BOTELER, William (d. 1664)

At his father’s death in 1637 an inquisition post mortem found that William Boteler was ‘an idiot and fool man’ and had been so since birth. It seems likely that he suffered from the same congenital defect that afflicted his nephews, Mountjoy Blount, 2nd earl, Thomas Blount, 3rd earl, and Henry Blount, 4th earl of Newport. Custody was awarded to his brothers-in-law, Francis Leigh^†, then Baron Dunsmore (later earl of Chichester) and Endymion Porter but transferred in November 1646 to another brother-in-law, the parliamentarian sympathizer Edward Howard, Baron Howard of Escrick. TNA, E 214/1228; CJ, iv. 714. Boteler’s exact date of death is not known. He was buried on 13 Aug. 1664.