BOTTENHAM, Henry, of Wilton, Wilts.

While it is tempting to suggest that Bottenham was a scion of the prominent Wiltshire family of Bodenham, who by the 1420s held lands at Ebbesborne Wake, no such connexion has been established. Originally from Bodenham in Downton, the Bodenhams acquired most of their more important holdings through the marriage of Stephen Bodenham to Anastasia, da. and coh. of Nicholas Berengar of Shipton Bellinger, Hants and Ebbesbourne Wake. From their yr. son Robert (d.1466) the lands eventually passed to Henry Bodenham†, who sat as a knight for Wiltshire in the reign of Mary I: VCH Wilts. xiii. 54; The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 459; 1509-58, i. 453-4; CFR, xiv. 140-1; CPR, 1422-9, p. 400; C140/21/34. Rather, it seems that the MP was a kinsman, perhaps a son, of the county coroner John Bottenham, who represented Wilton in 1402. The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 314; CCR, 1409-13, p. 287. Henry normally resided at Wilton, where he is found attesting local property deeds for his neighbours, including Robert Cuttyng, son and heir of the pre-eminent Wilton MP of Richard II’s reign, Thomas Cuttyng†, and John Whithorne*, Wilton’s leading representative under Henry V and Henry VI, and a fellow Member of both of Bottenham’s Parliaments, as well as Nicholas Pak*, who represented Wilton in 1422. Dorset RO, Weld of Lulworth castle mss, D/WLC/T327-8; Wilts. Hist. Centre, Wilton bor. recs., gen. entry bk. G25/1/21, f. 9. On other occasions, Bottenham’s interaction with his neighbours was a source of litigation: in late 1425 he was suing the Wilton husbandman William Dressour for £40, which he claimed to have lent to him four years earlier. CP40/659, rot. 331d.

No definite evidence of Bottenham’s trade or profession has come to light, but it is possible that like his putative father he possessed some legal training, for it was perhaps in a professional capacity that in late 1424 he stood surety for the appearance of a defendant in the court of Chancery. CCR, 1422-9, p. 192. Equally, nothing is known of his activities in the Commons, but it seems that he may have put his time at Westminster to good use, for in the autumn of 1422, perhaps while Parliament was in session, he was prosecuting private business before the justices of common pleas. CP40/647, rot. 16. It is possible that these private interests were what made a spell in Parliament at Westminster attractive to him. At this date he went to unusual lengths to secure his seats, finding them half way across the county at Calne and Chippenham, perhaps after having to concede the Wilton return to more affluent and experienced neighbours. Indeed, there may have been some irregularity over his return in 1422, since his name appears on the sheriff’s schedule recording the names of the Wiltshire borough Members squeezed into an insufficient gap. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that while the sureties named for Bottenham’s colleague, the lawyer John Giles*, were the clearly fictitious John Doo and Richard Roo, his own sureties included the distinguished Calne parliamentarian Robert Salman†. C219/13/1.