The Norman Origin of the Bolles of Swineshead?
Back to The Norman Origin of the Bowles Name or
The Bolles of Swineshead Parish
Note: this page was originally intended to document
their Norman origin but as the proofs given in various sources fell apart
under closer examination and as more was learned about
The Roots of the Bolles of Swineshead
their Norman origin became much less likely.
The Bolles of Lincolnshire
The Medieval Mosaic web site has a detailed summary of
the
Norman
origins of the Bolles of Lincolnshire (see the chapter labelled Boels about
2/3 of the way down the page) which I will extract here in case that
web page goes away:
"from Bolies, 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."
Note — the above paragraph is borrowed from The
Norman People and also appears verbatim in
‘The Battle Abbey Roll with some Account of the Norman
Lineages, in three volumes’ by The Duchess of Cleveland;
London 1889)
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 possible to
be from that of the Boelles or Bolles, so long resident in
Lincolnshire. The Boyles bore 'Party per bend
crenelle Argent and Gules'; the Bolles bore 'Azure out of
three cups Or as many boar's heads couped Argent'.
See my
The
Norman People page for an examination of these
references
This site is just one of many instances where the
Bolles of Swineshead have been stated to have Norman ancestry. In
every case I've examined, the only 'proof' given is some variation of the
above quote.
Other References
Battle Abbey Roll (1066)
I searched a couple of databases listing names in the
Battle Abbey Roll and found Boels and Bools, some possible variations of Bowles. This does not match with the above but it should
have been mentioned in those references as they almost certainly refer to
Roger de Busli, the Lord of Busli or Bully, who
did indeed accompany William the Conqueror in 1066.
Domesday Book (1086)
Roger de Busli features in many references and there is
one entry for the name Bole in the Domesday Book of 1086.
This book was drawn up to document all the Norman and the remaining Saxon land holdings of the times
and this particular entry is for a Saxon priest named Bole. In other
sources he is sometimes called Bolle or Bulla. See
Bolle References in the Domesday Book
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.