The Bolles of Westgate Hundred, Canterbury, Kent

Back to The Bolles of Chartham or to The Boles of Ickham

The earliest known Boles in Kent were at Ickham from at least 1238 until the later 1300's when they relocated to Chartham.   By that time there were other Bolles living near Chartham in the Hundred of Westgate.  We don't have enough information to know if they were related to the Ickham Boles or if this was just a coincidence of names.  However, there were no other documented land holding Boles in Kent that early so their physical closeness likely indicates some connection.

Note: the Ickham line generally used the Bole and Boles spelling but Bolle and Bolles also appears in their documents.  The few references for the Bolle in Westgate always used the Bolle spelling. 

The Kent Hundred Roll of 1274/75 lists only one Bolle in Kent, a Henry Bolle, one of only 12 landholders listed in the entire Hundred of Westgate.  This hundred comprised the area immediately outside the west gate of Canterbury including the parishes of Westgate, Harbledowne, Thanington, Milton near Canterbury, St Dunstans and part of St Stephens, the ville of Christchurch and the Manor of Caldicot.  Henry would either have been either a member of the aristocracy or at the very least a very prosperous merchant with significant landholdings.  Sixty years later the Kent Lay Subsidy of 1334/35 lists a Richard Bolle and a Bartholomew Bolle in the Hundred of Westgate.  Richard Bolle had one of only two very high assessments in the hundred at £1 6s 8d as compared with the average assessment of from 1 to 6s.  Richard and Bartholomew were among the 20 'moneyers' listed.  A moneyer would have been a person who worked minting coins at the Canterbury Mint but after it closed in 1331 the title was awarded to those who received it as a special privilege from the Archbishop of Canterbury along with the right to be exempted from taxation and to sit on assizes or juries.  Richard's inclusion on this list along with the size of his assessment indicate that he was one of the leading citizens of the Westgate Hundred.  Bartholomew's inclusion on the list along with his small assessment of 12s would indicate that he was possibly Richard's son. 

Richard and Bartholomew also had sizable landholdings in the Hundreds of Bleangate (which included the parishes of Boughton under Blean, Hernehill, Graveney and Selling) and Whitstable where they were also listed as moneyers and Richard had smaller landholdings in the Hundreds of Boughton and Felborough (Chilham, Chartham and Godmersham).

Both were undoubtedly descendants of Henry Bolle.  Another Henry Bolle, born about 1324, testified in 1364, at age 'about 40', at a proof-of-age inquiry that he recalled the date of the baptism of a  William Sepvans on the Feast Day of St Augustine at St Margarets Melton by Canterbury in 1343 as he had left "on a journey to Santiago for the amendment of their lives on the morrow of St. Augustine, 17 Edward III (1343). ref.

The Kent Lay Subsidy of 1334/35 also lists a Walter Bolle with a small landholding in the Hundred of Cornilo which included Great Mongeham, Walmer, Ringwould and Deal and was probably the ancestor of The Bolles of Deal; a Thomas Bolle with landholdings in the Hundreds of Larkfield (several parishes just north of Maidstone) and Blackheath (Deptford, Greenwich, Eltham, Lee, Lewisham and part of Chislehurst); a William Bolle with landholding in the Hundred of Ruxley (part of Chislehurst and south to Farnborough); a John Boles with a landholding in the Hundred of Downhamford (which included Ickham; see The Boles of Ickham); a Phillip Bolle in the Vill of Dartford and a Peter Bolle in the Hundred of Seasalter.