Bowes History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

• Origins Available:
• England
• Ireland

Etymology of Bowes

The illustrious surname Bowes is classified as a habitation surname, which was originally derived from a place-name, and is one form of surname belonging to a broader group called hereditary surnames. Habitation names were derived from pre-existing names for towns, villages, parishes, or farmsteads. Topographic names, form the other broad category of surnames that was given to a person who resided near a physical feature such as a hill, stream, church, or type of tree.

Other local names are derived from the names of houses, manors, estates, regions, and entire counties. As a general rule, the greater the distance between an individual and their homeland, the larger the territory they were named after. For example, a person who only moved to another parish would be known by the name of their original village, while people who migrated to a different country were often known by the name of a region or country from which they came. Bowes is a place-name from in the village of Bowes in Durham. The place and the surname both are derived from the Old English word bogas, which meant "bend in the river" The village was renamed Bogas in 1148.

Another source claims " about the time of the Conqueror, there was a town (on the site of the Castle of Bowes), which the tradition of the family states, was burned. It then belonged to the Earls of Brittany and Richmond. The castle was built, as Mr. Horseley thinks, out of the ruins of the Roman Fortress, by Alan Niger, the second earl of that title, who, it is said, placed therein William, his relation, with five hundred archers to defend it against some insurgents in Cambridge and Westmorland confederated with the Scots, giving him for the device of his standard the arms of Brittany, with three bows and a bundle of arrows, whence both the castle and the commander derived their names; the former being called Bowes Castle, and the latter, William de Arcubus, or William Bowes." 1

Early Origins of the Bowes family

Early History of the Bowes family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Bowes research. Another 134 words (10 lines of text) covering the years 1389, 1424, 1465, 1466, 1502, 1510, 1517, 1521, 1527, 1556, 1568, 1580, 1585, 1616, 1657, 1679, 1685, 1691, 1695, 1698, 1702, 1707, 1718, 1725, 1749, 1767 and 1800 are included under the topic Early Bowes History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Bowes Spelling Variations

Since the Old and Middle English languages lacked definite spelling rules, Breton surnames have many spelling variations. Latin and French, which were the official court languages, were also influential on the spelling of surnames. The spelling of surnames was rarely consistent in medieval times, and scribes and church officials recorded names as they sounded rather than adhering to any specific spelling rules. Therefore, it was common to find the same individual referred to with different spellings of their surname in the ancient chronicles. Moreover, a large number of foreign names were brought into England after the Norman Conquest, which accelerated and accentuated the alterations to the spelling of various surnames. The name has been spelled Bows, Bow, Bowes, Bowe, Bough, Boughs and others.

Early Notables of the Bowes family

Notable of this family during the Middle Ages was

• Sir William Bowes (1389-1465); and his son, Sir William Bowes (died 1466), Sheriff of Northumberland; and Sir William Bowes (1657-1707), an English landowner and politician, Member of Parliament for C...
• Sir George Bowes (1517-1556), was Commander in Border warfare and was a posthumous son of Sir Ralph Bowes of Dalden, Streatlam, and South Cowton
• Marmaduke Bowes (d. 1585), was a Catholic martyr, described as a substantial Yorkshire yeoman, of Angram Grange, near Appleton, in Cleveland. 3
• Sir George Bowes (1527-1580), was a military commander, the son of Richard Bowes and Elizabeth Aske. 3
• Elizabeth Bowes (1502?-1568), was a disciple of John Knox, and the daughter of Roger Aske, of Aske, Yorkshire. Her father died when she was a child, and she and her sister Anne were coheiresses of the...
• Sir Jerome Bowes (d. 1616), was an English ambassador, "of a Durham family, 'sprung from John Bowes, who married Anne, daughter of Gunville of Gorleston in Suffolk, who bore the same arms as those of...

Bowes Ranking

In the United States, the name Bowes is the 6,240^th most popular surname with an estimated 4,974 people with that name. 4

Migration of the Bowes family to Ireland

Some of the Bowes 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.