The name Bonday came to England with the ancestors of the Bonday family in the Norman Conquest in 1066. The surname Bonday is for a husbandman, or a farmer. [1]
The name stems from the Old English/Saxon roots bonda and bunda, which were used to indicate such a person. "There are several persons called Bonde in the Domesday [Book], one of whom is somewhat contradictorily called 'liber homo.' [2] [3] Bonde, Bondi, Bunde, Bundi were all listed in the Domesday Book. [4]
The surname Bonday was first found in Norfolk where Albertus filius Bund, Bonde was listed in the Feet of Fines of 1199 and 1202. Norman le Bonde was listed in the Pipe Rolls for Warwickshire in 1180 and William Bonde was a Knights Templar in 1185. Later, Robert Bunde was listed in the Pipe Rolls for Bedfordshire in 1198 and Henry le Bounde was found in Hertfordshire in 1297. [4]
"Ralph de Bonde occurs in Palgrave's Rotuli Curiae Regis of 1199. Robert de Bundy founded Bradley Priory, Leicestershire, in the time of King John. There was a family of Bendys in Staffordshire. 'Shutt-End,' says Erdeswick, 'is an old house, formerly of the Bendys.' William Bendy of Holbeach left two daughters his co-heirs: and another William Bendy, of King's Swinford, was Clerk of the Peace for the county, and died in 1684. William Bondi, of Bedfordshire, and Thomas Bundi, of Shropshire, occur in the Rotuli Hundredorum, c. 1272. Richard Bundy, in 1313, appears in Palgrave's Parliamentary Writs as 'manucaptor of John Pistor. ' " [5]
They "have their principal homes in the west of England in Devon and Somerset, and in the east of England in Norfolk and Suffolk; they are also established in Lancashire and Staffordshire. Six centuries ago the name was still to be found in numbers in Norfolk and Suffolk, as well as in the neighbouring counties of Lincoln, Hunts, and Cambridge, and also in Oxfordshire, in the forms of Bond and Bonde." [6]
By the time of the Hundredorum Rolls of 1273, the family were scattered throughout ancient Britain: Emma le Bonde in Huntingdonshire (1271); Robert le Bonde in Worcestershire; and Walter le Bond in Cambridgeshire. The same rolls also had an entry for the name as a forename in Norfolk: Bonde Brit. [7]
Kirby's Quest of Somerset had two entries both "1 Edward III" (during the first year of King Edward III's reign): Robert le Bonde; and John le Bonnde. [8]
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Bonday research. Another 95 words (7 lines of text) covering the years 1669, 1658, 1640, 1656, 1612, 1676, 1634, 1707, 1612, 1676, 1676, 1747, 1625, 1695, 1692, 1678, 1744, 1673, 1659, 1797 and are included under the topic Early Bonday History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Anglo-Norman names are characterized by a multitude of spelling variations. When the Normans became the ruling people of England in the 11th century, they introduced a new language into a society where the main languages of Old and later Middle English had no definite spelling rules. These languages were more often spoken than written, so they blended freely with one another. Contributing to this mixing of tongues was the fact that medieval scribes spelled words according to sound, ensuring that a person's name would appear differently in nearly every document in which it was recorded. The name has been spelled Bond, Bonde, Bunde, Bundy and others.
Outstanding amongst the family at this time was Denis Bond (died 1658), English politician from Dorset who sat in the House of Commons between 1640 and 1656, supporter of the Parliamentarian cause in the English Civil War and served as president of the Council of State during the Commonwealth;John Bond LL.D. (1612-1676), an English jurist, Puritan clergyman, member of the Westminster Assembly, and Master of Trinity Hall; Cambridge Nathaniel Bond, KS, (1634-1707), of Creech Grange in the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset, an English lawyer...
Another 83 words (6 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Bonday Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Some of the Bonday family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt.
Another 72 words (5 lines of text) about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
For many English families, the political and religious disarray that plagued their homeland made the frontiers of the New World an attractive prospect. Thousands migrated, aboard cramped disease-ridden ships. They arrived sick, poor, and hungry, but were welcomed in many cases with far greater opportunity than at home in England. Many of these hardy settlers went on to make important contributions to the emerging nations in which they landed. Among early immigrants bearing the name Bonday or a variant listed above were: