William de Botreaux, 3rd Baron Botreaux

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.

[5] In 1435 he was appointed by Richard, Duke of York (d.1460), father of the future King Edward IV (1461–1483), 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:[6] The Barons Botreaux held a manor at Molland Bottreaux (sic), on the southern foothills of Exmoor.

The chaplains were allowed to acquire property to the value of 100 marks,[9] including the advowson of the church, and land whereon to build a manse.

[13] 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.

However the style of the plate armour and the lady's head-dress suggest a mid-15th-century date and the crest on the helm on which the knight rests his head is certainly that of Botreaux seen on the seal of the 1435 Exmoor charter, and shows an animal's body akin to a deer standing on a cap of maintenance with the front part of the animal in the form of a griffin, with the features of the face now lost, but with parts of the wings visible.

He wears full plate armour and the SS livery collar around his neck and a pointed helmet with a wreath or orle around it.

The effigy of his wife, presumed to be Elizabeth Beaumont wears a horned (or mitred) head-dress adorned with pearls, with necklace and cross, long gown with mantle over, fastened with cord and tassells.

The chest tomb shows on the long side (facing north) panels of angels holding escutcheons, the former heraldic painting on which is now totally effaced.

The text formerly painted on sculpted stone speech-scrolls attached to the kneeling figures is now totally effaced but would have been prayers to the Virgin Mary.

Rogers (1890) reports that the appointments of the knight's armour were gilded and that the gown of the lady was red, the bodice blue and the mantle black.

Effigy of William de Botreaux, 3rd Baron Botreaux (d.1462), North Cadbury Church
Drawing (c. 1890) of effigies of William de Botreaux, 3rd Baron Botreaux(d.1462) and his 1st wife Elizabeth Beaumont, North Cadbury Church, Somerset
Armorials of Botreaux: Argent, a griffin segreant gules armed azure
Indenture dated 1 January 1435: grant by Richard Duke of York to William de Botreaux, 3rd Baron Botreaux of office of Forester of Exmoor and Neroche. British Library, Harleian Charter 43 E 47
North Cadbury Church, viewed from SE. The nave and chancel were rebuilt in the Perpendicular style by Elizabeth Daubeny, Baroness Botreaux, the earlier tower was retained
The "memorial to William de Botreaux and his wife Elizabeth" in the church
Effigy presumed that of Elizabeth Beaumont, Baroness Botreaux, 1st wife of William de Botreaux, 3rd Baron Botreaux, North Cadbury Church
Arms of Beaumont: Azure semé of fleurs-de-lis , a lion rampant or [ 16 ]
Tombstone of Reginald de Botreaux(d. 1420), Aller Church, Somerset. The recumbent effigy is of Sir John de Clevedon (d. 1372), whose daughter and heiress of Aller was Margaret Clevedon, the maternal grandmother of William de Botreaux, 3rd Baron Botreaux, father of Reginald
Heraldic escutcheon incised on tombstone of Reginald de Botreaux (d. 1420) in Aller Church, Somerset, showing the impaled arms of his parents: Baron: Argent, a griffin segreant gules armed azure (Botreaux); Femme: Azure seme of fleurs-de-lis a lion rampant or (Beaumont)