The Roots of the Bolles of Swineshead Parish
(1100’s – early 1200’s)
Back to The Bolles of Lincolnshire
See also The Bolles of Swineshead Parish
There are
many Bowles family trees on the Internet that claim a 'likely' descent
from the Bolles of Swineshead.
The major attraction seems to be to be able to claim descent from a Norman
Lord.
The Bolles of Haugh pedigree
is widely accepted as proof that the earliest known ancestor of
The Bolles of Haugh
was an Alan
Bolle who was Lord of Swineshead in about 1272.
Unfortunately, I have found that the Bolle of Haugh pedigree in the published Heralds
Visitations is incorrect. In fact there are indications that while the Heralds
may actually have been recording the claim they may also have been
documenting a much humbler origin for the Bolles. This can be
demonstrated by
references in original sources from that period.
See
The Alan Bole, Lord of Swineshead
Question for more on that.
While the Bolle were tenants on the Lord of Swineshead's estate they did not actually live in Swineshead town proper and were certainly not Lords.
Bolles in this Area Prior to Alan Bole
The Bolle
appear as small landowners in the late 1100’s in the Hoffleet area at the
extreme south end of the civic parish of Swineshead with closer ties to
Wigtoft and Bicker than to Swineshead.
Bolle in the Lincoln Assize Court Roll of 1202
The records
of the assize courts held in Lincoln in 1202 have been extracted and
published by the Lincolnshire Records Society.
One of the cases from the Kirton Wapentake (which included the
villages of Swineshead, Bicker, Wigtoft, Surfleet, Algarkirk, Donington,
Fosdyke, Quadring & Gosberton) involved the murder of one Reynold son of
Picot. The charge was made by
Reynold’s brother Joce (short for Jocelyn sometimes written Goselan) son of
Picot and Joce’s pledgers (the people who would guarantee that he would
appear at the assize to present his charge) were Robert and Thomas sons of
John (likely John Bolle who was also present at the assize as was his son
Robert) and a Roger Bolle.
See Bolles in the
Lincolnshire Assize Rolls of 1202
At the same
assize ‘Robert son of John Bolle’ was fined 1 mark for selling wine ‘against
the assize’ as were 1014 other vintners in Lincolnshire.
This was following King John’s efforts to standardize measures for
the sale of grains, beer and wines and indicates that his standards for wine
selling were not being strictly followed in Lincolnshire.
See also
Osbert
was of Hoffleet south of Swineshead, closer to Algarkirke and right across
the country lane from the site known today as Bolle Hall.
This map shows the boundary lines between the Swineshead, Bicker and
Wigtoft parishes with the Bolle hall right where they meet.
While all
this makes sense and is consistent there is no absolute 100% proof that
brothers Robert and Thomas and the John who concealed the death of Osbert of
Hoffleet were the sons of John Bolle of Bolle Hall near Hoffleet.
The Robert son of John Bolle (fined for a wine selling infraction)
may be a different Robert than the Robert son of John who was a pledger for
Joce son of Picot. The John,
parson of Swineshead, who concealed the death of an Osbert may have been a
different John who concealed the death of a different Osbert who wasn’t the
father of Asti whose father Osbert lived next to the Bolles and had someone
close to him killed just then.
There may well have been several Johns, Osberts and Roberts sons of Johns in
Kirton wapentake.
However, the
assize court of 1202 was not held locally, it was held quite a ways from
Swineshead in the Great Hall of Lincoln Castle. Not the kind of place which
just anybody with an idle interest might drop by.
You would have to have a reason to be there.
The session for Kirton wapentake
involved a fairly small number of cases and a fairly small number of people
would have travelled all the way to Lincoln to attend these trials.
There probably weren’t two different murders of an Osbert committed
in Kirton in the last year which were being dealt with in the same assize.
John of Swineshead who concealed the death of an Osbert and Asti, son
of an Osbert, alleging a murder were probably there on a related event.
Similarly, it makes more sense that
if John Bolle had to be there to present himself on the appeal of having
concealed the death of Osbert and if Robert son of John Bolle had to be
there on the wine selling infraction that he would most likely also be the
Robert son of John who along with a Roger Bolle were the pledgers for Joce
son of Picot. William of Bicker
may well have been another Bolle but there is nothing to indicate that other
than that he was grouped with them.
There was no William there for another case.
If this was all there was then it wouldn’t be enough
but there are also the following references to Bolle in this period which
are consistent with Robert, John and Thomas Bolle all living in the Hoffleet
area.
Register of the Cathedral Church of Lincoln
The
Registrum Antiquissium of the Cathedral Church of Lincoln Vol. VII, (The
Lincoln Record Society, Vol. 46, 1953) under ‘Charters of the Ridings of
Lindsey’ has a grant dated between 1202 and 1215 of a meadow in Rauenstoft
(Ravenstoft) and 4 selions of land in Hoffleet from Alan son of Osbert of
Hoffleet to the church of Lincoln, for the souls of his ancestors.
