Highways and Byways in LincolnshireRawnsley, W. F. (Willingham Franklin)
History
Highways and Byways in Lincolnshire
Rawnsley, W. F. (Willingham Franklin)
Lincolnshire (England) -- Description and travel
We hear of a Sir George Bolle being killed at Winceby in 1643, fighting
against Cromwell; certainly George’s brother, Sir Robert of Scampton,
was one of the jury in 1660 for trying the regicides, and at the death
of his son, Sir John, in 1714 the title became extinct. The distinctions
of the elder branch, who settled at Haugh, were more military than
civil. Their name also has passed away, their lineal descendants being
named Bush, Ingilby, Bosville and Towne. The earliest monument to this
branch is on a brass plate in Boston Church to Richard Bolle of Haugh,
1591, son of Richard Bolle of Haugh and Maria, daughter and heiress of
John Fitzwilliams of Mablethorpe. He was thrice married, and his only
son Charles died a year before him, 1590, and is commemorated at Haugh.
His daughter Anne married Leonard Cracroft, the others married John and
Leonard Kirkman of Keel. His son Charles, whose mother was a Skipworth of
South Ormsby, had four wives, his first wife a daughter of Ed. Dymoke of
Scrivelsby, and his fourth a daughter of Thomas Dymoke of Friskney. His
only son, John, was the son of number two, Brigitt Fane; and his daughter
Elizabeth of number three, Mary Powtrell. To this son John, there is also
in Haugh Church a well-preserved monument, which shows him kneeling with
his wife, attended by their three sons and five daughters, in the usual
Jacobean style; date 1606, Aet. suæ 46. Sir John built Thorpe Hall, and
was a famous Elizabethan captain. He was at the siege of Cadiz under
Essex, 1596, and had custody of the young lady of high position who goes
by the title of the Spanish Lady or the Green Lady, and whose story is
told in Percy’s “Reliques” in the ballad of “The Spanish Lady’s love for
an Englishman.” Sir John Bolle is the hero of the story. The lady fell
in love with him, but on hearing that he had a wife at home, she retired
to a nunnery and sent rich presents to his wife of tapestry, plate and
jewels, and her picture in a green dress. The jewels are now in the hands
of many of Lady Bolle’s descendants, the necklet of 298 pearls being,
it is said, in the Bosvile family at Ravensfield Park, Yorkshire. The
last warden of Winchester College was called Godfrey Bolles Lee, and
was related to the Bosviles; and, curiously enough, in the Cathedral of
Winchester is a brass plate giving an account of the death of Colonel
John Bolles. It seems that Charles, the elder of the three sons whose
effigies are on Sir John’s monument in the quaint little church of Haugh,
was a Royalist, living at Thorpe Hall, Louth, where he raised a regiment
of foot, which was commanded by his brother John, a soldier of unusual
gallantry. Charles once saved his life when pursued, by hiding under the
bridge at Louth. The regiment was engaged at Edgehill and other places,
and finally cut to pieces in a most bloody engagement inside Alton Church
in Hampshire. Clarendon tells us that Sir William Waller, finding that
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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