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Transcript of E? W Tm 5? Ch - Forgotten Books
E? W TM “5? c h'
u k I “N
V
"
A L; N u AL Alt —{J A ; i
f
WILLIAM GRAHAM BOSS,E dinburg h, Scotland and
”
HE N RY RUSH 130 8 8 ,C hicag o , U. S. A.
CHICAGO
BE N FRAN KLIN COMPAN Y,
232 1 lav AVEN UE .
1 90 2.
FOREWORD.
One day about the middle of the month of May,
1 8 98,look ing round an old book stall in Leith
‘
Walk ,
Williamson’s by name, I chanced on a bund le of odds
and ends mark ed at the low price of twopence, and
from a cursory examination of the bundle, think ingit mig ht contain something of interest, I became the
possessor. After mak ing another purchase I hied
me to my work ing den to weed the lot, and as it hap
pened I consig ned most of the twopence worth to the
was te paper, including a copy of the Superior Printer,
printed and pub lished somewhere in Am erica,and I
thoug ht I was done with superior printing , but at a
leisurely moment, a few days after, on passin g the
waste box, this Superior P rinter ag ain caug ht my
eye, and I look ed over its pag es more carefully than
before, when behold an extract on“
R eading P rint
ers,”
from a mag azine called The Ink Fiend,came
intoview, and, g lancing over the parag raf, the nameof my future correspondent, the printer of these
4
she ets,attracted my notice . I read the extract and
well, there was something about the sentences and
matter which struck me, so that I made up my mind
to write MR . H . R . Boss,whose name I had stumb led
on in this manner. For this purpose I rolled up the
sheet, intending to tak e it hom e and have anotherlook over it previous to writing . On the way home,
when calling for my monthly mag azine, I handed mysuperior printed treasure to the shapg i/rl to be rolled
up therewith; but alas, on arriving home I found theprecious sheet had slipped out of the roll by the way,
and was now lost to me. So there was nothing left
for me but to draw on my memory for the facts
stated in my post-card as printed at pag e 9 of this
volume .
Such is the history of my initiatory steps to the
following impe rfect letters of mine, put tog ether at
spare intervals, and beg un without any intention of
publication. And,althoug h rathe r belated, I desire
to than k the postoyfice 0 775c 3 at Chicag o for their
courtesy in forwarding my post-card to MR . JAMES
W . TURNER ; to whom my thank s are also due for
transmittin g it to my friend . I also return thanks
to all those who, thoug h not nume rous, have k ind lyfurnished me . with replies to my enquiries concern
5
ing the name and its bearers, or who have g iven information about k ind red matters.
For the satisfaction of the curious with reference
to the illustrations,I may say that my g reat-g rand
father’s sig nature, at pag e 25 , is from the subscribed
copy of the Solemn Leag ue and C ovenant, preservedin Queen Ann Street C hurch, Dunfermline, of which
he was one of the orig inal members, and where he
filled the ofi‘ice of a deacon for about twelve years.
And the other zincog rafs are from drawing s by me,
unless otherwise mentioned ; they are left in outline
to be coloured by hand if the possessor is so inclined.
E dinburg h. W . G. B .
PRE FATORY .
The orig ination of this book is well told by MR .
W ILLIAM GRAHAM Bos s in his“
Foreword. When
I beg an the printing of these letters it was with the
expectation that they would mak e a pamflet of fortyor fifty pag es, and that they mig ht be of interest to
6
the small number of members of the Bo s s FAMILY ofwhom I then knew. The work
,however, has exceeded
my anticipations and g rown into a book , and the dis
covery has been made that the Bosses are much more
numerous,in all parts of this country, at least, than
I had any idea of.
In the preparation of my part of this book I havebeen hampered by the indifference of many of
’
whom
I have soug ht information, who have utterly neg
lected to reply to my letters, and by the ig norance of
many others who have never k nown, or have failed toremember, much of the family history. Lack of pe
cuniary m eans has prevented my having researchesmade in libraries and pub lic ofiices invarious partsof the country; and I have been forced to content my
self with such information as I could obtain from
meag er sources.
If the presentvolume is successful in awak ening
a prOprer interest in the subj ect, and in making re
turns for the money I have expended upon it, it willbe followed by one or more othervolum es, which it
is hoped will be of interest andvalue, and, possib ly,result in tracing the history of the families of the
three brothers who, I am persuaded, were the first of
the name to settle in this country, and in find in gmany of their descendants of the present day.
