THE HISTORY OF THE BOWLES FAMILY i^mm- FARQUHAR rF ciV9. FROM THE ^ JOSEPH H. CENTER FUND ^ B P L PLATE NO. 14: 7,S.46: 2I(. MRS. EFFIE BOWLES KELLEY of Richmond, Virginia. Zbc Mistor^ ot the Bowles jfamili? Containing an Accurate Historical Lineage of tlie Bowles Family from the Norman Conquest to the Twentieth Century, With Historical and Genealogical Notes and Some Pedigrees cf Bowles Families in Various Sections of the United States and Britain. COMPILED AND PUBLISHED BY THOMAS M. FARQUHAR ' ' *>»»•• J •'/ '111 S. W. Corner iQth an^ Ellsworth Streets. ' 190? as y f Copyrighted. All Rights Reserved. 1907 7 %t « r • » c«« • « » r f • • ' • • • • ••• • e * t -• •-• r preface. In tracing the Bowles Family the compiler has been content to follow carefully through the pages of history from the field of Hastings and the fens of Lin- coln as they advance generation upon generation, in the peaceful homestead or far out on the faint frontier in the company of Wolfe or Washington, Crockett or Grant. The English Bowles pedigree is authentic and unbroken and is here printed for the first time. The destruction of records in the Peninsular counties of Virginia by the ravages of war made it impossible to construct an unbroken lineage of the Virginia branch. In all the generations from the Norman Conquest to the Twentieth Century the Bowles name has been represented in those crises which appeal to the honor and the patriotism of the best types of the English- speaking races. The lineage has been carefully traced, for though tradition has not been ignored, the authority is given for important facts, and these facts are suffic- ient to tinge the story with all the charm of romance. The reader will see the emergence of the Bowles name into history and how the bearers served the British empire in the centuries of the Middle Ages, and how in America their deeds of patriotism and the sim- ple earnestness of their lives justify the most fervent " pride in one of the fine old American names.'* CONTENTS. - Saxon Origin of the Bowles Name pp- 7, 8 Norman Origin of the Bowles Blood - 9--12 The Name in English History - - 13--21 The Lincolnstiire Parent Family and the Name at Scampton - - - - 22—32 Famous Bearers of the Name - - 32-48 - - - - Crests and Arms . 49—50 The Bowles Roll of England - - - 51--74 - - - Illustrations from Illingworth 75--91 - The Virginia Branches 93--140 and 220--248 The Maryland Branch. Descendants of Thomas Bowles - 141--149 and 172--177 Life of General William Augustus Bowles I49--I72 New England Branches Roxbury Line . - 185—203 Other Lines ... 203—206 Families in North Central and North Atlantic States - . - 206—209 Lineage prepared by Ann Bowles Calloway 209—214 Detached Notes ... 248—252 References - . 253—255 Zbc Bowles jfatnil^. THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME. The Bowles name is doubtless of both Saxon and Norman origin, probably making its first appearance in England with those fierce sea-roving Vikings who came to conquer Kent under Hengist and Horsa in 449 A. D., although the name does not plainly appear until 400 years afterwards, during the time of Offa the Terrible, in 820 A. D., one of whose chieftains was called Bolla, which is Saxon for Bowl and a name for the head or brain-pan. As there is no immigration of great volume recorded during the intervening 400 years it is a fair presumption that this Bolla was of that Viking stock whose identity was submerged by that wave of Saxon supremacy which has been per- petuated in the Saxon language. The name was widely extended during these cen- turies as a name for towns and valleys, and applied to topographical peculiarities of a bowl-shaped char- acter, and the monk Ingulf, wlio lived in the reign of Edward the Confessor, 1041, relates that in his youth as he came from school he was often stopped by 8 THE HISTORY OF Edith, the queen of Edward, who made him recite his lessons, and if he knew them she would send him to Bolla, who seems to have been either the master of the household or chief of the pantry, and of the two positions the latter was probably the more important among a people who considered the pleasures of the table the chief recreation of existence, i The Anglo-Saxons, but slightly removed, from barbarism, w ere almost entirely engaged in war and the chase, and gave little thought to the cultivation of domestic refinement. The master, his family, with servants and slaves, ate in a long hall, usually at one immense table, the master's end being raised slightly above the rest. The meats were