The witnesses to the grant were Robert son of John of Wiketoft
(Wigtoft), Thomas son of John of Wiketoft (the two sons of John as above)
and a Thoma (Thomas) Bolle of Redic.
The location of Redic is lost today but was more likely a field-name
than a townland. In the Lincoln
Assizes, Robert and Thomas, sons of John, were grouped with a Roger Bolle on
a case involving Osbert of Hoffleet while in another case a Robert son of
John Bolle received a fine.
Then Robert and Thomas, sons of John of Wigtoft, are grouped with a Thomas
Bolle as witnesses on a charter in Hoffleet for Osbert’s son.
As the
editor of this extract points out, in this grant from between 1202 and 1215,
Alan son of Osbert of Hoffleet had probably just inherited ½ of his father’s
land ‘as his reasonable share’ which would date this document to just after
Osbert’s death. That would be
consistent with the fine against John of Swineshead (although Bolle Hall was
near Wigtoft it was actually in Swineshead civil parish) for concealing an
Osbert son of Wigan’s death and Asti son of Osbert of Hoffleet’s charge of a
murder in the 1202 assizes. So
Alan and Asti (sometimes Astelin) were the two sons of Osbert of Hoffleet.
Note: Thomas
Bolle of Redic in this reference from around 1202 may have some connection
to Thomas of Rederwyk (Redirwyk in a later paragraph) of Tid, a jurist in an
inquisition taken in Elloe Wapentake (just south of Wigtoft) in 1274
(Hundred Roll of 2 Edward I) or at least Redic may be Rederwyk.
See
The Bolle’s Neighbours at Hoffleet
Bolle in The Lincolnshire Assizes of 1219
The
strongest case for the Bolles originating on the land at Hoffleet where they
would later build Bolle Hall is in the case held at the
Lincolnshire Assizes of 1219.
At this time many of the largest landholders were attempting to enclose the
common lands which had been traditionally shared as common grazing land by
many local farmers. In this
case Robert Grelley, the actual Lord of Swineshead, had attempted to enclose a
meadow near Swineshead for the greater use of his tenants in Swineshead and
to stop its use by the men of Algarkirke.
While the sheriff had ordered Robert Grelley to appear before him on
several occasions to respond to the men of Algarkirke’s ‘assize of novel
disseisin’ (an action to recover lands of which the plaintiff had been
disseised, or dispossessed) but Grelley had not bothered to appear or even
to send his Steward although on one occasion he sent one of his
serving-youths to represent him. It
came down to a pair of counter claims between the men of Swineshead parish
who were Grelley’s tenants and the men of Swineshead parish who held their
land as free tenements in Algarkirke.
At the assize in 1219 the jurors decided that the complainants has
been disseized and that no disseisor had come to oppose the claim therefore
the complainants had seisin (the right of access to the common) and the
disseisors were ‘in mercy’ (they were at fault and received fines).
The charge stated that the disseisors (Robert de Grelley’s men) were
Godfrey son of Arnold, Godfrey of Swineshead the clerk, Robert the cook,
Michael the sergeant, Robert son of William, Gunner son of Arnald, William
son of Ailmer, Robert son of Ailmer, John son of Agnes, Robert son of Agnes,
Robert son of Walter, Tholi son of Acke, John son of Algar, Richard son of
Algar, William son of Joscelin, Hereward Tholeman, Martin son of Agnes,
Aubrey le Wimpler, Geoffrey le Regrater, John Wrid’, John son of Gudemer,
William his brother, Everard son of Guthmer, William Bene, John of Frampton,
Robert son of Richard, Norman son of Algar, Robert son of Joscelin and
Robert Oldheved.
The
complainants who re-acquired their rights to their day on the common land in
1219 are listed as Alexander of Ibtoft, Lambert son of Alan, Alan son of
William, Gerard son of Richard, Thomas Bolle, Thomas Slegh and Conan
son of Thomas.
Just as a
side comment, there is a reference in this case to an illegal attempt to
change the day of the assizement which Ralph, the sergeant of Kirton
wapentake believed was the work of a Theobald Hautein.
This Theobald is also mentioned in the extracts of the Lincolnshire
Assize Court of 1202 as a pledger for the accused in the case in which
Robert and Thomas sons of John (likely John Bolle) and Roger Bolle were the
pledges for Joce son of Picot.
Ref: Selden
Society, London. Publications. V. 53; Rolls of the justices in Eyre being
the Rolls of pleas and assizes for Lincolnshire 1218-19, and Worcestershire,
1221
Robert
Grelley’s daughter Agnes had first married William de Amundeville but was
soon widowed (1169). Her second
husband was Theobald Hautein of Hellesdon and Oxnead, Norfolk who also died
leaving her a widow with three sons, the eldest being Theobald Hautein Jr.
who became Robert Grelley’s steward.