To those who have answered my queries, to many
others who have aided by sug g esting possible sources
of information, and especially to ME . W ILLIAM
GRAHAM Bo ss, who has contributed so much to this
book , I return my hearty thank s .
H . R . B .
“
Every family should have a g enealog is t,
It is extraordina ry how
often, even in pedig rees of an cient families, modernfacts about cadets are despised. Reg rets beg in after
the link s are lost.”
TheS cottish Antiquary,July, 1 90 1 .
W ILLIAM GRAHAM BOSS.
THE BOSS FAMILY -THE N AME , BOSS.
From William Graham Boss .
[Postal-card , addre st : “ Mr. the edito r o f ‘The Ink Fiend ,’or The Secre tary o f the P rinting Trad e in C hicag o , U . S.
Am eri ca.
” Indorst : “ If the P . O . at C hicag o would k indlyendeavour to hand this t o t he prop er quarter, such a service would b e este em ed with thank s .
— W . G . B .
” Forwardedt o Jam e s W . Turne r, the last pub lisher o f The Ink Fiend , atLag rang e , Ill . , and b y him sent to H enry R . Boss, C hicag o .]
1 6 UNION STREET , E DIN BURGH , SC OTLAN D,
May 26th, 1 8 98 .
Dear Sir : Early in 1 8 8 8 , perhap s in the month
of March or April,there appeared in a printer’s trade
journal,called The Ink Fiend , which was published
in Chicag o , a contribution on Reading Printers ,” by
a Mr. “ Henry R . Boss .
” My Obj ect in writing this
is to ascertain if you could kindly place me in com
munication with Mr. Boss, for the purpose of makingenquiries with reference to his and my own name , as I
am collecting information relating thereto . Althoug h
I have a number of cousins in U. S . A . , I am not
aware if this Mr. B . is one .
Should this reach Mr. Boss , perhaps he would
kindly let m e know at his convenience any traditional
1 0
account or otherwise of the name if he has ever heard
anything . I may say that I am a native of Scotland
and that the name is a very old one here . I am also
aware that it is found in Eng land, France , Germany ,etc but I can not say if in these countrie s the name
had the same orig in as in Scotland .
Thanking you in advance for any trouble which I
may cause , I am Yours faithfully,WM. GRAHAM Boss .
H enry R . Boss to William Graham Boss .
[Letter.]
282 IRVING AVENUE,
CHICAGO , ILL . ,July 28 , 1 898 .
Mr. William Graham Boss .
Dear Sir : Your postal-card to the editor of The
Ink Fiend (which publication expired five or six yearsag o) reacht me some days since , and I take the first
opportunity to reply to it .
If there is any relationship between us , it is so
distant that we mig ht as well b e named Smith or
Jone s . As nearly as I have ever been able to trace
my g enealog y on my father’s side , my g reat -g reat
g randfather (possibly his g randfather or g reat-g reat
1 1
g randfather) was one of five brothers who emig ratedto this country from Holland so long ag o that I have
no re cord of it . One settled in Connecticut, one in
N ew York (State) , one in Virg inia and one in Penn
sylvania ; Where the other went I have no means of
knowing . My family record is as follows , so far as I
know it :
Father, Henry B . Boss , b . in Saratog a County, N. Y. ,
1 8 0 7 ; died in Forestville, N. Y. , 1 842.
Grandfather, William Garner Boss , b . 1 776, d . 1 8 36 .
Great-g randfather, William Boss, d . 1 8 0 1 . [His wife,Silvia Boss, died September 1 , 1 8 1 9, “ ag ed 74
Great-g reat- g randfather, Peter Boss . [This statement isbased on tradition only. ]
Farther than that I can not g o, except I make an
effort to search the records of Connecticut , Massa
chusetts (where some of the family settled) and other
state s . I believe that the state of N ew York never
(until quite recent years) required re cords to b e kept
Of births , marriag e s , etc . I have never had time or
means or very much inclination — to look the mat
ter up . So far as I have ever been able to learn , none
of the family has ever been in the penitentiary, or
has ever been hung . We inherit from our ancestors ,I hop e , their sturdy integ rity, but none of us have
ever become famous .
The name Boss is a g ood Dutch word sig nifyingmaster,
” and the word is in common use in this
country to desig nate a foreman , superintendent , etc .
It is sometimes employed in an opprobrious sense , as
12
when applied to a selfish manipulator of partizan pol
itie s , as“ Boss Croker, etc .
*
I am g lad you have written on this subj ect , and I
shall b e g lad to hear from you ag ain . I was sur
prised at learning there were any bearing my name
anywhere in the United King dom .
