BOTELER, John II, of Reigate, Surr.

The identification of the man who represented Reigate alongside Hugh Ashbury*, a servant of John Mowbray, duke of Norfolk (who would inherit the lordship of Reigate after the death of the dowager countess of Arundel, Beatrice of Portugal, then wife of John Holand, earl of Huntingdon), presents some problems. It seems that Boteler was a local man, or at least held property in the town, for in 1440 he sued a local butcher for breaking into his house at Reigate and stealing ten pigs. CP40/717, rot. 419d. This John Boteler, however, claimed to be of the rank of an esquire, and it is thus curious that he was not named among the Surrey men of substance who had been required to take the general oath against maintenance in 1434, suggesting that he was not normally resident in the county. While there were Botelers in various counties of England, no obvious candidate for identification with the MP of 1435 has been found.