The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. I.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.
Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Return to Index
Boels : "from Bodies, 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."—The Norman People. 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 well possible to be from that of the Boelles or Bolles, so long resident in Lincolnshire. The Boyles bear Party per bend crenelle Argent and Gules; the Bolles bore Azure out of three cups Or as many boar's heads couped Argent.
The "antient and unblamed Family" of Bolles remained for six hundred years in the county of Lincoln. Osbert de Boelles is (as we have seen) mentioned there in the first part of the twelfth century; and the last heir male, John Bolle, of Thorpe Hall, died in 1732. Their original seat was a manor-house, to which they gave its name of Bolle Hall, in Swineshead, where they held large possessions by knight service of the Earls of Richmond; and in the beginning of the fourteenth century they were also tenants in capite of the Crown of lands in Conningesby, parcel of the manor of Scrivelby. Towards the close of Edward IV.'s reign they divided into two branches. "The elder, by an intermarriage with the heiress of the family of Hough, became settled at Hough, or Haugh, near Alford, and the other at Gosberkirke, now Gosberton. Before the division of these branches, the Bolles family had several times represented the co. of Lincoln in parliament, and had filled the offices of sheriff and escheator of the same county; and we find them erecting chantries and bestowing lands to charitable uses at Algarkirke, Wygtoft, and other places; a clear indication of the wealth of this family in those early times."—Illingworth's Parish of Scampton. The elder line afterwards became seated at Thorpe Hall, near Louth; and many of the name lie buried in Haugh and Louth churches. Sir John Bolle of Thorpe was the hero of a romantic adventure told in a contemporary ballad as "The Spanish Ladye's Love."[1] He was a gallant soldier, who served Queen Elizabeth in Spain and Italy; was knighted after the taking of Cadiz; commanded at the storming of the Irish castles of Lifford and Donolong, and was appointed Governor of Kinsale by the Earl of Essex. "Amongst the prisoners taken at Cadiz, it fell to his lot to take charge of a lady of extraordinary beauty, and of great family and wealth;" and he endeavoured, as best he might, to cheer and lighten her captivity. He succeeded so well, that the lady fell in love with the young English captain who treated her so kindly, and who—if I may judge from an engraving of his portrait—was a handsome and high-bred man. "In his sweet company was all her joy;" and when the unwelcome order came for her release, she fell at his feet and besought him to take her with him to England. He made many objections. He told her of the hazards of the sea; of the "great charges" of travel, and his lack of gold and silver; and of the shame it would be accounted to an English soldier to carry off a woman. But the lady answered them all readily. The sea had no terrors for her, as she "could find in heart to lose her life" for him; she would cure his poverty by the gift of "ten thousand pounds in gold that lies unknown"; and she would disguise her sex, and follow him in the garb of his page. Then, at last, Sir John was moved to tell her the truth:—
"Courteous lady, leave this fancy;
Here comes all that breeds the strife;
I in England have already
A sweet woman to my wife;
I would not falsify my vow for gold or gain,
Nor eke for all the fairest dames that live in Spain.
"O how happy is that woman
That enjoys so true a friend!
Many happy days God send her!
Of my suit I make an end:
On my knees I pardon crave for mine offence,
Which did from love and true affection first commence.
"Commend me to thy lovely lady,
Bear to her this chain of gold,
And these bracelets for a token
Grieving that I was so bold;
All my jewels in like sort bear thou with thee,
For they are fitting for thy wife, but not for me."
High-born, rich, "lovely, young, and tender" as she was, she had loved and sued for love in vain. "Like a true knight, he returned whither faith and honour called," and she retired to a nunnery, where she took the veil. "She sent as presents to his wife a profusion of jewels and other valuables, amongst which was her portrait, a beautiful tapestry bed wrought in gold by her own hands, and several casks full of plate, money, and other treasure. Some articles are still in possession of the family, though her picture was unfortunately, and by accident, disposed of about half a century since. This portrait being drawn in green, gave occasion to her being called in the neighbourhood of Thorpe Hall the 'Green Lady,' where to this day there is a traditionary superstition among the vulgar that Thorpe Hall was haunted by this Green Lady, who used nightly to take her seat in a particular tree near the mansion, and that during the life of his son, Sir Charles Bolle, a knife and fork were always laid for her at the table, if she chose to make her appearance."—Ibid. The effigies of Sir John and his wife, Elizabeth Waters, with their three sons and four daughters, may be seen on his monument in Haugh Church; and his portrait, painted by Zucchero, with the gold chain of the poor Spanish lady hanging round his neck, as well as a curious gold thumb ring, engraved with his sixteen quarterings, which he probably used as a seal, remained in 1810 with his descendant, Colonel Birch (Ibid). His second son (of the same name) was, like himself, a soldier, and commanded, with great credit, a regiment that had been raised by the elder brother during the Civil War. He was killed fighting against desperate odds at Alton in Hampshire; and it is recorded in his epitaph that the King, when he heard of his death, cried out, "Bring me a mourning scarf, I have lost one of the best commanders in this kingdom." The last Bolle of Thorp survived the extinction of the junior branch by eighteen years.
This latter had acquired the manor and lands of Scampton, about five miles north of Lincoln, through the marriage of Sir George Bolles with a rich City heiress, the daughter of Sir John Hart, Lord Mayor of London in 1590. Their son was the first of four baronets of this name, of whom Sir John, with whom the title ended, "lived in great splendour at Scampton, and represented the city of Lincoln in five successive parliaments. He died unmarried in 1714, and with him vanished all the grandeur and hospitality which this little village had witnessed for more than a century and a half, during the residence of this respectable family ."—Ibid.
"Bolle" is found among the tenants in capite of Domesday. He held in Apleford in Hampshire: and there is an entry respecting some of his land that had been thrown into the New Forest. But nothing further seems to be known of him.