The Bolles of Wortham and OsbertonBack to The Bolles of Swineshead or The Bolles of Haugh The Bolles of Osberton's line which later settled in New England is the only current line which can document its claim to a direct descent from the ancient line of The Bolles of Swineshead. The Joseph Bolles who sailed to America probably around 1635-40 was the younger brother of John Bolles of Osberton, Nottinghamshire and inherited this estate on his death in 1666. He settled in Wells, Maine, and founded an extensive American family of Bolles. Please see their web site at The Bolles Family Association. The Osberton line is otherwise extinct today. See The Bolles of Wortham and Osberton's Family Tree this page still under construction This branch leads to the merchant family of Deale, Kent and from 1614 the settlement of the New England colony of Wells, Maine. Notes: William was one of Lord Thomas Cromwell’s commissioners executing the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII and in the dissolution received the Priory of Felley. He sold Felley and with those profits purchased Osberton, Notts. (in Worksop parish) from another commissioner, Robert Dighton.
(While his own writings claim his descent from the Bolle of Haugh, he bore different coat-of-arms and he added the “s” to the name and therefore this connection has been disputed. No reason is known for his connection to Suffolkshire rather than Lincolnshire and the history of the new arms is not known.) Some of that can now be answered. See William Bolles of Wortham |