Since Grelley lived in his principle manor of Manchester, his
grandson Theobald was probably left in charge of his many manors in
Lancashire and just made frequent trips to the relatively distant manor of
Swineshead. The men of
Swineshead listed in the assize of 1219 as ‘sons of Agnes’ (John and Robert)
were possibly Theobald’s brothers.
Allen Bolle
The Bolle of
Haugh Pedigree refers to an Allen of Swineshead and his son Thomas Bolle as
the earliest known ancestors of that line. The
Hundred Roll of 1274
refers to a John Bolle, seemingly as an official accused of extorting
2s in connection with a hanging in Kirton Wapentake (which would include
Swineshead) but does not mention Allen or Thomas.
This does not mean that they did not hold land in Kirton Wapentake,
just that they were not involved in any of the reviews of landholders which
had been called by the assize court which sat in Stanford that year.
There was a ‘Thomas son of Alan’ listed as one of the jurors which
might be a reference to Thomas Bolle but there’s no way to be sure.
It does confirm that a John Bolle was of full age and that he held
some position of authority in Kirton wapentake.
There is also a reference to a John de Bole, one of the very rare
instances when the ‘de’ appears with the Bolle surname, but it’s hard to
know whether it’s like that in the original document or was just added in
the transcription.
An Alan Bolle and a Thomas Bolle are mentioned in a hearing held in Elloe Wapentake which is the administrative district immediately south of Swineshead Wapentake. Thomas of Wigtoft was involved in the same hearing. One line on p. 273 which looks something like “Cōvićtū est qđ Thom’ nicħ cep’ nũc Alan’ Bolle q' obit țō n’.” may be an important key to their relationship to each other. I could really use a translation of that line. I only have received one comment regarding this section that "the statements regarding Thomas Bolle are concerned only with various depredations committed by him in abuse of his office as a royal sub-bailiff".
So it seems
that both held positions of some local authority, John Bolle in Kirton
wapentake and Thomas Bolle a bit further southeast in Elloe wapentake.
Godfrey Bolle
After Alan
of Hoffleet’s death his land was left to his sons Simon and William. (See
The Bolles Neighbours at Hoffleet)
At some time between 1272 and 1307 Simon sold his share of one piece
of their father’s land in Hoffleet Stow to his brother William.
(Lincolnshire Archives, Grant and Quitclaim
Simon, son of Alan de Hoffleet to
William his brother) This plot
was described as lying between Godfrey Bolle’s land on the south, William’s
land to the north and just east of the common way (probably the road running
north/south between Swineshead and Wigtoft but on the opposite side of the
road from the Bolle Hall site). The tenants on this land included a Robert
Bolle and his sister Lucy. The tenants on this land also had access to ‘the
fourth part of one bovate of land’ in the common land in Dreytun hundred.
There is a
reference in the Fine Roll 46 Henry III
ref,
so in 1261-1262, for an Agnes and Lucy, daughters of Gilbert Bolle, paying
half a mark to appear at the Lincolnshire assize. There is no indication in
the calendar entry for what case they wanted to present or from what part of
Lincolnshire they were from.
However, as I haven’t found any references for Bolle elsewhere in
Lincolnshire in this period the chances are good that they would have a
connection to the Lucy Bolle mentioned just above.
Gilbert could actually even be Godfrey.
Transcription errors from medieval scripts are not uncommon.
The ink is generally very faded and the script is often very
indistinct with e, u, n, m, i’s etc. all flowing together looking just like
a row of bumps. It doesn’t help
that personal names were usually Latinized with varying degrees of success.
Godfrey appeared as Galfridus and Godfrydus in various documents.
Randolph as Rannulfus, Randolfus etc.
John as Johanes, Jos etc.
Often just an abbreviation of the name was used, William appears as
Wm etc. Generally though the
first letter of the name is capitalized and so is distinct from the flow of
the letters to follow. Where
the cataloguer has written Gilbert it might actually be Gilbert but it could
well also be Godfrey. The
original document would have to be examined.
Summary of the
Bolles Found in the Bolle Hall Area Previous to the Known Bolle Pedigree
Roger Bolle
(adult in 1202)
Thomas Bolle
of Redic (with connections to Alan son of Osbert of Hoffleet)
John of
Wiktoft (with connections to Osbert of Hoffleet)
1.
Thomas Bolle (adult in 1202)
2.
John
Bolle
3.
Robert Bolle (adult in 1202; vintner)
Thomas Bolle
of Swineshead civil parish holding land at Hoffleet
(which was in Swineshead civil parish) in 1219
Robert Bolle
holding land at Algarkirke in 1279
Godfrey
Bolle of Hoffleet (adult in ca. 1280) (juror for Kirton wapentake (which
includes Swineshead civil parish) in 1288 to 1300; held tenement at Wigtoft
in 1316;
Robert Bolle
of Hoffleet (tenant on land adjacent to Godfrey in 1280)
Lucy Bolle
(sister of Robert Bolle of Hoffleet)