Very truly yours , HENRY R . Boss .
William Graham Boss to H enry R . Boss .
[Letten ]
1 6 UNION STRE E T , E DINBURGH ,
Aug ust 1 1 th, 1 8 98 .
Mr. Henry R . Boss,Chicag o .
Dear Sir : Your letter of July 24th duly to hand .
As you say, and I ag ree with you , there is not
likely to b e any relationship between us , your forefa
thers having g one from Holland to America , unl ess
they were sprung from a Scotch settler there ; even in
* It is also frequently used as an adjective, denotingexcellence . Some years ag o , when my daug hter was but a weechick, I took her out for an afternoon walk. Seeing a sig n,The Boss Cig ar Store,
” the little one said , “ Pa, when theywant to call anything g ood , they name it Boss ,
’don
’t they ? ”
1 8
this case , the relationship would b e remote , howeve r
interesting to trace .
In the latter part of the sixteenth and during the
seventeenth centurie s there were a g reat number of
Scotch in Holland , eng ag ed in the wars principally,fig hting on both sides there are a number of families
in France , Belg ium ,Holland
,Germany, Russia , etc . ,
who are descended from Scotch military adventurers
of that and earlier time s . There was also a consider
able trade carried on between Scotland and the Low
Countries from an early date , and this intercourse
may have had an effect on the present form of my
name , as my ancestors were settled in Fife , one of
the chief countie s from which trade was carried on ,and during the seventeenth century there was quite a
number of Dutch in that county ; their descendants
are found there at the pre sent day . In one coast
town — Dysart — there was a specially larg e number
of them , and the town was known locally as Little
Holland .
”
From enquirie s which I have made so far,and
from the tradition in our family,there is nothing to
lead to the supposition that my ancestors came from
Holland . The earlie st mention which I have found
in the county of Fife is in the year 1 494 , the name
being spelt in the printed record“ Bos ; the bearer
was a John Bos , whom I find within a few mile s of
the district where my g reat-g randfather was a farmer.
The name in the form “ Boss ” is not found in any
14
other part of Scotland until the early part of this cent
ury, and as far as I have g one back all the members
were related .
My father was James Boss, 1 8 0 24 8 8 5 .
My g randfather was William Boss, 1 76 0 — 1 8 39.
My g reat- g randfather was David Boss , — 1 78 9.
I am in the same position as you here, that I can
not g o any further back at present .
The characteristics of my family are very similar
to yours,in that none of them have been famous or
infamous,as far as I am aware . Apropos of charac
teristics : the real Bosses here are said to have
g rey eyes,and fair hair when children ; of course
there are some who have dark eyes,the effect of mar
riag es the usual heig ht of male adults about five feetnine or ten inches . Has any observation been made
of this in your family 2
I believe the orig inal form of my name was de
Bois ; in early Latin documents it is “ de Boseb o ”
and “ de Bo/sco . The first appearance of them in
Scotland is about 1 170 ; and the spelling“ de Bois
,
”
de Boyes,
”etc . continued till the latter part of the
fifteenth century, when the prefix de” was dropped
and the name was spelt “ Boiss,” “ Boyes
,
” “ Boice,
“ Boas,
” “ Bos,
”etc . ; there are about three dozen
varieties of spelling . I have not found out when my
name was first spelt Boss ,”but should suppose it to
b e about the latter part of the sixteenth or early in
1 6
William Graham Boss to H enry R . Boss .
[Letter.]
E DINBURGH , 1 6 UNION STRE E T ,Oct . 7th, 1 8 98 .
Mr . Henry R . Boss , Chicag o .
Dear Sir : In my form er letter I made no mention
of the earliest members of my name who are on record
as being settled in Fife . The earliest notice of them
occurs in 1 434 — William de Boys , official of St . An
drew’s , etc . and Alexander Boys in 1 438 , who is b ai
lie of Kirkcaldy in 1 448 ; and in the same record* there
occurs a Henry de Boys , burg ess of Kirkcaldy . Then
in 1 45 0 a David de Boys is Vicar of C leish, which, al
thoug h not in Fife , is just next to it ; and in 1 462— 64
David Boys , master of works to the Crown ,and cus
tumer of the salt custum s at Dysart,where an exten
sive manufacture of this article was carried on for
about three hundred years after this date ; from very
early times it was larg ely exported to the continent ,Holland especially .
