page_title: Sir Thomas Boteler Church of England High School
section_title: The life of Sir Thomas Boteler
hierarchical_section_title: Sir Thomas Boteler Church of England High School / History / Grammar school / The life of Sir Thomas Boteler
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Bewsey Old Hall
context_page_description: Sir Thomas Boteler Church of England High School is a comprehensive school in Warrington, Cheshire.
context_section_description: Thomas Boteler was born at Bewsey Old Hall in 1461. In 1463, his father Sir John FitzJohn le Boteler was murdered and Thomas's elder brother, William, inherited the estates. William died at the age of 22, fighting in the Lancastrian ranks at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471 and Thomas inherited the estates.
  In November 1480 Thomas married Margaret, daughter of Sir John Delves of Doddington, who also fell at Tewksbury.
  Thomas Boteler was present at the Capture of Berwick (1482) and in 1483 he was summoned to London to be knighted by Edward V. Unfortunately the king and his brother were murdered in the Tower of London by order of their uncle, the Duke of Gloucester the future Richard III, before Thomas was knighted. In 1485, when he was made a Justice of the Peace for Lancashire, Thomas still bore the title of "esquire".
  Thomas, by his marriage, was related to Margaret, Countess of Richmond and when Henry of Richmond, Lady Margaret's son, landed at Milford Haven to regain the Crown of England for the Lancastrians, Thoms was part of the troops who marched south to help in the overthrow of Richard III at the battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. Thomas was either knighted on the battlefield or at the coronation of the new King, Henry VII.
  The following years were uneventful. Sir Thomas was re-appointed a Justice of the Peace by Henry VIII and he busied himself with the duties of this office. About 1500 he enlarged his ancestral home at Bewsey. To the old house, built of timber and lath and plaster, he added a brick "great chamber", measuring 42 feet by 21 feet, four smaller chambers and an extra kitchen and buttery. These form the left wing of the building in the illustration by Wilmot Lunt.
  In 1504 he was made a knight of the King's bodyguard, chief forester and parker of the forests and chases of Simonswood, Croxteth and Toxteth, and also steward of Liverpool.
  In 1520 Sir Thomas headed the list of subscriptions for the building of the steeple at Lymm and in the same year he made his last will, which provided for the foundation of the Boteler Grammar School.
  Sir Thomas died at Bewsey on 27 April 1522 and was buried in the Boteler chapel of the St. Elphin's Church. A fragment of brass which decorated the marble slab of his tomb is preseved in Warrington Museum, together with several fragments of stained glass from the memorial window which was erected by his widow in 1529.
caption: Bewsey Old Hall
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