate its provisions and obtain possession of Bromham during Andrew's lifetime. What was even more remarkable was that Andrew Bayntun was unmarried at this time and had entered into this agreement without a son or rightful heir.

Andrew's later career was dogged by financial anxieties and after 1546 he withdrew from court but was a Member of Paliament for Marlborough 1545, 1555; Horsham 1537; Westbury 1553 and Çalne 1557. His father's legacies from the estate, his own debts and perhaps hopes of further court favour, may explain why he made some very unusual financial arrangements with corrupt individuals without security which led to his ruin as a result of deceit and possibly forgery.

In 1553 he sold the Manor of Chelworth to William Snell and a further deed, dated 1555, shows Andrew Bayntun renewing the lease of the Manor of Clench to William Wyatt, Joan his wife and Geoffrey his son. Also in 1555, Andrew Bayntun, in his early ownership of Bremhill, endowed St. John the Baptist's Chapel with two houses called Church House and Priest's House and two parcels of land called Chapel Hay and Butt Hay. Also in that year he sold the Manor of Chisenbury or Chisenbury de la Folly to Nicholas Snell and the Manor of Whaddon with its Fulling Mill to Thomas Long of Trowbridge, the brother of Henry Long – a clothier and a very wealthy man at the time.

Some time before 1556, Andrew sold Nebels Farm, another of the many de la Mare properties, to Sir Henry Long and in 1557 he sold the Manor of Shaw in the parish of Melksham to John Gerrish of Seend. Andrew Bayntun owned the Manor of Bremhill, including 30 acres of coppice wood, inherited from his father, Sir Edward Bayntun, but some years earlier (it was alleged) Andrew had made a grant or lease of this woodland to William Sharyngton and Gabriel Pledall of Monkton. At this time, there was no system of Title Deeds to keep a check on who owned which piece of land. The only way to get land ownership into a lasting record was to take a case to court.

In 1560, following a dispute with his brother, Andrew entailed the bulk of his remaining land on his brother and his heirs, with reversion to younger brothers, to keep the property in the blood and name of the Bayntuns. His brother, Sir Edward, was much more confident in land and financial dealings and it was a way of saving what was left, rather than lose it all. He had obviously planned to marry Frances, the daughter of Ralph Lee, in an effort to provide a male heir as he had no surviving male children from his previous marriage to Philippa Breylewte and he wanted to ensure that his property would go to adult male heirs of the Bayntun family only. Therefore in early July 1560, he drew up an Indenture with his brother Edward Bayntun, recording their agreement that Andrew should hold the land for his lifetime; after his death it should revert to his brother Edward and his wife Agnes; after their deaths it should revert to Andrew’s male heirs (if any were forthcoming); if neither of the brothers left surviving male heirs at their deaths, then the lands were to descend to a third brother, Henry, and his male heirs; if Henry had no male heirs, then the lands were to go to a half-brother (also named Henry, from his father’s second marriage) and his male heirs.

This covenant that Andrew made with his brother, Edward, by which Andrew was to stand seized to the use of himself for life and remainder to Edward in tail male was to exclude females from his land, as Andrew had no sons, but definitely had a daughter who was excluded by this covenant. But this covenant between the brothers was not necessarily a legal contract. That is to say, they required something to be done – not just a mere promise, having no legal meaning. Consideration was required for something to be done, at the time or in the future, to fulfil his desire for the land to remain in the Bayntun name and not just because of a long-standing affection of the two brothers. Andrew’s desire to marry Frances Lee made this possible, as marriage was a benefit that made the agreement a valid contract or at least a valuable consideration.

This suggests that this Indenture was quite possibly some form of marriage settlement and an opportunity for Andrew to settle the future descent of his lands. It further ensured that any illegitimate son, from any previous marriage or relationship, would have no rights to inheritance. The terms of this Indenture were fully rehearsed in the subsequent court case. It set out that after the death of Andrew and his brother, Edward, the lands would first go to any male heirs of the said Andrew Bayntun legitimately thereafter to be procreated of the body of Frances Lee, daughter of Ralph Lee, deceased.

Andrew’s worry seems to have been that he might die before any male heir he had was of age. In that case, the lands would be taken into wardship by the Crown and if he had no male heirs, they might descend to his daughter, and thus ultimately become the property of her eventual husband. His Indenture would act like an entail male; it would ensure that after his death the property would go only to adult men ‘of the blood and name of the Bayntuns’ as he had it written in the records. That is why his brother, Edward, was named to inherit his lands at his death and to hold them until such time as any male heir born to Andrew and Frances became of age. There is further evidence of this security in a deed dated 3 Elizabeth (1561) – quite possibly Andrew's will – when he entailed the remaining Bayntun estates, including the Manor of Bromham on his next brother, Edward and his wife Agnes. The terms of this Indenture also made provision for any such male heir.

But at this time, Andrew was still legally married to Philippa Breylewte, although they had parted company. Subsequently he severed all links with her and refused to pay back a £300 bond given to him by her father, Guillaume Breylewte, at the time of their marriage. Guillaume however pursued him for the return of this money and in Michaelmas of that year Andrew was arrested in the City of London and by the advice and procurement of his brother, Edward Bayntun and various other acquaintances, he submitted himself to examination at court.

