BOTELER, John III

A draper by trade, Boteler first appeared in the local records in 1431 when he was elected as one of the constables of the town’s fifth ward. It is unclear when he was first chosen as such, but he remained in office until December 1435. Two years later he was first elected as one of the jurats and probably served in that office until his death. Probably as a result of the wealth he had accumulated through his drapery business, he quickly rose to be one of the leading figures in Sandwich. In December 1439 he was one of the three jurats put forward for election by the commonalty as mayor and in the following year he was the successful candidate. His first mayoralty lasted only a year (during which time he attended his first two meetings of the Brodhull),4 Ibid. 14. but he continued to play a prominent role in the town’s affairs, remaining as one of the keepers of the keys to the common chest. In June 1442, along with the mayor, Richard Cock*, he was chosen as an arbiter on behalf of John Green I* and his sureties, Thomas Haddon* and Hugh Caxton, in a dispute with the commonalty concerning the settlement of debts owed to Green for his time as mayor. The following month Boteler rendered account for his own mayoralty, delivering £16 2s. 8d. into the common chest.5 ‘Old Black Bk.’, ff. 57v, 58.

Boteler was again a candidate for the mayoralty in December 1442 and in the following year he was elected to the first of three consecutive terms of office. While serving in the second of these terms, in February 1445, he was elected, along with Green, to the Parliament summoned to Westminster in anticipation of Margaret of Anjou’s arrival in England, and at her coronation as queen (in the following May, during the second session), he led the delegation of barons from Sandwich who supported the royal canopy at Westminster Abbey. In the course of these three years as mayor he also attended every meeting of the Brodhull.6 Ibid. ff. 66v-67v; White and Black Bks. 18-22; W. Boys, Sandwich, 414. Boteler’s role in the affairs of the town does not seem to have diminished after the end of his mayoralty. In January 1447 he was again elected to Parliament, although the length and nature of his service at Bury St. Edmunds remains undocumented. His presence at a meeting of the Brodhull that April was almost certainly to report on proceedings in the Parliament to his fellow Portsmen. In the following July he once again travelled to New Romney for a meeting of the Brodhull and he was one of six jurats and six commoners chosen to attend the first court of Shepway held by the new warden of the Cinque Ports, James Fiennes*, Lord Saye and Sele.7 ‘Old Black Bk.’, f. 70v; White and Black Bks. 22-23. He was also called upon to arbitrate in disputes between his fellow jurats: in June 1448 he was one of those chosen to settle the quarrel between Green and William Fennell*. On 18 July 1449 he was chosen as Sandwich’s bailiff to the Yarmouth herring fair and four days later travelled to New Romney to certify his election to the Brodhull. Boteler’s last recorded piece of extraordinary business on the town’s behalf was his nomination, in August 1451, to attend a meeting of the warden’s court of Shepway.8 ‘Old Black Bk.’, ff. 73, 75, 83v; White and Black Bks. 26.

Boteler was well connected in Sandwich and his wealth and social status ensured that he was frequently called upon to act as a feoffee and surety for local men. As a result, he was also often involved in litigation. In July 1432 he appeared before the jurats and agreed to their arbitration to release his apprentice, John Tuppull, without penalty. In January 1435 several townsmen entered into recognizances to him and Fennell that they would pay their part of the mayor’s costs in accounting at the Exchequer, an expense for which Boteler and Fennell had probably lent money.9 ‘Old Black Bk.’, ff. 5v, 21-21v, 74. One of Boteler’s closest associates appears to have been the leading local lawyer, John Green, his colleague in his first Parliament. In Michaelmas term 1438 he was accused of maintaining Green in his quarrel with Robert Wilde* over the execution of the will of the important local merchant, Henry Cacherell.10 CP40/711, rot. 108d. Similarly, when Boteler presented a petition in Chancery against John Spicer, vicar of Monkton, and Nicholas Sandeway of the Isle of Thanet, alleging that they had withheld payment of a debt of £4, Green acted as one of his sureties.11 C1/16/381. Their friendship appears to have lasted throughout the 1440s, despite Green’s reputation as a trouble-maker, with Boteler acting as an arbiter on his behalf in 1442 and 1448. In July 1447 the two men were granted letters of withernam against Nicholas Andlaby of Dover.12 ‘Old Black Bk.’, f. 71.

Boteler’s commercial and property interests appear to have been centred on Sandwich and its surrounding area. In 1442 he claimed exemption from the parliamentary subsidy in the hundreds of Eastry and Wingham.13 E179/124/110. On more than one occasion he registered his property dealings before the mayor and jurats, these including the acquisition of a tenement in St. Clement’s parish.14 ‘Old Black Bk.’, ff. 70, 74v. Boteler was last chosen as one of the jurats in December 1452 and he died early in the next year. In his will dated 4 Jan. 1453 he left his property in Sandwich, Eastry and Worth to his son and heir, Richard. The latter was still a minor and the will made provision that if he should die before coming of age the property should pass to John’s brother, Thomas.15 Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone, Canterbury consist. ct. wills, PRC 32/1, f. 62. It was not until January 1460 that delivery of seisin was made by his feoffees, and until 26 Apr. 1465 that Richard appeared before the jurats to make proof of age.16 ‘Old Black Bk.’, ff. 119, 120. Another John Boteler, a barber, was probably also a kinsman of our MP, but is unlikely to have been another son of his. In Feb. 1457 that John and his wife demised a tenement in St. Clement’s parish to two local men: ibid, f. 103v.