Geoffrey Boleyn was the son of Geoffrey Boleyn yeoman of Salle, Norfolk, and his wife Alice, daughter of Sir John Bracton, a Norfolk knight; and he was grandson of Thomas Boleyn of Salle and his wife Agnes. Geoffrey went to London, was apprenticed to a hatter, and became a freeman of the city through the Hatter's Company in 1428. In 1429 he transferred to a grander livery company, the Mercers' Company. Having served as a Sheriff of London in 1446–47, as Member of Parliament for the city in February 1449, and as alderman from 1452, he was chosen Master of the Mercers' Company for the year 1454. He was Lord Mayor of London in 1457–58, and was knighted by King Henry VI. In 1461 he and Geffray Feldyng headed the list of contributors towards a prest of 500 marks granted to the King by the fellowship of the Mercers for the Earl of Warwick to go into the North. He purchased the manor of Blickling in Norfolk from Sir John Fastolf in 1452, and Hever Castle in Kent in 1462. He was buried in the church of St Lawrence Jewry in the City of London. His will was proved in July 1463.
Siblings
Groups of five sons and four daughters were presented as mourners on the memorial brasses of the elder Geoffrey and Alice his wife, and were still in situ in Salle's parish church in 1730. The principal figures and inscription still remain, but the mourner groups have gone.
William Boleyn. William settled in Lincolnshire and was progenitor of the Lincolnshire branch of the family. The antiquary William Stukeley was a descendant on his mother's side.
Alice Boleyn b. abt.1438 d. abt. 1480 m. Sir John Fortescue of Punsborne, Hatfield, Herts d. 1500.
Anne Boleyn, second daughter, who married Sir Henry Heydon, by whom she had eight children. She died c. 1509.
Cecily Boleyn b. abt. 1442.
Elizabeth Boleyn b. abt. 1459.
Heraldry
gives the arms as: "Argent, a chevron gules,between three bulls heads couped Sable, quarterly with arms of Bracton, Azure, three mullets, a chief dauncette or."
Relatives
Simon, parochial chaplain of Salle, Norfolk died 3 August 1482.
Joan, named in her brother Simon's will. She married Alan Roos of Salle : he was receiver of rents for the Salle properties of Margaret Paston. Alan was son of Thomas Roos, a prosperous merchant who built the northtransept chapel and who, like the Boleyns of Salle, was a member of the Guild of the Holy Trinity of Coventry. She married Robert Aldrych, who died in 1474.
Historian Elizabeth Norton describes the Geoffrey Boleyn who died in 1440 as their great-uncle.
