BOTELER (BUTLER), George (c.1583-1657), of Ellerton, Yorks. and Tewin, Herts.

Boteler’s half-brother was in the service of the 3rd earl of Cumberland, and Boteler himself was described by Cumberland’s nephew, Henry, Lord Clifford*, as ‘my worthy friend and cousin’.Cumb. RO (Carlisle), Ca2/120, f. 12. He was living with Clifford at Londesborough in the East Riding at the time of his marriage to a widow 20 years his senior.Yorks. Arch. Soc. xii. 273. Although he acquired the East Riding manor of Lutton and other Yorkshire property in his own right, he subsequently resided on his wife’s jointure at Ellerton, which he improved by enclosing surrounding common land.J.T. Cliffe, Yorks. Gentry, 37. He was returned for Carlisle on Clifford’s recommendation in 1614, but left no trace on the records of the Addled Parliament. Having served ‘without putting the city to one penny charge’, he was re-elected in 1620.Cumb. RO (Carlisle), Ca2/120, f. 11. In the third Jacobean Parliament he was appointed to one committee, for a bankruptcy bill (13 Mar. 1621).CJ, i. 551b.

As a client of the Cliffords, Boteler helped canvas for Sir Thomas Wentworth*, Clifford’s brother-in-law, in the 1625 Yorkshire election, which resulted in a contest that Wentworth won amid great controversy.Wentworth Pprs. ed. J.P. Cooper (Cam. Soc. ser. 4. xii), 232, 288. Three years later Boteler was admitted as a gentleman of the privy chamber, though without the usual obligation of quarterly attendance.LC5/132, pp. 14, 17. He evidently preferred to spend most of his time in the country, and was regarded by his friends Endymion Porter† and Sir Edward Conway II* as an expert on hunting dogs and the breeding of horses.CSP Dom. 1628-9, p. 12; 1640, pp. 75-6. In 1632 he undertook to invest £100 in the Fisheries Association, but by 24 May 1637 had still not paid up.CSP Dom. 1635-6, p. 532; 1637, p. 146. Boteler signed a petition against billeting during the Second Bishops’ War, and on 8 Dec. 1639 Clifford recommended him at Wentworth’s request for election at Carlisle, informing the town that he was ‘now better able than ever to do you service’.CSP Dom. 1640, p. 524; Cumb. RO (Carlisle), Ca2/120, ff. 11, 19 (Clifford to Carlisle corp. 8 Dec. 1639, 12 Jan. 1640). However, Boteler found no seat in either the Short or the Long Parliament.

As a passive royalist in the Civil War, Boteler took shelter in the York garrison, and contributed to the king’s war coffers by the purchase of a baronetcy. At the age of 63 he petitioned to compound for his delinquency on 22 July 1646, and was fined £569 on an estate that brought him in £424 a year.CJ, v. 596b; Royalist Comp. Pprs. ed. J.W. Clay (Yorks. Arch. Soc. rec. ser. xviii), 144-5. He drew up his will on 9 Sept., and was buried at Tewin, in his native county, on 25 June 1657.Clutterbuck, ii. 224, 227. He bequeathed Tewin House to his Cavalier nephew Sir Francis Boteler*, but nominated as overseer another nephew, the son of William Frankland*, who had been a committeeman in the North Riding. Boteler also left a diamond ring to his wife’s great-nephew Hugh Bethell*, who represented the East Riding in the Protectorate Parliaments.VCH Herts. iii. 480-7; PROB 11/266, f. 233v; Abstracts of Yorks. Wills ed. J.W. Clay (Yorks. Arch. Soc. rec. ser. ix), 106-7.