Sir John de Botetourt

Sir John de Botetourt - b. 1265 d. 1324

One of the most striking features of the Church of St. Mary's Belchamp Walter is the remains of the Chantry Chapel dedicated to Sir John Botetourt and his wife Maud (nee Fitz-Otho [Otes] - de Beauchamp).

The coats of arms for the families can be found decorating The Chantry Chapel in St. Mary the Virgin Belchamp Walter.

There is a lot of information below from geni.com (links to their sources) including a dump from FMG. I need to format these and highlight any relevance to Belchamp Walter and the Church of St. Mary's.

Having gone from virtually no information apart from the evidence of the remains of a chantry chapel in the church of St. Mary Belchamp Walter which was demolished and the entrance defaced presumably in the English civil war of the 1640's, I now have quite a bit of background to disseminate about Sir John and the possible reasons for him having a chantry in the church.
The records are not totally clear, nothing new, and there is specultion on the heritage of Sir John or his father with respect to being the illegitimate son of Edward (Longshanks).

Guy de Botetourt is the official father of Sir John.

The Crest as seen on the chantry chapel

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This page is part of an on-going research project on the history of Belchamp Walter and the manor of Belchamp Walter. If you have found it making a web search looking for geneological information then please bookmark this page and return often as I am likely to make regular updates. If you delve deeper into this website you will find many other pages similar to this one.

The account from Thomas Wright

" In 1286, William de Montchensy died, holding this manor and other estates, of the inheritance of his wife Beatrix, deceased, formerly wife of Thomas Fitz-Otho. His son William was his heir.

But this estate descended to Maud (Fitz-Otho), the last surviving daughter of Fitz-Otho, by the before-mentioned Beatrix; and this Maud conveyed it to her husband, Sir John de Botetourt, of Mendlesham, in Suffolk, to whom she was married in 1302.

They had four sons, Thomas, John, Otho, and Robert, and a daughter.

Sir John died in 1325, holding jointly with his wife this and other estates, which were entailed on the second son John, who, on his death,
in 1339 ², to left his only son, Sir John, his successor ³. "

This must have made Sir John a very rich and powerful man. The demesne lands at this time were probably quite extensive and likely to have been greater or equal to that when it was sold to John Raymond.

The following were footnotes from Thomas Wright's account. Originally I didn't copy and past them - possibly from an Inquistion - See also Public Record Office for more information on Inquistions Post Mortem

" 2. At the time of his decease, he held this manor by the service of two knights' fees and a half ; of which John, earl of Oxford, had at that time the ninth part of this rent."

Inquistion. 13 Edward the Third.

The concept of a "Knight's Fee" is that in medievil times land was granted to knights as recompense for their services to a patron, most likely a soveriegn. 2 and a half Knights Fees is a lot. However, this came with the downside is that you could be called to fight in a conflict that you may have no interest.

" 3. The demesne lands of this manor amounted to five hundred and ninety-three acres. "

More research sources

What I have done here is to copy and paste research notes that I have found from other sources. I need to format some of this to see if there is anything new.

In order to format this page to a new page layout I have commented out a lot of the research that I found on the gemi.com and The Foundation for Medievil Geneology websites - this text needs to be disected.

There are a lot of website references and I may have not represented them correctly at the moment. I will have to come back to this.

geni.com - Quite a bit of source referencing
FMG - The Foundation for Medieval Geneology
From the Belchamp Otten/ Belchamp St Paul PC website
Maud Botetourt - Maud Fitz Otho of Mendlesham. Wife of Sir John de Botetourt to whom she transferred tbe estate.

Britsh History On-Line says:

" Monuments: In nave—in N. wall (see Plate, p. 20), (1) said to be to Sir John Boutetort, 1324 or 1325, and Maude (Fitz-Otes) his wife,
arched recess probably forming canopy for former altar tomb and entrance to former chantry-chapel, moulded and two-centred arch, cinquefoiled, sub-cusped and carved with foliage and flowers, points of main cusps carved with grotesques, and on main spandrels four shields of arms alternately,

(a) a saltire engrailed, for Boutetort, and (b) bendy with a quarter, for Fitz-Otes; crocketed and moulded label with carved finial, moulded responds carved with foliage; arch flanked by square panelled buttresses with panelled, gabled and crocketed pinnacles, on buttresses numerous small shields of arms including Boutetort, Fitz-Otes, Boutetort with a label of five points, Fitz-Otes impaling Boutetort, and quarterly a bend, for Beauchamp;
at back of arch, moulded and carved springers of vaulted roof of former chapel, or canopy of tomb, springing from semi-circular vaulting shafts with moulded capitals. "

The Chantry

This was located on the North wall and was possible constructed at a similar time to the painting of the murals. The murals could also have been painted around the entrance.