On the 9th June 1562, Andrew appeared before the Court of Arches – an Ecclesiastical Court of the Church of England covering the Province of Canterbury. An official report of this hearing was obtained, in the form of a letter, by Henry Bayntun, Andrew's nephew, on the 25th April 1597. This was perhaps when proof of ownership of the property was required years later, as a result of a dispute, or possibly in connection to a sale. In court, Andrew Bayntun gave evidence under oath and answered a series of questions put to him. In response, he said he sought a divorce from his wife on the grounds that she had been previously married at St. Paul's Cathedral London to John de Boyse. He claimed he had no knowledge of it prior to his own marriage and was unwilling to lead his life in infamy and shame after learning of this contract of marriage to de Boyse. He told the court he no longer wanted to be part of this marriage and said he had given the court enough evidence for them to discharge him from it.

The court found in favour of Andrew and granted him a divorce. However, by the request of Guillaume Breylewte, he was forced to pay a settlement, by way of an annuity, to Philippa Breylewte of £30 a year for the duration of her life, as part of her pre-contract. It is alleged he married Frances Lee some time later, although no proof of this marriage exists. The majority of the records, from this period, in the Court of Arches were destroyed in the great fire of London and there is not a great deal of information surrounding the material which has survived.

In 1562 Andrew sold a Manor in Bulkington to Roger Earth of Salisbury. On the 16th November 1563 Sir Andrew inherited his aunt Margery Bayntun estate after her death. Margery Bayntun was the sister of Andrew's father, Sir Edward Bayntun and had been married to John Allen of Hatfield, Peverell, Essex. He received, among other lands, the Rectory of the Church of All Saints, Hertford and the Manor of Brickindon and the Manor of Waltham All Saints, Essex. He subsequently passed these lands onto to his daughter. About this time he sold the Manor of Chilton Candover to John Fisher which had been in the family since 1372.

Andrew could not cope alone and got involved in some strange activities when Henry Sharington and Gabriel Pleydell, noted scoundrels became his two chief associates. These two clearly saw the weakness in him for business and schemed to acquire the remainder of his lands, thus depriving his brother Edward Baynton of his inheritance. Bayntun's will, made at Chippenham three days before his death contravened the grant of July 1560 by naming Pleydell and Sharington executors with the power to sell the lands. His brother later maintained that the will was a forgery and eventually obtained possession of the estate.

On the 21st of February 1564 Andrew Bayntun died before his aunt's affairs were finalised and Margery's inheritance was passed onto his only daughter, Anne, being his next of kin, who was aged 12 at the time. She was the daughter of his first wife, Philippa Breylewte. His second marriage to Frances Lee had also failed to produce a male heir and the Bayntun estate was subsequently passed onto his brother and in accordance with the above mentioned deed of 1560 and administration of his goods, etc, was committed to his successor, Edward Bayntun.

There is evidence to suggest that Andrew Bayntun, despite being one of Wiltshire's leading landowners, may have negotiated sales of manors to other Wiltshire gentry, including Nicholas Snell and Gabriel Pledall, without security. Certainly his exchange of Bayntun property with Sir Thomas Seymour could have resulted in him losing all his inheritance. He was indeed lucky, after Seymour was executed, to have most of his lands returned to him by the Queen. But later dealings with the notorious Gabriel Pledall and the corrupt Sir William Sharyngton also took place, as both men appear in Andrew's will as executors, with his lands assigned to them, probably as a result of deceit or forgery. This may very well be the main reason why he entailed the remaining Bayntun estates to his brother, Edward.

In the years that followed Andrew's death, Edward Bayntun and his heirs were embroiled in law suits, over land some of which lasted for four decades, and it is not known if he recovered all of the Bayntun property, although a counterpart release, dated the 3rd April 18 Elizabeth I (1576) shows Sir Henry Sharyngton, of Lacock (son of the above mentioned William), releasing all his rights in the Manors of Bremhill and Bromham Battle and land in Peusey, Wotton Rivers and Foxeham.

Sir Andrew Bayntun was buried in St. Andrew's Church, Chippenham where his badly preserved tomb is in the south chancel chapel, rebuilt as chantry to the Virgin Mary, now known as The Lady Chapel (see photo below). It is not clear why he, or his family, chose St. Andrew's Church as his final resting place and not the Bayntun Chapel in the Church of St. Nicholas at Bromham.

The Latin inscription on Andrew Bayntun's tomb reads: Armiger hoc tumulo jacet hic generosus opaco. Andreas Baynton qui nominatus erat. Quem genuit miles bene notus ubique Edoardus. Hujus erat heres. Nunc requiescit humo. The translation means: In this dark tomb lies an arms-bearing gentleman. Who was named Andrew Baynton. Sired by the soldier Edward, knight well known everywhere. He was his heir. Now he reposes this earth. There are engravings of heraldic shields on both sides of the tomb. The engraving on the end, or short side, is more worn than the long side which clearly bears the initials "A" and "B" in the top left and right hand corners.

Andrew Bayntun's signature.

Because Sir Andrew Bayntun had no son and heir, the Bayntun estate was subsequently passed onto his brother Edward Bayntun