served first, and af- terward the mead, a fermentation of honey and water, which was served from an immense bowl moved down the center of the table and from which all dipped with their horns or cups. This bowl vv^as under the care of a trusted steward, whose duty it was to safeguard it, preventing overturning or waste by the careless or the intoxicated. This steward was called the Boli-man, and this title is not without significance in connection with the Saxon origin of the name Bolle which after- ward became Bowies. Among the knights who charged with the Ctsn- queror at the battle of Hastings, 1066, was one who is simply in the Roll of Battle Abbey as "Bole." As the name Bole, sometimes spelt Boe!, is found among landowners in Normandy previous to the invasion uf England the appearance of the name on the Roil of Battle Abbey makes the Norman origin as certain as is the Saxon derivation of the name. 1 2) THE BOWLES FAMILY. 9 As the name does not appear among those Nor- mans who were provided with lands and enumerated in Doomsday Book, either this Norman Bole died of his wounds or had offended William and was omitted in the apportionment of the lands of the Saxons, or very probably appears under a Christian name not identifiable with the name as recorded on the Roll of Battle Abbey. The idea that he was among those knights who went with Robert de Brus to the North is slightly supported by the mention of Sir William de Bole-Den as holding the castle at Abbey bridge over the Tees river in York for England. He was ordered by Thurstan, Archbishop of York, to come to his aid at the Cuton Moor, where took place the Battle of the Standard. As the Scots had seized both the bridge and the ford, Sir William refused to leave the castle, which was stormed and destroyed by the overwhelm- ing army of Scots.— (3) As the Norman knights about this time adopted the custom of affixing the names of their estates to their own Christian names, it is difficult to affirm that Sir William de Bole-Den was the descendant of that Norman knigiU Bole who was the companion of Wil- liam the Conqueror at Hastings ^2 years before. An instance of this cuscom of taking the name of the estate is recorded in the Bole-den Book, in which William de Hertburn, taking his name from the village of Hertburn, changed his name to Wassyngton on exchanging Hertburn for the village and manor of Wassyngton, and thus made himself easily identified as the progenitor of our own Washington.— (4) As Bole occurs in Anglo-Saxon history and is a 10 THE HISTORY OF word of the Anglo-Saxon language, the origin of the family blood as well as the name would be unhesi- tatingly classed as Saxon except for the Bole of Bat- tle Abbey and this custom of including the territorial name in the patronymic, for the Saxons adopted the Norman fashion in this matter, and the Normans in choosing their hereditary surnames invariably took the Saxon name of the Saxon ground which they held. This universal adoption of this Norman custom would obscure somewhat the origin of the Bowles blood while illuminating the etymology of the nam.e except for the fact that the early progenitors bore the Norman name of William, which the strong prejudices of both races would not permit at that time to a Saxon. This fact, together with his knighthood, makes it certain that Sir William de Bole-Den was as much a Norman as the knight Bole who charged on the field of Senlac. The name Bole is many times in Doomsday Book (1086) as a name of estates, parishes and villages. A few are "Bole-ton in Yorkshire; Boles-forde Wapen- tac, in Terra of Robert Malet, Yorkshire; the villanage Bole-tone in Culveston Hundred, Sciropscire, and held by Helgot from Roger Norton; Bsle-beric in Ces- trescire; Bole-bi in Yorkshire; Bole-bi in Lincoln- scire; Bole-haugh in Devon; Bole-hestre in Bedford- scire; Bole-ton in Durham; Bole-ton in Bole-ton Hun- dred, Lincolnscire.'* As "ton'* or "den" is Saxon for town it is evident that some of the places were of considerable size and those Norman adventurers who used Bole as a family name must therefore have been of more than ordinary ability to have seized a patri- mony of such an extent. THE BOWLES FAMILY. ii Among the knights mentioned in an account ren- in 1 1 dered 30, the 31st year of Henry I, in the matter of the debt which Hugh, Bishop of Durham, owed the king, Ralf de Boles-den gave 26 shillings, 8 pence toward its payment. In 1 183 a survey was made by Bishop Hugh de Pudsey, of Durham, of all the lands of the see held in demesne or by tenants in villanage.