THE PROBLEM OF HAMO BOTEREL

THE PROBLEM OF HAMO BOTEREL

One of the problems you may come across in consulting other records of the early family is that authorities in 18th. and 19th. centuries didn't have access, given poor communications, to all the research data we have today, so they conjectured.

One researcher leaves out completely one generation in the Cornish line. Another says that the line didn't start with Nicholas Boterel but with a man called Hamo or Hamon. Was William Boterel I the son of Nicholas or of Hamo?

1. William Boterel I was born in 1085.
2. If Hamo were his father, he would have to have been born around 1065 at the earliest. But Hamo is found in London and Lincoln in 1155. This would make him ninety. In those days, you didn't travel around at ninety - - in fact you probably wouldn't even get to ninety.
3. There is no firm indication of where Hamo came from. Who was he? I've tried to make an educated guess.
4. A charter of King Henry I definitely states that William was the son of Nicholas.
5. Another authority claims that Hamo was the progenitor of the Shropshire line. There is no proof whatever of this, and the Cornish line got estates in Shropshire by marriage.

An associated web site - http://www.bottrillfamilyhistory.com - has the research which addresses this problem. Unless you're serious about getting into the research details, just take a quick look and then read the book there - 'The king's toads' - instead.

'BOTEREL' WAS THE ORIGINAL SPELLING

WHERE DID THE SURNAME BOTTRILL COME FROM?

'Boterel' was the original spelling. The spelling changed partly because people were often illiterate, so the priest would register the spelling at the christening as best he could. 
But we didn't have the name to begin with. In 1066AD, people didn't have surnames. You might be called Alan Rufus or Hamo Le Strange or John of London (nick-names), but generally you would just have one name. In battle, it was difficult to recognise who was who. William the Conqueror had to take off his helmet at the Battle of Hastings to dispel the rumour that he had been killed. Knights began to see the sense of carrying a shield with a device to identify them.
Similarly, people in general could see the sense of having a second name - Michael Tanner, Thomas York etc. - indicating what you did, or where you came from.  And when the Poll Tax came in later, you had to have a surname for identification.
Alan Rufus, brother of Geoffrey Boterel, was called 'Rufus' because he had red hair (Rufus is Latin).  Surnames were often physical - Robin Hood's companions, John Little (Little John) and Much Miller, for example, though no account tells us exactly why they were called that - perhaps just as well.