Henry Bott (1810-1888)

The longest serving landlord of the Angel Hotel in Bourne was Henry Bott who presided as mine host for 50 years in the middle part of the 19th century during which time he became one of the town's most highly respected and influential persons.

He was born at the Angel Hotel on 15th October 1810 when it was owned by his father, also Henry Bott, and when he died in 1838, his son succeeded as landlord. Mr Bott senior had bought the Angel at auction in 1807 when it was a quaint old stone building, an ancient hostelry then used as a posting house at which the Perseverance stage coach plying between Hull and London stopped regularly. Under the patronage of father and later his son, the Angel evolved as an important market town hotel and during this period, the foundations of the business that we know today were laid. Bott junior was untiring in his endeavours for the business and for the town and both prospered as a result of his association with them.

In 1852, he married Hannah Howell Harrison at Boston in Lincolnshire and they had five children, Henry (1853), Arthur (1855), Elizabeth Baily (1857), Herbert (1859) and Edmund (1863).

Henry Bott's interests were diverse and the various census returns between 1841 and 1881 list him variously as a hotel owner, innkeeper and maltster making his own beer, as well as being a farmer with 270 acres of land, employing five men and three boys, a housekeeper, a boot man, cook, waitress and barmaid. In 1856, he became a director of the newly formed Bourne and Essendine Railway Company and he was also prominent in civic life and was for a time chairman of the Vestry Meeting that administered local affairs, the forerunner of the local councils that were introduced in the late 19th century. He took a prominent part in all local affairs and was always at the forefront of any enterprise that concerned the welfare of the town.

His main social interest was as a freemason and he was instrumental in the formation of the present Hereward Lodge (No 1232) that now has its own headquarters building in Wherry's Lane. There was no permanent meeting place at that time and Mr Bott arranged for a room at the Angel Hotel to be set aside for that purpose. The Stamford Mercury reported on 13th November 1868:

A Provincial Grand Lodge of Emergency in connection with the ancient fraternity of free and accepted Masons was held at the Angel Hotel on the 9th inst. for the purpose of dedicating and consecrating a new masonic hall, to be denominated "Hereward Lodge". In the absence of the Duke of St Albans, R W., Provincial Grand Master, the W Deputy-provincial Grand Master was present, together with a goodly company of the brethren from various towns in the province as well as out of it. The newly-created lodge bids fair to take a respectable position amongst the various lodges in the parish. After the ceremonial was concluded, Mr Bott supplied a sumptuous banquet, which was partaken of by 40 of the brethren.

But perhaps his most lasting legacy to the town was the introduction of street lighting. He was, in conjunction with William Wherry senior, one of the original promoters of the Bourne Gas Light and Coke Company in 1840 which built the town's gas works and soon, coal gas was not only being used for heating and lighting in homes, shops and business premises, but also for street lighting. 

This was in the main due to the insistence of Henry Bott who wanted to see the streets safe and well lit at night for the benefit of townspeople. The movement for the introduction of gas lighting in the town centre met with considerable and influential opposition but Bott's resolute perseverance triumphed over all obstacles and by 1885 there were 56 public gas lamps at various points around the town which had never previously been lighted at night. Kelly's Directory of Lincolnshire reported: "The town consists principally of four streets diverting from the Market Place, all remarkably clean and lighted with gas." 

Henry Bott was not merely a committee man because he also served for 25 years as the town's gas inspector. He was also deeply religious and a regular worshipper at Bourne Abbey where he officiated as the parish churchwarden. It was in this capacity that he was mainly responsible for the alterations to the Abbey Church which were carried out in 1870 and involved moving the organ gallery and extensions to the north aisle at a total cost of £1,200, financed by public subscription. The work was already being planned by Mr Bott and the church architects, together with a committee of 21 parishioners, when he was re-elected parish churchwarden for the fifth successive year at the Easter vestry meeting on Monday 13th April 1868 and tributes were paid to his diligence and perseverance, particularly in regard to the project in hand.

After Henry Bott's death, ownership of the Angel Hotel passed to his son, Arthur, but he was not a fit man, having suffered serious injuries when his trap overturned in 1885. This was the second such accident with his trap within two years and although he escaped injury the first time, he was less fortunate on this occasion because he lay in a critical condition for several days and never fully recovered. Nevertheless, despite his health problems, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in H Company, 2nd Battalion the Lincolnshire Volunteer Regiment, in 1886, and continued to serve for several years afterwards.

Arthur Bott died in 1899 at the young age of 44 and is buried in the cemetery alongside his father. He left a wife, Ada Maria Slater (born 1862), who he had married at Leicester on 18th April 1890, and the following year she married Dr John Gilpin.

The hotel was then put up for sale, so ending the association of the Bott family with the business that had lasted for almost 100 years. The property was offered at auction on Thursday 24th August 1899 and although the saleroom at the hotel was full, it remained unsold. Bidding was far from brisk, starting at £2,000 and, proceeding very slowly, reached £3,850 [£250,000 at today's values] at which price, there being no further offers, it was withdrawn by the auctioneer, Mr Arthur Saul, the last bidder being Mr W W Copeland, formerly of the Red Lion Hotel at Spalding. The hotel was subsequently sold privately for an undisclosed sum to a retired army officer, Veterinary-Major W W Townson, who took over the hotel in October 1901.

None of Henry Bott's other family had followed the licensed trade, his eldest son for instance, also called Henry, had become a doctor at Brentford, qualifying in 1872 and later joining the volunteers as a subaltern and went on to command the 2nd Volunteer Battalion, the Duke of Cambridge's Own Middlesex Regiment, from 1898 until 1903 when he retired with permission to wear the uniform of the battalion and in 1900 was granted the honorary rank of colonel. His third son, Herbert Bott MA, took holy orders, being ordained on 20th December 1885 by the Bishop of Newcastle and then became a curate at South Shields and Vicar of St Aidan's Church, Newcastle, but died aboard ship during a voyage to South America in 1913 and was buried at sea. Elizabeth Baily Bott married Robert Leonard Wherry, landlord of the Red Lion, Bourne, in 1884 and they had two children, Audrey (1886) and Helen (1887).

Although there are many descendents in the south of England, there are no surviving members of the Bott family living in Bourne today.

See also     The Angel Hotel       The Abbey Church     Dr John Gilpin

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