Lyneham Village Online has spent over three years collating and arranging information on the Button-Walker-Heneage families, which have significant associations with the history of Lyneham village.

The Button Family
The Button Family took its name from the parish of Bitton which is located in our neighbouring county of Avon, about six miles east south-east of Bristol. Actually in the diocese of Gloucester it gives its name to an archdeaconry of Bristol and to a Prebend of Salisbury, the living being in the patronage of the Prebendary of Bitton in the last named cathedral.

The earliest of the family roots to come into prominence was William Bitton or Button, Sub-Dean and Archdeacon of Wells, and in 1247 Bishop of Bath and Wells; he was sent by Henry III in 1253 to Alfonso X King of Castile to ask for his sister Eleanor in marriage with his son Edward. He died in 1264. He found means during his episcopate to advance the interests of his family. A nephew William was also Archdeacon of Wells and Bishop, succeeding Walter Giffard in 1267.

Other Buttons of this period held various ecclesiastical offices in the same cathedral, and one Thomas de Button became Dean in 1284 and Bishop of Exeter in 1292. It was he who built the fine chantry Chapel on the north side of Bitton Church. But the Buttons who were the ancestors of the family under consideration do not apparently lay claim to direct connection with any of the three Bishops, if we may judge from the Pedigree drawn up by Ralph Brooke, York Herald in 1649 now in the Muniment Room.

This pedigree gives, as the ancestor, Sir Walter de Bitton, Knight. who is said to have died in the twelfth year of Henry III [1227-8]. It was a family of Knights and that at a time when Kings best owed the rank of Knighthood for personal honour and distinction on the field of battle rather than for holding large possessions, though that fact was similarly recognised.

Sir Walter's great great Grandson, Sir John Button, Knt., living in 1380 was married to Joan Greenvill, and they had two sons; Sir John Button, Knight. and Thomas Button. The grandson of this Sir John Button who also bore the same christian name and was knighted, he had no sons, but a daughter Katherine, who married Thomas Rougg, and thus passed out of the direct Button family.

The younger son, Thomas Button, mentioned above, married the daughter and co-heiress of Sir Guy de Bryan and in all probability crossed the River Severn and settled in Wales. This we may guess from the fact that his eldest son was christened Howell and married Gwenllian Turbeville, and also that his son and heir and grandson married ladies with Welsh names.

The grandson, also Howell Button, married Ellen Griffith and their eldest son John was the first Button described as of Alton Priors. His will made and proved in 1491 contains bequests to Salisbury Cathedral and the Friars of Marlborough, lead for the roof of Alton Priors Church and to various other Churches in Wiltshire, where, doubtless, he had property.

During the sixteenth century the family acquired great property in Somerset and Wiltshire. It extended from Twerton on the west, Bath with its hamlets of Ford, Hampton and Easton, now Bathford, Bathampton and Batheaston, [and spelt in maps as late as one hundred years ago Bath Ford, Bath Hampton and Bath Easton] in a north easterly direction, crossing the Wiltshire border at Box, on to the Chippenham neighbourhood, Calne, Compton Bassett, Lyneham, Tockenham and many other places in that vicinity.

Passing on a couple of generations we come to Sir William Button, knighted in 1605, and created the 1st Baronet of Alton in 1622. He had special livery to his father's lands in 1609 which, we may assume, fixes the time of his coming of age [his date of birth is not known]. In this case he received the honour of knighthood at the early age of 17. Two years after that, in 1607 he obtained from the King a passport "making travel his pretence". He had already started when it came to the knowledge of the King that his real object was to fight a duel, and a Privy Council letter was despatched to him ordering him to return "without proceeding further". Both the passport and the Council letter are in these archives, dated respectively the sixth and 9th July 1607.

During the Civil Wars, recorded in the Dictionary of National Biography, he was a staunch Royalist and on this account his house Tockenham Court was twice stripped and his property carried off, the first occasion being in June 1643 by Sir Edward Hungerford, when his loss was £767, and the second in June 1644 by a party from Malmesbury garrison when it amounted to £526. 6s. 8d.

