William de Botreaux, 3rd Baron Botreaux
William de Botreaux, 3rd Baron Botreaux was a baron, whose holdings were in Somerset and the south-west of England. He inherited from his father the barony by writ of Botreaux as well as substantial family landholdings which included a moiety of the feudal barony of North Cadbury, Somerset, in the parish church of which capital manor he was buried, as he requested in his will.
Origins
He was born on 20 February 1389 at Walton, Kilmersdon, Somerset, the son of William de Botreaux, 2nd Baron Botreaux by his wife Elizabeth St Lo, daughter and co-heiress of Sir John St Lo of Newton St Loe, Wiltshire, by his second wife Margaret Clyvedon, daughter and heiress of John Clyvedon. Elizabeth was sole heiress of her mother and survived her husband, her death having occurred on 4 September between 1409 and 1458.Career
He was summoned to parliament on several occasions, the first time being on 1 December 1412, aged 23, and lastly on 23 May 1461, aged 72. As an attendant to King Henry V between 1413 until 1422, he attended Court and served the monarch throughout the Siege of Harfleur and the subsequent Battle of Agincourt in 1415.After a full and active life of service to the Country, William de Botreaux, 3rd Baron Botreux died on 16 May 1462 probably as a result of injuries sustained at the Second Battle of St. Albans the year before.
Appointed Forester of Exmoor
In 1435 he was appointed by Richard, Duke of York, father of the future King Edward IV, as forester of the royal forests of Exmoor and of Neroche, Somerset, as is recorded in the following charter in French surviving in the British Library summarised in Harleian Charter 43 E 47:The Barons Botreaux held a manor at Molland Bottreaux , on the southern foothills of Exmoor. The forest of Neroche is situated in the Blackdown Hills, Somerset, to which was formerly appended Castle Neroche in the parish of Curland, near Staple Fitzpaine.
Rebuilds North Cadbury Church
His grandmother Elizabeth Daubeny, wife of William de Botreaux, 1st Baron Botreaux wished to found a college of priests in North Cadbury Church, possibly ex voto for the safe return of her grandson from the Agincourt campaign of 1415. Her son, the 2nd baron, had died aged only 27 in 1395, four years after the death of her husband the 1st Baron, thus her grandson was particularly important to her. She was licensed in 1417 to found a college of chaplains in the church. Papal approval was given in 1418 when the church was named St. Michael the Archangel.In 1423, royal licence was granted for Elizabeth, Lady de Botreaux and "Sir William de Botreaux" to convert the parish church of North Cadbury into a college of seven chaplains and four clerks, one of the chaplains being in charge as rector of the college of St. Michael. The chaplains were allowed to acquire property to the value of 100 marks, including the advowson of the church, and land whereon to build a manse.
In 1454, Thomas Beckington, Bishop of Bath & Wells, established an inquiry into the constitution of this collegiate church and admitted a new rector. There is nevertheless still doubt as to whether the college was actually established, yet in 1548, the benefice of North Cadbury was stated as "commonly callyd a college and hathe ben tyme out of mynde". Furthermore one witness said that "yt is written in the churche bookes 'the obitus Willmi. Botrax fundatoris hujus collegii'" The surviving record of her intention states: "to establish therein a perpetual college of seven chaplains, one to preside and to be called the Rector of the College of St Michael the Archangel". She it was, probably with the approval of her grandson, who rebuilt the church in 1423 into the grand and imposing Perpendicular Gothic structure which survives today, in which she was buried. The chancel is unusually tall as it was designed to house stalls for the priests of the college. North Cadbury remained a sole rectory until 1966 when it was held with Compton Pauncefoot, Blackford, Maperton, North Cheriton, and South Cadbury with Sutton Montis. In 1975, the new Camelot parishes benefice was formed comprising North Cadbury, Compton Pauncefoot, Blackford, Maperton, North Cheriton, South Cadbury, and Yarlington.
Marriage
He married twice:- firstly before 1411 to Elizabeth Beaumont, daughter of John Beaumont, 4th Baron Beaumont K.G. by Katherine Everingham, daughter of Thomas Everingham of Laxton, Nottinghamshire.
- secondly before 1458 to Margaret de Ros, daughter of Thomas de Ros, 8th Baron de Ros by Eleanor Beauchamp, daughter of Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick. His second wife survived him and married secondly between May 1462 and 1464 Thomas Burgh, 1st Baron Burgh of Gainsburgh K.G.. She was buried next to her second husband at Gainsborough.
Progeny
By his first wife Elizabeth Beaumont he had the following children:- William, who died an infant before 1434 and was buried at North Cadbury and after transferred to the Minorite Church at Bridgwater.
- Reginald, died young 1420, the date incised on his tomb stone in Aller Church, Somerset. Aller was one of the family's many manors. The tombstone is now affixed upright to the north wall of the chancel but was formerly set into the floor. It is well preserved for its age and displays within an heraldic escutcheon the griffin rampant of Botreaux impaled with the lion rampant on a field semee-de-lys of Beaumont, the marshalled arms of Reginald's parents. On a ledger line around the border of the slab is inscribed the following text in gothic script:
hic jacet Roginaldus filius William dom de Botreaux qui obiit xxx die julii anno dom mccccxx
- Anne, married in 1426 Sir John Stafford. She did not survive her father and died without issue.
- Margaret, his sole heiress, suo jure 4th Baroness Botreaux, married Robert Hungerford, 2nd Baron Hungerford. She was buried in Salisbury Cathedral in a now demolished tomb within a chantry chapel she founded there. The tomb and effigy of her husband in Salisbury Cathedral still exists.