Analysis of the texts I have found so far
When I first started out on trying to piece together the history of Belchamp Walter I had two main documents to work from. The church guide and the account that ended up on the Village Hall website. The authors of which were either not known or had been forgotten.
Asking those that I knew were associated with the reproduction of both documents I met a wall of denial about the knowledge of their origins.
When I started my own history of the village I took the text from the VH website as a text dump: colin_village.txt. While the text is a fair description of the village and enough for most who would have found it if they had accessed the page that it was on, it had a lot of unsubstatiated statements.
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As noted above Belchamp Walter had 11 acres of vineyards, at this time this was the second largest vineyard in England, its location is not known but the logical place would be on the south facing slopes north of the church..
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The following could be an interpretation of Thomas Wright:
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Of its early history we know the following; At the time of the Doomsday, it is noted that the estate was owned by
Aubrey de Veres who won a reputation of courage and leadership in the field of battle. The Belchamp Walter manor passed from Aubrey de Veres to his daughter, Roese, who for a second husband chose Peganus de Beauchamp, Baron of Bedford, member of a family which possessed extensive estates. Their grandson Simon de Beauchamp steward to the household of King Stephen, was a fighting man of not, but on the death of his liege Simon took arms against Henry 2nd, because of which he suffered amongst other punishments the demolition of his castle at Bedford.
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In 1278 the various de Beauchamp properties were divided between several heiresses of the line, and, afterwards the
Belchamp Walter estate came into possession of Sir John de Botetourt of Mendlesham in Suffolk, whose wife was one of those heiresses, and it was this Sir John who is probably buried in the canopied chapel in the church.
Various changes in ownership occurred after this but towards the end of the 15th century the manor
was acquired by Sir Roger Wentworth, whose family seat was at Coldham Hall or Codham Hall as it was after called
– in Wethersfield, Belchamp Walter Manor remained in the possession of this influential family for a good number of years, the last member Wentworths to hold the estate being Sir John who was created baronet when James 1st was King.
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Page linked from:
An Analysis of Belchamp Walter's History
Having spent a number of years researching the history of the village of Belchamp Walter I have a few observations on what I have found to date.
There were two main documents that I used to start my history of the village.
The text that was taken from the village hall website.
The author of this text has obviously had done some research and was aware of the de Veres and the de Beauchamps. The demolition of Bedford Castle due to a dispute with king Stephen, while reasonably correct has not much relevance to Belchamp Walter.
The date of 1278 and the division of the de Beauchamp properties also seems to have little relevance to the history of the village especially when it ends with supposition about Sir John de Botetourt being buried in St. Mary's with a chantry in his honour.
There must be an IPM (Inquisition Post Mortem) dated 1278 the describes this division. I have also found an inquistion dated 1295 that details the "ownership" of Wottone, Bedfordshire - this IPM also mentions Botetourt.
The text from the church guide
This text is even less prescriptive with respect to Sir John de Botetourt. The supposition here is that he was buried in the church and that he was an underlord of the de Vere's.
In addition, the "ownership" of the church is attributed to the de Vere's (or rather the priory of Earls Colne that was founded by them). I am not sure that it worked that way.
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The period between Domesday and Wentworth
The statement: "Various changes in ownership occurred after this but towards the end of the 15th century the manor was acquired by Sir Roger Wentworth....." made after that of the mention of a Sir John de Botetourt, tends to indicate that the author of the Village Hall history could not find any supporting information for this 200 year period.
These were very important years, there were ??? kings and quite a few wars. I am sure that residents, or "owners" of the Belchamp lands were involved with these.
Sir John de Botetourt
Firstly, there were two Sir John de Botetourts. Many historians seem to mix them up. So have I before I worked out who was who, who did what and when.
I think it was the 2nd Lord Botetourt that was from Mendlesham, Suffolk. Not the Sir John that is described in the Village Hall history.
