John de Hotham I

John de Hotham I, of Scorborough, son and heir of Robert de Hotham II was born between 1232 and 1240. He was a minor in 1253 when Alice widow of Robert de Hotham sued Peter de Welton concerning one third of 80 acres of land and 22 acres of meadow in Cranswick and Hutton, and one third of 4 bovates and 6 acres of land and 16 acres in Scorborough which she claimed as dower. Peter called to warrant Thomas de Hotham, brother of the said Robert, and with regard to Scorborough, John son and heir of the said Robert who was under age and in custody of Peter de Mauley [1]. John de Hotham was of age in 1261 when Alice widow of Thomas de Hotham sued the Prior of Watton over one third of four-score acres of land and 30 acres of meadow in Cranswick, as dower. The Prior vouched to warranty Geoffrey, son and heir of the said Thomas de Hotham, who is within age and in ward to John de Hotham [2].

In 1271, the manor of Cranswick was the subject of a dispute between John de Hotham and Ellen widow of Adam Daniel, who claimed the manor as her dower [3]. At that time it appears that Ellen’s son John was still alive and a tenant of John de Hotham. On 6 August 1279, at the inquisition post mortem of Peter de Mauley II, it was found that John de Hotham was holding two knight's fees of Peter in Hotham, Easthorpe and Cranswick [4].

It is not known if Hotham had more than one wife, but in 1275 he was married to Alice. By a fine in the octave of Trinity 3 Edward I, [17 June 1275] Robert Skarf of Hutton and Amice his wife granted to John de Hothum and Alice his wife a messuage and a bovate of land in Hutton and Cranswick at a yearly rent of a gillyflower clove, to hold of Robert and Amice and the heirs of Amice [5].

In 1280-81, Joan [de Neville] widow of William de Uppesale was summoned to show cause why she did not pay John, son of Robert de Hotham, the services which she owed him in respect of the manor of Sneaton (near Whitby), which she held of him by homage and the service of one soar-hawk. John de Hotham asserted that Joan, grandmother of the said Joan de Uppesale, used to pay these services to his father Robert, in the time of Henry III [6]. John apparently lost this case.

In Hilary term 1281, Peter de Mauley brought a writ of right of wardship against John de Hotham before the justices in eyre at York. He demanded the custody of Agnes, daughter and heiress of his tenant Adam Daniel. Hotham pleaded that his ancestors had been lords of land held by the infant's ancestors long before Mauley's ancestors. Mauley replied that this was so, but that his feoffment was inherited by the infant through the paternal line, whereas Hotham's was through maternal inheritance. The justices delayed judgement. Judgement was finally rendered in the King's Bench for Hotham at Michaelmas 1285 [7]. At about this time, John de Hotham married his ward Agnes Daniel to his son John.

On 16 July 1290, the king granted John de Hotham and his heirs, free warren in all his demesne lands in Hotham, Scorborough and Birsay, Yorkshire [8]. On 8 March 1289, John de Hothum was a witness to a grant by Gerard son of Robert Salvayn to Sibyl, widow of Robert Salvayn, his mother, of his capital messuage and other lands in in Herswelle [9].

John de Hotham I, who was apparently not knighted, probably died in or soon after 1290 and was succeeded by his son John de Hotham II. It appears that Alice survived him and may have been the Alice de Hotham who was holding the vill of Hotham in 1303, "Hothum: De feodo de Malo Lacu xj bov. Alicia de Hothum tenet totum" [10].

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[1] TNA: KB26/148 m. 15. as cited in Baildon, Religious and Secular Houses, 132.

[2] TNA: KB26/169 m. 3 as cited in ibid.

[3] Coram Rege, Hil. 56 H.III as cited in Saltmarshe, History of the Hothams, 31.

[4] Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 2, Edward I (1906), 171, No. 302.

[5] F. H. Slingsby, ed., Feet of Fines for the County of York, From 1272 to 1300, Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Record Series 121, 1956, 4–5, No. 22.

[6] William Brown, ed., Cartularium Prioratus de Gyseburne. Ebor. Dioeceseos Ordinis S. Augustini. Vol. I, Surtees Society 86, 1889, 274–275n.

[7] Theodore Plucknett, Legislation of Edward I, 1949, 112–3.

[8] Calendar of the Charter Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office, vol. 2 (London, 1906), 366.

[9] M. J. Hebditch, ed., Yorkshire Deeds Vol. 9, Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Record Series 111, 1948, 94–5, No. 236.

[10] R. H. Skaife, ed., The Survey of the County of York Taken by John de Kirkby, Called Kirkby’s Inquest: Also Inquisitions of Knights’ Fees, the Nomina Villarum for Yorkshire, and an Appendix of Illustrative Documents, Surtees Society 49, 1866, 265.