♂John Botetourt

John Botetourt (died 1386) was an English knight and the 2nd Lord Botetourt^W, of Weoley in Worcestershire, who succeeded his grandfather as a boy of seven, fought in the French wars and was summoned to Parliament for more than forty years. He was the seventeenth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his daughter Joyce Botetourt (died 1420).

Early life and inheritance

John was the son and heir of Sir Thomas Botetourt of Upton in Norfolk and Great Bradley in Suffolk, and of Joan, a daughter of Roger de Somery, Baron of Dudley. His father was the heir of the first Lord Botetourt but died before him, in 1322, when John was four. When the old lord died on 25 November 1324, the seven-year-old boy became his grandfather’s heir. While he was still a minor he was given livery of his mother’s lands on 16 July 1338, and on her death that year he came into half of the barony of Dudley in Staffordshire. He had livery of the rest of his lands in 1341.

Lord Botetourt

John distinguished himself in the French wars, and he was summoned to Parliament^W from 25 February 1342 to 3 February 1385. Before 31 May 1347 he married Joyce la Zouche, the daughter of Sir William la Zouche Mortimer, Lord Zouche, and Alice de Tony. Besides Weoley in Northfield, his lands took in Cradley and Hagley in Worcestershire, Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire, Handsworth and Mere in Staffordshire and Bordesley in Warwickshire. His seal of 1339 bore his arms, a saltire engrailed, and as late as 27 September 1383 he leased a water mill called Alresfordemulle in the fields of Pynleye to John Knyght of Coventry.

Death

John made a will, died in 1386 and was buried at Halesowen in Worcestershire. His only son had died before him, so his heir was his granddaughter Joyce, the wife of Hugh Burnell, Lord Burnell. When she died without children on 1 January 1406/7, the barony fell into abeyance^W among John’s three surviving daughters and their heirs, and so it stayed for more than three and a half centuries.

The family

John and Joyce had one son and six daughters. Their only son, John Botetourt, married Maud de Grey and died overseas on 21 September 1369, in his father’s lifetime. Of the daughters, Maud and Agnes became nuns, and Isabel married first Sir Hugh de Segrave and then Sir Thomas Blount.

Lines of descent

John reaches Nancy Jane Blanchard through his daughter Joyce Botetourt (died 1420). A second line probably runs through Joyce’s great-great-grandson John Washburn (died 1547); the Notes give the reasons.

Notes

Sources

John’s parentage, his inheritance, his marriage to Joyce la Zouche, his summonses to Parliament, his children and his burial at Halesowen are given by Douglas Richardson in Magna Carta Ancestry (2005) and by the Complete Peerage (1912). His ages in 1322 and 1324, his grandfather’s death, his livery of his mother’s lands and his own, and the end of the barony in 1406/7 are from the Complete Peerage; his seal and the 1383 lease are from Richardson. His son’s marriage and death abroad are from Richardson’s Plantagenet Ancestry.

His death year

Richardson gives his death as 1386; the Complete Peerage gives 1385.

Maud de Grey

The Complete Peerage gives John a first wife, Maud, daughter of John de Grey, Lord Grey of Rotherfield, and says he left children by both wives. Richardson points out that Maud de Grey was in fact the wife of his son, John.

The descent through John Washburn

That the John whom the pedigrees give as a son of Joyce’s great-granddaughter Joan Mitton was John Washburn of Bengeworth, who died in 1547, is the identification of the Washbournes’ historian, James Davenport, not a record’s, so the descent through him is given here as probable.