Sir William Boleyn, KB of Blickling Hall in Norfolk and Hever Castle in Kent, was a wealthy and powerful landowner who served as Sheriff of Kent in 1489 and as Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1500.
11 Facts About William Boleyn
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William Boleyn was the father of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, whose daughter was Queen Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII.
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William's father died in 1463 when his estates were inherited by William's elder brother Thomas Boleyn, Esquire, of the City of London, of whom William became the heir apparent.
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William Boleyn then secured his various manors to his own heirs and those of his younger half-brother, Thomas Hoo Esquire.
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Lord Hoo and Hastings died in 1455: his brother settled the manor and advowson of Mulbarton, Norfolk on Anne Hoo and her husband Geoffrey Boleyn, and when Anne died a widow in 1484 they descended to her son Sir William Boleyn, who presented to the joint rectory of Mulbarton-cum-Keningham in 1494,1497 and 1500.
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William Boleyn was admitted to the Mercers' Company in 1472, and to Lincoln's Inn in 1473.
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William Boleyn was created a Knight of the Bath at the Coronation of Richard III in 1483.
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William Boleyn was charged by King Henry VII with responsibility for the beacons which were used to warn in the event of an attack on English shores.
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In 1491 Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond, William Boleyn's father-in-law, received royal licence to empark, licence to crenellate and machicolate, and to build walls and towers of brick at his manor of New Hall at Boreham and Little Waltham in Essex.
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Sir William Boleyn was a considerable benefactor to the fabric of Norwich Cathedral, in adorning the arches in the choir, where his arms were displayed in various places.
11.
William Boleyn's arms appear in St Gregory's church, Norwich, and his house was adjacent to that of Sir Miles Stapleton.