Hi Neville,
I have been working diligently over the past several years to connect my English Borton cousins with my American Quaker Borton Ancestors. So far, not much luck. I keep hitting a wall around 1700 and I understand from some of the Borton family in England with whom I have communicated that the primary source of the family records was the church of St Michael in Aynho, Northamptonshire and it may have suffer a fire around the time that the records end. The main portion of the church was demolished in 1723.
The first item is that I have Elizabeth Reade rather than Anne Reade as the mother of Henry Borton. According to "300 Years of Bortons in North America, by Betty M. Mann, vol.2, pg. 58, Elizabeth left a will dated 4 February 1669 mentioning sons William, John and Henry and daughter Elizabeth. This will was found in the Northamptonshire Record Office, Delapre Abbey, Northampton, England by Helen Borton Ott.
In addition a will of Henry Borton was also filed there and is dated 19 April 1678. It indicates that he was a farmer of freehold lands and tenements. In this will he mentions his wife Isabell (no last name found) and sons Henry, John daughters Elizabeth and Liddia and Isabell. There is also data suggesting the he had a son William, who may have proceeded him in death.
I hope that this is helpful and I would appreciate anything that you can contribute to connect our families. I recently purchased a book from a seller in England title "My Warrior Sons" A diary kept by Colonel Arthur Close Borton from 1914-1918. It was fascinating from the perspective of learning about life during WWII. I worked on tracing his family line but again ran out of information in the 1700's. His father was Sir Arthur Borton, Grandfather Rev. John Drew Borton and Gr Grandfather John Borton, a furrier in Diss, Norfolk, Eng. I have no idea if this family is from the same root as mine, but it was fun researching.
Take care, Jim Borton