The Bolles of Swinesheads Family Tree

The Bolles of Swineshead Family Tree

The tradition of the Bolles of Swineshead as the Lords of the Manor of Swineshead going right back into the early 1200's with a Lord Allyn Bolle of Bolle Hall is based on the Bolles of Haugh Pedigrees that were published in the 1800's based on the findings of the Heralds Visitations of Lincolnshire in 1563-64, 1592 and 1634. The three hundred years of family history prior to the first Herald's visit was based on the Bolles own records and oral traditions. In this case the family's early history, prior to their great increase in fortunes in 1461 through a very advantageous marriage to a heiress of the Haugh line, seems to have been greatly exaggerated.

Family Tree

The following tree is largely consistent with the line of descent as given in The Bolles of Haugh Pedigrees. References are given for several additional details and a few notable differences.

The references noted in the following can all be found at Bolles of Swineshead References (Numbers) or at Bolles of Swineshead References (Letters)

Alane of Swineshead, Lord of Swineshead b. ca. 1216 (as given in the Herald's Visitation of 1563 without the surname Bolle; there were several Allen/Alleynes in Swineshead parish at the time, however none of them were the Lord of Swineshead, see The Question of the Bolles as the Lords of Swineshead)

The information recorded by the Heralds in their very first visitation of Lincolnshire in 1563 would have been provided to them by Richard Bolles of Haugh (1507-1592) who was twice a Sheriff of Lincolnshire and a Gentleman Usher to King Henry VIII (per W.H.Bowles family history). They would not have questioned his account of his family's history. The record that he provided from this point down can all be verified from primary sources. However, his false claim that his ancestor was the Lord of Swineshead and the lack of any trace of an Alane Bolle may indicate that he did not know the family's history prior to Thomas Bolle of Bolle Hall.)

There were Bolles in the Swineshead area in earlier sources which can give us some other possibilities for the family's early history:

John Bolle of Kirton Wapentake b. ca. 1160

1. Thomas Bolle b. ca. 1180

2. Robert Bolle b. ca. 1180

Either of whom could have been the ancestor (father or grandfather) of the following Thomas Bolle of Bolle Hall mentioned in the Herald's Visitation. Alane Bolle could fit in here but I haven't found a reference for him so far:

1.1 Thomas Bolle de Bolle Hall b. ca. 1240 (Bolle Hall was a typical small Tudor hall house near Wigtoft which was suitable for the home of a local merchant. There is no documentation of this generation of the family occupying Bolle Hall quite this early but they were certainly in this neighbourhood)

1.1.1 William Bolle of Bolle Hall, Swineshead b. ca. 1270 d. Jan. 2, 1327 (the first verifiable Bolle in the Herald's Visitation record)

(he likely inherited the family's holdings from his father; he was the attorney of John la Warre, Lord of Swineshead in 1311 ref 1; witness on a land grant to John la Warre in 1314 with John Bolle (assumed to be his brother) ref. 5; appointed to a measurements standards committee in 1324 ref 4 ); (the Bolle Pedigree published by Canon Maddison in 1903 based on the Herald’s Visitation of Lincolnshire in 1550 states that this William was the Escheator of Lincolnshire. However, that was another William Bowles, who was of Wellingore and was Escheator of Lincolnshire much later, from 1388 to 1404, not this William. See William Bolle, Escheator of Lincolnshire)

m. Joan

1.1.1.1 Cecily Bolle b. ca. Sept. 1325, d. 1332

(heir to her father as a minor, age 1 1/2; ward of the king until she died at age 7)

See Extracts from the Calendar of Fine Rolls 1327-1334

William d. Jan. 2, 1327 (his wife received as dower: houses and land in Coningesby, Swynesheved, Steveninge and Holdefrith, Crakestevene and Donington; the King ordered the Sheriff to take William's lands into his hands to hold for the King as William's heir Cecily was a minor; William's wife Joan then successfully applied to hold the land until Cecily's majority; see The Bolles of Swineshead's Inquisitions Post Mortem)

Joan likely m.(2) John de Meres (a Joan, wife of John de Meres, held a dower interest in 2.1 William Bolle’s land in 1348 ref 3)

1.1.2 John Bolle b. 1272 (60 in 1332 in Cecily Bolle’s IPM) Swineshead d. 1334

(he successfully applied to the King to hold the Bolle lands after his niece Cecily’s death in 1332 while still a minor)

See the documentation of these events in The Bolles of Swineshead's Inquisitions Post Mortem

m. Joan

1.1.2.1 Godfrey Bolle of Swineshead b. ca. 1296 (predeceased his father by 1333)

1.1.2.2 William Bolle b. ca. 1298 (heir to his father in 1334; stated to be the son of John Bolle in a charter in 1348 ref 3; there are no further references for him, possibly he died or he settled elsewhere on land he acquired through his wife )

m. Alice ref 3

1.1.2.2.1 Mabell Bolle m. Sir John Woodforde

William d. 1348 (no known male heir, the Bolle land succeeded to his brother John as William had granted him in 1348 ref.3)