Maud Botetourt

" She was the daughter of Sir Thomas fitz Otes and Beatrice de Beauchamp.2,3 She married John de Botetourt, 1st Lord Botetourt, son of Edward I 'Longshanks', King of England, between 1 July 1285 and June 1292.1,5 She died after 28 May 1329.3

Note - the descent from Edward I has been supposedly disproven. See Here - 🔗 - source geneajourney.com (link removed - see below) "

The link to https://www.geneajourney.com/ was removed as the website had re-written their pages. Sadly, the site had been "improved". The disproving of the Botetourt parentage was just another reference back to Douglas Richardson.

From the Belchamp Otten/ Belchamp St Paul PC website

" The church is of Norman origin, the Nave walls are certainly of that period, and the South Door indicates the date to be about the early or middle of the 12th Century. This doorway, for so small a church is a very good example of the period. It consists of two orders of columns, which are ornamented with the spiral device common to the period, whilst the arches springing from them have the ordinary zig-zag upon them. All the original Norman windows have disappeared, or rather have been removed to make way for the two-light decorated windows on the South side, and the three-light decorated window on the North side of the Nave; in two of which there are still fragments of the original painted glass. In these decorated windows it is thought we see the hand of the FitzOthos or of Sir John de Boutetort. There is a modern two-light window at the West end. "

Note the alternate spelling of Sir John de Boutetort and Fitz-Otho

geni.com

This needs to be formatted................. Currently commented out

I may have mixed the sources here - geni.com references fmg.ac and geni.com themselves - BOTH need to be disected.

fmg.ac
"JOHN de Botetourt ([1265]-25 Nov 1324). According to the Complete Peerage, the parentage of John de Botetourt is unknown.
A Hailes abbey chronicle names John Botetourt as illegitimate son of King Edward I. Michael Prestwich comments that "in general terms, the Hailes chronicle is a reliable source", but highlights that Botetourt´s name is "in a genealogical table" in the chronicle and "appears to be written over an erasure". He concludes that "there is nothing in Botecourt´s career to suggest that he was an illegitimate son of the king" and that "in the absence of any corroborative evidence, it is difficult to credit the evidence of the genealogical table". Nevertheless, if the parentage as stated in the Hailes chronicle is incorrect, there must be some explanation for John Botetourt´s name being included, which is not obvious. "

LORDS BOTETOURT - fmg.ac again

The primary sources which confirm the parentage and marriages of the members of this family have not yet been identified, unless otherwise stated below.

I have a lot of research commented out in source........
Some of this needs to be formatted and the page re-indexed in case there are others making searches.

GUY Botetourt of Ellingham, Norfolk (-[1316])

I think this quote came from a geni.com profile, but these seem to be somewhat "fluid". I have a page on Guy de Botetourt where I am attempting to expand some of the research that I collected from geni.com ealier.

" Married to ???????. The name of Guy’s wife is not known.

Guy & his wife had [one child]: "

Background to this page

Having seen this page found by those making an Internet search I have decided to add more context.

There are many references to Sir John de Botetourt being the illegitimate son of Edward I. There are many references that say that this is not the case, however, the fact that Sir John had connections to the area that is now Belchamp Walter and there is the remains of quite an elaborate tomb/chantry in the parish Church is an indication that he must have been quite an influncial person in Englisb History.

The marriage of Sir John Botetourt to Maud/Matilda Fitz-Otho, he then of Mendlesham, Suffolk and Fitz-Otes of more local stock provided the connection to the Belchamp Walter area. The reference www.geneajourney.com/botetrt.html needs to be investigated more fully as it claims that the connection to Edward I (Longshanks) had been disproven.

I have started a new page on Guy de Botetourt - this will attempt to trace the connection with the Duke of Normandy's family.

Much of the research was obtained from the geni.com website - however, a lot of the references from geni come from other sources that have been uploaded by those using the service (I presume).

Thomas Wright says that "the family of Botetourt came from Normandy with the Conqueror.

Thomas Wright also states that Sir John was made the Governor of St. Briavels Castle, Gloucestershire and warden of the forest of Deane.
The Wikipedia page for St. Briavels Castle makes no mention of Sir John.

Johanna de Botetourt - de Belchamp

Married Sir Robert Swynbourne

Sir John de Botetourt - b. 1265 d. 1324

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