Sir John Hotham VII

Sir John Hotham VII of Scorborough, Yorkshire, was the son and heir of Sir John Hotham VI and Maud Newsom. According to the inquisition for his proof of age held at Market Weighton on 25 June 1435, he was born at Scorborough on Easter Sunday, twenty-one years before [8 April 1414] and was baptised in the church there. His godfathers were John Fiskerton, Prior of Watton and John Dewurth [1].

His father died in October 1419, when he was five years old [2]. On 6 October 1420, the king committed the keeping of all the lands late of John Hothom, 'chivaler' to Thomas Santon of South Cave and William Calthorne until the lawful age of John his son and heir, together with the marriage of the said heir, rendering 100 pounds per year [3]. Between 1420 and 1424, Thomas Santon and William Cauthorn, guardians of John, son of John Hothom, knight, sued Maud lady de Mauley, William Ake, and other agents of hers concerning the manor of Wymondthorp and lands in Lockington and Cranswick [4].There is no record of where John spent his youth, but it was presumably in the household of John Routh, esquire, the second husband of his mother Maud.

John Hotham married about 1433, Elizabeth daughter of Sir William Eure by his wife Maud, daughter of Henry, Lord Fitz-Hugh of Ravensworth [5].

He was a beneficiary in the will of his mother's half-brother Master Thomas Hebden, dated 21 June 1435, who left his best sword and armour to his nephew John Hothom [6]. On 12 July 1435 the escheator in Yorkshire was ordered to take the fealty of John Hothom, son and heir of John Hothom knight, and to give him seisin of his father's lands; as he has proved his age before the escheator, and the king respited his homage until Christmas day next [7]. In her will, dated 1 October 1438, Maud widow of Peter de Mauley the 8th, left to John Hotham, her esquire, an embossed silver cup [8].

On 8 July 1442, John Routh and Maud his wife settled the manor of Dunsforth (in Aldborough), and land in Cottingham on themselves for life, with reversion to John Hotham, esquire [9].

On 6 November 1444, John Hothom was appointed as escheator in Yorkshire [10]. Sir John Hothom was one of those indicted after the “battle” of Heworth near York, on 24 August 1453, when Percy retainers and supporters attacked the Earl of Salisbury and his son, Sir Thomas Neville, returning from Thomas' wedding in Tatteshal [11]. On 18 December 1455, 'Dom. Joh. Hothom, miles' and 'Dom. Elizabeth uxor ejus', were members of the Guild of Corpus Christi in York [12]. On 17 November 1456, John Hothom, knight, was appointed Sheriff of Yorkshire and keeper of York castle until 7 November 1457 [13].

Sir John Hotham VII, knight and his son and heir, John Hotham VIII, esquire, both died in the bloody battle of Towton on Palm Sunday 1461. Hotham and his son were probably serving under their lord, Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland in the Lancastrian forces that were disastrously defeated. In his inquisition post mortem taken at York Castle on 10th October 1461, the jury found that "the said John Hotham died on Palm Sunday last (29 March 1461), and that John Hotham, son of John Hotham, son of the aforesaid John Hotham miles is kinsman and next heir to John Hotham miles, viz., son of John Hotham son of the said John Hotham, miles, and is at the time of taking this inquisition two years old and upwards" [14].

John's widow Elizabeth probably died before 1467, as she is not mentioned in the will of her mother, Maud Fitzhugh, dated 12 February 1467 [15].

As well as his son and heir, John Hotham VIII, he also had sons, William, about who little is known and Ralph.

---

[1] Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 24, Henry VI: 1432-1437, No. 273.

[2] Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 21, Henry V: 1418–1422 (2002), 88, No. 302.

[3] Calendar of Fine Rolls, vol. 14, Henry V: 1413–1422 (1934), 325.

[4] Court of Chancery: Six Clerks Office: Early Proceedings, Richard II to Philip and Mary, C 1/5/47.

[5] Blair, Visitations of the North, Part III, 110, Eure Pedigree: “Elizabeth nupta domino Iohanni Othom.”

[6] Raine et al., Wills and Inventories, 82, “Item lego Johanni Hothom nepoti meo meliorem gladium meum et unam integrant armaturam”

[7] Calendar of Fine Rolls, vol. 17, Henry VI: 1437–1445 (1937), 304.

[8] Raine, Test. Ebor. II, 67“Item lego Johanni Huthome armigero meo unam peciam coopertorio argenti vocatam Chalispece.”

[9] Feet of Fines, CP 25/1/280/158, number 43.

[10] Calendar of Fine Rolls, vol. 17, Henry VI: 1437–1445 (1937), 304.

[11] Ralph A. Griffiths, “Local Rivalries and National Politics: The Percies, the Nevilles, and the Duke of Exeter, 1452-55,” Speculum 43, no. 4 (October 1968): 600.

[12] Skaife, Register of the Guild of Corpus Christi York, 58.

[13] Calendar of Fine Rolls, vol. 19, Henry VI: 1452–1461 (1939), 174, 196.

[14] TNA: C 140/2/20 as cited in Saltmarshe, History of the Hothams, 80.

[15] Raine, Test. Ebor. II, 284.