1.1.2.3 John Bolle b. 1304 (heir to his brother William; likely a bailiff for his wapentake (Kirton) in 1351 ref. 16)

m. Katherine Goddard (William)

(John Bolle was not a member of Parliament for Lincolnshire in 1355 as some sites claim, that was a John de Boys)

1.1.2.3.1 Randulph Bolle b. ca. 1335 (heir to his father)

m. Katherine Pulverton ca. 1360 (or Pulvertoft in some references) (John of Alderchurch, Lincs. (founded a Chantry at Algarkirke, Lincolnshire))

likely no children

(the Bolle of Haugh pedigree states that John Bolle was the son of Randolph Bolle but that belief was probably based on John being Randolph's heir; he was actually Randolph's nephew (see below))

Randulph of Swineshead d. before 1396 at Swineshead

1.1.2.3.2 William Bolle b. ca. 1340 (a William Bolle made a land grant to a chaplain at the altar of St. Mary in the parish church of Wigtoft in Holand in 1392 possibly on the occasion of the death of his brother Randolph ref. 8); he may have been of Gosberkirke in 1369; he was probably the William Bolle living in 1376; he is a good candidate for William Bolle of Wellingore, Escheator of Lincolnshire)

(a William Bolle made a land grant to the parson of the church of Navenby, the next community to Wellingore, in 1398; possibly just prior to his own death; ref. 11)

(a William Bolle served as surety for John Toup, Lord of Hiptoft Hall, Algarkirk, upon Toup’s appointment as customs collector for the port of Boston in 1400 ref. 10)

(a William Bolle of Swyneshed was charged with failing to appear before justices in 1405 regarding a charge of a 40s debt ref.22)

1.1.2.3.2.1 John Bolle b. 1357 ('son of William Bolle' ref.3)

(heir to his father who was heir to his brother Randolph;

he would be a good candidate for John Bolle, William Bolle’s sub-escheator for Holand, Lincolnshire ref.)

m. Mary Angevyne (William, Eleanor Alderbie)

(the Angevines were of Theddlethorpe from the 1300's until the late 1500's (Maddison's Lincolnshire Pedigrees); their surname indicates that they may have been a family from Anjou, France who may have arrived in England during the reign of the Angevin Kings of England from 1154-1216 (Henry II, Richard I and John))

1.1.2.3.2.1.1 William Bolle b. 1390

m. Anne Kyme (John of Friskney or Fiskeney)

(when Robert Graa sold the Manor of Scrivelby to Ralph Cromwell in 1435 the list of tenants in Coningesby, Wodenderby and Meningesby owing homage to the manor included William Bolle; this would almost certainly have to be the plot in Coningesby listed in William Bolle’s inquisition post mortem in 1326 as the only land which he held directly from the King although his tenancy-in-chief would only have been in his own lifetime. His brother John could have held it as a tenancy after his death and passed the tenancy on to Randulph who sold it to this William’s grandfather William in 1369)

1.1.2.3.2.1.1.1 John Bolle of Gosberkirke b. 1425

m. Katherine Haugh (Richard of Haugh, Anne Bell)

(he held the office of Sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1477)

See The Bolles of Haugh for the continuation of this line

John bur. bef. 1495 in the Lady Chapel of Gosberkirke Church.

1.1.2.3.2.1.1.1.1 Richard Bolle b. ca. 1455

See The Bolles of Haugh for more on this line and for a continuation of this family tree

1.1.2.3.2.1.1.1.2 Robert Bolles (listed in The Herald's Visitation of Lincolnshire in 1634 but nothing more is known of him)

1.1.2.3.2.1.1.1.3 William Bolles

b. ca. 1460, settled at Wortham, Suffolkshire

m. Elizabeth ? (and settled at Osberton, Nottinghamshire in 1541)

William d. Mar. 2, 1582 Osberton, Notts.; bur. Worksop

See The Bolles of Osberton for more on this line and a further family tree

1.1.2.3.2.1.1.1.4 John (later of Wigtoft)

1.1.2.3.2.1.1.1.5 Thomas (later of Gosberkirke)

1.1.2.3.2.1.1.1.6 Godfrey (later of Gosberkirke)

See The Bolles of Gosberton for more on this line and for a further family tree

1.1.2.3.2.1.1.1.7 Arnulph (or Rankyn) (later Rector of Kilvedon Hatch)

m. ?

