Some corrections and additions to the Complete Peerage: Volume 2: Botetourt (PROPOSED CORRECTIONS)

BOTETOURT

Volume 2, page 235 (as modified by volume 14):
He [John (de Botetourt), Lord Botetourt (d. 1385)] m., 1stly, Maud, da. of John DE GREY [1st LORD GREY OF ROTHERFIELD]. He m., 2ndly, before 31 May 1347, Joyce, da. of William ZOUCHE, formerly MORTIMER [LORD ZOUCHE of Mortimer]. ... He left issue by both wives.

JOYCE, apparently, according to modern doctrine, suo jure BARONESS BOTETOURT ... ... granddaughter and h., being da. and h. of John DE BOTETOURT, by Maud da. of John (DE GREY), 2nd LORD GREY OF ROTHERFIELD, which John de B. was s. and h. ap. (by his 2nd wife) of the late Lord, and d. v.p. 21 Sep. 1369.

Apparently the elder John de Botetourt did not have a first wife Maud de Grey, while the younger John de Botetourt married, soon after 28 November 1358, Maud, daughter of John, 1st (not 2nd) Lord Grey of Rotherfield, by his 2nd wife Avice Marmion. Maud remarried, before 13 June 1374, to Sir Thomas de Harcourt, of Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire (see Erdington, vol. 5, pp. 88, 89).

The elder John's first wife Maud, and the statement that he had issue both by her and by Joyce Zouche, appear to have been copied from a pedigree in Blore's History of Rutland [p. 90]. This was later corrected by the author [p. 209], and this Maud seems to have arisen purely out of confusion with the wife of the younger John de Botetourt.

A settlement was made, 28 November 1358, on the younger John de Botetourt and Maud, the daughter of John de Grey of Retherfeld (or Rotherfeld) [Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1358-1361, pp. 125, 127]. As Maud's father is described simply as John de Grey, not John de Grey the younger, it seems more natural to identify him as the first Lord Grey of Rotherfield, who did not die until 1359. This indication is confirmed by the heraldry on the tombs of Maud and her grandson Sir Robert Harcourt, at Stanton Harcourt. These were described in 1808 as displaying the arms of Marmion [George Simon, Earl Harcourt, An Account of the Church and Remains of the Manor House of Stanton Harcourt in the County of Oxford, pp. 8, 9, 13 (1808)]. Avice Marmion was the 2nd wife of John de Grey, the first Lord Grey of Rotherfield, but was not the mother of his son John, the second Lord.

[This problem was discussed in October 2003 and later by Rosie Bevan, John Stuart, Doug Smith, Douglas Richardson, Jim Weber and Paul Reed.
Item last updated: 28 December 2003.]