In November 1644 his estate at Tockenham was sequestrated after which he lived at his manor of Shaw near Overton. In 1646 he was fined £2,380 for delinquency. He died on 28th January 1654 - 5 and was buried in the North Aisle of North Wraxall Church. By his marriage with Ruth Dunche, daughter of Walter and Deborah Dunche of Avebury, he left three daughters, and four sons, three of whom William, Robert and John became successive Baronets. Sir William the second Baronet died on the 8th March 1659 and left no heir, he was buried at Wraxall, Wiltshire. He married Anne Rolle, daughter of Sir Henry Rolle and Anne Dennis, on 6 April 1640 in Petrockstowe, England. Thomas the next brother had died unmarried before that date.

Sir Robert Button matriculated in Exeter College, Oxford University, England, on the 24th May 1639. Sir Robert Button married Eleanor Compton, daughter of William Compton and Eleanor Meux. He succeeded to the title of 3rd Baronet of Alton, Wiltshire on the 8th March 1659. He held the office of Sheriff of Wiltshire from 1670 to 1671. He died in 1678 left three daughters only.

Sir John Button, fourth Baronet, married, firstly, a local lady called Norton of Huntingdon, the first name was not recorded. He married, secondly, Mary Bennet daughter of Thomas Bennet of Salthorp. He died on 29 November 1712, without issue. He was buried in Wroughton, Wiltshire, England without an heir when the Baronetcy became extinct.

William Button died in 1547 leaving William Button (2nd baronet of Alton) his son and heir. Shortly before his death in 1591 this William had settled the manor of Little Sutton, and probably the advowson also, on a younger son William, who eventually became the heir of his eldest brother, Ambrose. William's son and successor, another William, was created a baronet in 1622, and died in 1655 when the advowson passed successively to his sons, Sir William and Sir Robert, who both died without issue.

Sir Robert Button was succeeded in 1679 by his brother Sir John Button who died, also without issue, 29 November 1712. The advowson then passed to Sir John's great-nephew, Heneage Walker, grandson of his sister Mary. Heneage Walker was succeeded in 1731 by his brother John Walker, whose eldest son John succeeded his father in 1758, and assumed the name Heneage. He died childless in 1806 and the advowson passed to his great-nephew George Heneage Wyld, who assumed the name Walker Heneage in 1818.

Jane and Martha Button were the other children of Sir William Button who married Walter Coningsby and Thomas Coningsby of North Mimms respectively.

Wealth and Ship Money
In 1635 Charles I faced a financial crisis. Unwilling to summon another Parliament, he had to find other ways of raising money. One of the ancient forms of Taxation was called "Ship Money," which was an imposition anciently charged upon the ports, towns, cities, boroughs and counties of the realm, by writs commonly called ship writs, under the great seal of England, for the providing and furnishing certain ships for the King's service. This imposition was revived by King Charles I, in the years 1635 and 1636; but by Statute 17 Carolus I, it was declared to be contrary to the laws and statutes of the realm, claim of right, liberty of the subject, etc. Before this was done, however, the imposition had led to most momentous consequences, and ultimately to the deposition of the King and the establishment of the Commonwealth.

The collection of Ship Money, however, was not confined to cities and boroughs: it was carried on in every parish and hamlet in the country, no one who had property that could be taxed being allowed to escape. And this being so, these Ship Money schedules have always been accepted as a favourite medium for estimating the comparative importance of towns and places two hundred and fifty years ago, with each other, and then for seeing how much the place has progressed or gone back. Sir William Button was considered as a wealthy gentleman in the parish, and moreover he was among the rich of the county, consequently was earmarked to provide Ship Money for the country in 1635. Sir William Button was ordered to pay £5 5s 0d for the parish of Tockenham and an additional 15s 0d for his parsonage and 6s 0d for Roger Reeves in Lyneham parish. Richard Long Esq., was the only other contributor that paid over £2 for this taxation, others contributed smaller amounts.

Charles I issued six annual writs (1634 – 39) that extended the imposition to inland towns and sought to establish it as a permanent tax. Its enforcement aroused widespread opposition and added to the discontent leading to the English Civil Wars. In 1641 the tax was declared illegal by Parliament.