The Norman Origin of the Bowles Name
See also Middle English
Origins of the Bowles Name
As I discuss in The Origin of
The Name there are many separate origins for different branches
of Bowles, Boles, Boals, Bolds etc. living in England today and which have
spread all over the world. These are ancient lines so it's unlikely we will find records to prove any
of the origins. DNA testing may eventually help us to sort out the major branches.
The best documented root though is the Norman origin of the Bolles of
Lincolnshire who very likely were the origin of many of today's Bowles.
The question remains though, which ones?
The Bolles of Lincolnshire
The Medieval Mosaic web site has a detailed summary of the
Norman
origins of the Bolles of Lincolnshire which I will extract here in case that
web page goes away:
"from Bodies, or Buille, now La Buille, near Rouen. Osbert
de Boel was of Lincoln, 1138 (Mon. ii. 326). Osbert de
Boelles, 1165, held lands in Devon (Liber Niger): Lambert de
Boelles in the Eastern Counties (Ibid). The family
afterwards appears in Bedford, Warwick, Southants, Stafford,
Rutland, and Salop. In the latter, William di Buels
(descended from Helias de Buel, living temp. John) sold
estates in 1290 to Robert Burnel, Bishop of Bath (Eyton,
Salop). His son William and his family settled at Hereford,
and hence sprung Ludovick Buel, or Boyle, of Hereford (Harl.
MS. 1545), ancestor of the Earls of Cork, Burlington, Orrery,
Shannon, and other great houses."—The Norman People.
The genealogy of the Boyles, however, only goes back to
this Ludovick, who lived under Henry III.; and their coat of
arms is as different as it is well possible to be from that
of the Boelles or Bolles, so long resident in Lincolnshire.
The Boyles bear Party per bend crenelle Argent and Gules;
the Bolles bore Azure out of three cups Or as many boar's
heads couped Argent.
According to this site then, the Boyles of Ireland, are
also descendants of the Norman Bolles. It's interesting that the
Bowles DNA
Project has found a match between a Boyles in county Monaghan, Ireland and
Bowles in Ohio and North Carolina.
The Bolles of Lincolnshire over time divided up to found
several other main Bowles branches in England although the exact descent is not
known. Again from the Medieval Mosaic:
The "antient and unblamed Family" of Bolles remained
for six hundred years in the county of Lincoln. Osbert de Boelles is (as we
have seen) mentioned there in the first part of the twelfth century; and the
last heir male, John Bolle, of Thorpe Hall, died in 1732. Their original
seat was a manor-house, to which they gave its name of Bolle Hall, in
Swineshead, where they held large possessions by knight service of the Earls
of Richmond; and in the beginning of the fourteenth century they were also
tenants in capite of the Crown of lands in Conningesby, parcel of the manor
of Scrivelby. Towards the close of Edward IV.'s reign they divided into two
branches. "The elder, by an intermarriage with the heiress of the family of
Hough, became settled at Hough, or
Haugh, near Alford, and the other at Gosberkirke, now
Gosberton. Before the division of
these branches, the Bolles family had several times represented the co. of
Lincoln in parliament, and had filled the offices of sheriff and escheator
of the same county; and we find them erecting chantries and bestowing lands
to charitable uses at Algarkirke, Wygtoft, and other places; a clear
indication of the wealth of this family in those early times."—Illingworth's
Parish of Scampton. The elder line afterwards became seated at Thorpe Hall,
near Louth; and many of the name lie buried in Haugh and Louth churches. Sir
John Bolle of Thorpe was the hero of a romantic adventure told in a
contemporary ballad as "The Spanish Ladye's Love." He was a gallant
soldier, who served Queen Elizabeth in Spain and Italy; was knighted after
the taking of Cadiz; commanded at the storming of the Irish castles of
Lifford and Donolong, and was appointed Governor of Kinsale by the Earl of
Essex.
See The Bolles of
Swineshead
Other References
Battle Abbey Roll (1066)
I searched a couple of databases listing names in the
Battle Abbey Roll and found a “Le Sire de BolleVille” which would be “the Lord
of the town of Bolle”. This does not agree with the above but it's the
nearest Battle Roll entry which I was able to find on-line.
Domesday Book (1086)
The name Boles is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086.
This book was drawn up to document the Saxon land holdings of the times prior to
the large awards which were made to the Norman conquerors so
this might indicate a Saxon origin for some descendants of that name.
There is also one mention of a place, Bole, on the border of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire.
Information about
Bole from an 1853 White’s Directory
Bole is a small village and parish on the
west bank of the Trent, 2 miles south-west of Gainsborough, containing about 220
inhabitants and 1,163 acres of land, mostly a strong clay, except on the Trent
bank, where it is a rich loamy marsh. Owing to the river having changed its
ancient course, about 110 acres of land which adjoin this parish, are in
Lincolnshire, and is the property of Sir Charles Anderson, of Lea Hall. The
manor and rectory of Bole form a prebend for the maintenance of a prebendary in
York Cathedral, but Lord Wenlock, the lord of the manor, is lessee of the
prebendal lands and rectorial tithes. The great tithe is redeemed, except on a
few small freeholds, and the vicarial tithe amounts to about £120 per annum.
Lord Wenlock is owner of all the land except about 50 acres.