Randolph d. 1512

1.1.2.3.2.1.1.1.8 Jane/Joane m. Bennett of Berington

John d. ? (living in 1370)

1.1.2.3.2.2 Thomasine (b. 1357; m. Sir Ralph Darby)

William d. aft. 1398 (gave grant of land in Navenby to parson of the church of Navenby and his successors possibly anticipating his own death; his heir was his son John; possibly he died after 1405 when a William Bolle failed to appear on a charge of debt ref. 22)

John d. after 1352 and by 1378

1.1.2.4 Nicholas Bolle of Swineshead (of full age in 1352 when he was a feofee on a covenant ref. 17)

1.1.2.5 Reginald Bolle b. ca. 1307 (of Bole Hall in Gosberkirke)

(the line of descent from here down is per the Herald’s Visitation of 1563 as published in 1881 but does not appear in Maddison's 1903 edition and seems likely to have been entirely fabricated; the names in it are of some of the noblest families in the county but they cannot be verified from original source materials as every detail of the above entries can be and their relationships to the other families cannot be found in those families' pedigrees)

m. Margaret Moulton (3rd daughter of Richard Moulton) (co-heir to her father)

(there was a Richard de Moulton holding a small sub-tenancy at Moulton from Sir John de Moulton in 1332 at the same time as a John, Robert and Alan Bolle did as well although the name Reginald Bolle does not appear in any primary source for this period that I can find) note ref 5a

1.1.2.5.1 William Bolle b. ca. 1330

m. daughter of Sir Nicholas Rye ca. 1350 (Nicholas de Rye, knight (d. 1363), held the Manor of Beaurepaire in Gosberkirke parish but he died childless and so his three sisters were his heirs (see under Sir John Tempest below); no daughter of Nicholas de Rye's was living in the 1370's to be William's wife and Reginald II's mother)

1.1.2.5.1.1 Reginald Bolle II b. ca. 1375

m. daughter of Welbye

(that would be a member of the Welby family, originally of Gedney, Lincolnshire, who were prominent landholders in Moulton by the early 1400's; the Welby of Moulton family history claims that they owned an estate in Moulton by the mid-1200's and that they had held the title Lord Moulton by right of marriage but both claims are contradicted by source references note; this Bolle line claims an unsubstantiated connection to a family which also invented an earlier, more noble origin origin for their family which is strikingly similar to the Bolles of Haugh's fabricated claim to be descendants of a Lord of Swineshead)

note: "Sir William Welby was Lord Molton in Holand in ye righte of Maude his Wife, which was daughter to Sir John Molton, Knight, and they had issue Sir John Welby, Knight" (The Pedigree of the Family of Welby); in other sources Maude is called the heiress of Sir John Molton who died intestate about 1335;

1.1.2.5.1.1.1 William Bolle

m. daughter of Sir John Tempest (while the Tempests were another prominent family at Gosberkirke, as a family with several manors in Yorkshire and at Coleby, co. Lincoln of which a branch settled at Gosberkirke (Gosberton) I have not been able to find any connection between them and any Bolle; note note; the detailed Tempest family history in the over 750 page The Tempest Pedigrees has no refence to any Bolle, the 30 page Surname Index does not include a Bolle)

1.1.2.5.1.1.1.1 John Bolle

m. daughter of Sir Vincent Ardingshelles of Saltbye

1.1.2.5.1.1.1.1.1 Richard Bolle

m. daughter and co-heir of Richard Haugh of Haugh, co. Lincolnshire

(this is certainly false as we know about Richard Haugh's co-heirs, his three daughters; John Bolle of Gosberkirke married his daughter Katherine, William Haltoft married daughter Agnes and his third daughter Joan remained unmarried and sold her share of the inheritance to her sister Katherine and husband John Bolle)

John d. 1334

Joan alive in 1348

1.1.3 Thomas Bolle (tentatively here)

(holding a portion of a bovate of land in Swineshead and Wygtoft under Andrew Bonde in 1335, ref. 15 Bolle Hall was on the Swineshead/Wygtoft parish border; William Bolle some land in Swineshead under Andrew Bonde) (declared a debtor to Robert de Silkstone in 1336)

1.1.3.1 possibly John Bolle of Whaplode (John the carpenter son of Thomas Bolle of Algarkirke gifting land to Croyland abbey ca. 1330; John Bolle of Whaplode was one of the men accused of damaging Croyland abbey’s dike in 1329 ref. H)

1.1.3.1.1 William (5) Bolle of Whaplode (William son of John of Whaplode accused with John Bolle of Whaplode and Alan Bole in 1329 ref. H)

1.1.3.1.1.1 John Bolle of Whaplode b. ca. 1321 (38 in 1359 ref. A)

William Bolle of Quapplelade d. Easter 1337 (ref. A)

1.1.3.2 possibly Alan Bolle of Moulton (accused with John Bolle of Whaplode of damaging Croyland abbey’s dike in 1329 ref. H)