EPONYMOUS FAMILIES OF DORSET. tj) 



paying a fine to the King to obtain re-possession of his lands. 

 They had left Bonvil's Bridy, however, before 20 Edward III. 

 (1347), at which date this estate is occupied by another owner. 

 In 1404 another William Bonvil inherited considerable estates in 

 Purbeck and elsewhere from Walter Romesey. Forty-five years 

 later one of that name is summoned to Parliament as a baron by 

 the name of William Bonvile, Lord Bonvile and de Chuton,* and 

 on his death in 1460, his great granddaughter, Cecily Bonvile, 

 becomes heiress to the title, which shortly after she conveyed by 

 marriage to Thomas Grey, Marquis of Dorset, in which Marquisate, 

 united to the Dukedom of Suffolk, it remained merged until the 

 attainder of Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, in 1554, when it became 

 forfeited. 



BOSON, BOSOM, OR BOZUN. 



The Bosons, whose name is so variously spelt, were a widely- 

 distributed family during the reigns of the early Norman and 

 Plantagenet Kings. Sir Peres Bosoun is named in the Roll 

 of Arms temp. Edward II., and his descent is assumed from 

 Herbert Bozun, to whom the Conqueror gave the Manor of 

 Wissingsett, in Norfolk. His Arms are identical with those of a 

 Devonshire family of this name, and with those of Dorset, being 

 three bosons, or birdbolts, in allusion to the name. These 

 bolts, says Hutchins, are arrows tipped with a ball of lead. 

 Coker relates that the heiress of the Dorset Bosums married 

 Ash, of Ash, and that so the names became united, and, in 

 default of another explanation, this may perhaps be accepted, 

 though it is somewhat unusual for an heiress' name to become 

 attached to a property she derives from her husband. The lady 

 in question may have been the daughter of Harry Bosum, who 

 gave lands in 1463 " to be disposed to the' land and honour of 

 St. George in the church of Poole." He also enriched with 

 lands the brotherhood of St. James in Poole, whose buildings 

 stood near the present quay, and are now turned to secular uses. 



* Nicholas Hist. Peer. It is not certain that the Chuton Bonvills were of the 

 same stock ; they bore different Arms. 



