Boley History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England
Germany
Scotland

Early Origins of the Boley family

The surname Boley was first found in Dumfriesshire (Gaelic: Siorrachd Dhùn Phris), a Southern area, bordering on England that today forms part of the Dumfries and Galloway Council Area, where one of the first records of the name was William Bully was listed as a bailie of Edinburgh in 1403. Bulley is a hamlet in Gloucestershire, almost 7 miles (11 km) west of the city of Gloucester.

Early History of the Boley family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Boley research. Another 71 words (5 lines of text) covering the year 1418 is included under the topic Early Boley History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Boley Spelling Variations

In the era before dictionaries, there were no rules governing the spelling or translation of names or any other words. Consequently, there are an enormous number of spelling variations in Medieval Scottish names. Boley has appeared as Bully, Bulley, Bullie and others.

Early Notables of the Boley family

More information is included under the topic Early Boley Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Boley Ranking

In the United States, the name Boley is the 9,057^th most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. 1

Boley migration to the United States +

The freedom, opportunity, and land of the North American colonies beckoned. There, Scots found a place where they were generally free from persecution and where they could go on to become important players in the birth of new nations. Some fought in the American War of Independence, while others went north to Canada as United Empire Loyalists. The ancestors of all of these Scottish settlers have been able to recover their lost national heritage in the last century through highland games and Clan societies in North America. Among them:

Boley Settlers in United States in the 18th Century

Johan Carl Boley, who landed in Pennsylvania in 1764 2

Boley migration to Australia +

Emigration to Australia followed the First Fleets of convicts, tradespeople and early settlers. Early immigrants include:

Boley Settlers in Australia in the 19th Century

Mr. Abraham Boley, (b. 1812), aged 20 who was convicted in Somerset, England for life for house breaking, transported aboard the "Circassian" on 4th November 1832, arriving in Tasmania (Van Diemen's Land) 3

Contemporary Notables of the name Boley (post 1700) +

Michael Jerome Boley (b. 1982), former American NFL football linebacker for the New York Giants and Cincinnati Bengals from 2005 to 2013
John Peter "Joe" Boley (1896-1962), nicknamed "Silent Joe," an American Major League Baseball shortstop who played from 1927 to 1932
Donna Jean Boley (b. 1935), American politician, Member of the West Virginia Senate (1985-)
Bruno A. Boley (b. 1924), American academic, Dean of Engineering at Northwestern University
Prince Mark Boley (b. 1989), Liberian footballer
George Eutychianus Saigbe Boley (b. 1949), Liberian politician and former rebel leader

Citations +

"What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
Convict Records of Australia. Retrieved 8th February 2021 from https://convictrecords.com.au/ships/circassian