After 1 464 I have not found the spellin g Boys
in Fifeshire , the forms after that date being Boist,
“ Bos,” “ Bost ,
” “ Bowse ,” “ Boost
,
”etc . ; and these
forms are onl y found in Fifeshire or immediately
adj oining parishes . The traditional account of the
reason for the chang e in our name is that the spell
*Reg ister of Dumf ermline Abbey .
1 7
ing was altered to disting uish one branch of the fam
ily from another in the same neig hborhood .
The Christian names , William ,Alexander, David ,
Andrew, James , John , are found in use in our family
as far back as I have traced them ; and the Fife bear
ers of the surname are said to b e de scended from the
family of Panbride in the adjoining county of Forfar,the orig in of which family is g iven by Hector Boece
in his Chronicles of Scotland, which b e printed at his
own expense, at the Ascensian p ress , folio , Paris ,
1 527 ; he says (about 1 8 60 )
Inter casteros proavus meus Hug o Boetius cujus paterad Duplin occubuerat , Baro Drisdaliae ex reg ia b eneficentiaconnubio conjunctus estvirg ini haeredi partis Baronatus Balbrid , quam etiam hac estate quartus jam inde heres possidet .
FO . cccxxxv, ed . 1 527 F0 . 323 , ed .
The Barons of Dryfsdale were the ear
liest settlers of the name in Scotland,and
their arms were Arg ent a saltire
and chief azure , which were also
the arms of the Panbride branch,
who added a mullet in honour point for
difference , to show descent from a young er
The fo llowing is from the Scotch translation made forKing James V about 1 5 3 0 : “ Amang sindry othir that warrewardit at this time, Hew Boece , g randschir to Maister Hector Boece, compiler of the C ronik ils , g et , in recompence of hisfaderis slauchter at Duplino, the heritoure and lady of thebarony of Balb rid g ivin him in mariag e ; quhilk barony is yit
possedit be the airis of the said Hew.
”
(Note : The word
g randschir is Scotch for g reat- g randfather. )
1 8
son. Probably the above Hug h would b e third son of
SirHumphrey de Bois , who was k illed in 1 332.
Referring to the term boss as applied to a man
of status,I find it inuse here in the sixteenth century.
John Knox , in his History of the Reformation of Reli
g ion in Scotland, which was written . between 1 5 59
and 1 571 , uses the word in this sense . To take one
instance , under date of 1 544, referring to a sermon
preached by the Archbishop of Glasg ow at Ayr to
combat the doctrine s of the Reformers , he says , writ
ing in a derog atory connection The Archbishop
preached to his j ackmen and to some old bosses of
the town .
I am inclined to think it is an Eng lish term as
applied to a man of status or position , althoug h it has
almost passed out of our vocabulary, yet at the time
of the colonization of America it would b e in ordinary
use and would b e introduced there by the Eng lish emi
g rants .
I am yours truly, W . GRAHAM Boss .
H enry R . Boss to W illiam Graham Boss.
CHICAGO , November 5 , 1 8 98 .
Mr. William Graham Boss .
Dear Sir : I am now convinced that what I wrote
you , in July last , about the five Boss brothers who
19
came to this country and settled in different states , is
erroneous, -
so far, at least, as any connection with my
family is concerned .
In 1 8 58 or 1 8 59, at which time I was publish
ing a newspaper in the western part of Illinois , — I
had some correspondence with the late Daniel W.
Boss , then a prominent railroad man in Chicag o , in
reg ard to our common name . Unfortunately, I have
preserved none of that correspondence ; but the following letter from an uncle of Mr. Boss settles the
question as to any connection between that branch of
the family and my own
LE E SBURG, Va., Feb. 28 , 1 8 61 .
Mr. Henry R. Boss.
Dear Sir: I am in receipt of yours of February 25 , andin reply : My father came from Germany, to g ether with severalbrothers . One or two, I think, settled in New York or NewEng land States, one in Baltimore (Adam Boss ) , one in N or
folk, Va. (Christian Boss ) . My father’s name was Peter Boss .
I have (sic ) several brothers, all dead, except one inWashington, D. C .
— Abraham J. Boss . Daniel W. Boss,whom you
refer to, is the son of my brother, Daniel C . Boss, dead someyears since. My father died in 1 8 1 8 ; my mother died in 1 825 .
Daniel W. Boss’ father, my brother, died some years since, in
Pittsburg , where he lived .
One of my brothers , Nicholas Boss, died when I was achild — say 1 8 0 2or 1 8 0 3
— so long ag o I do not rememberhim ; he died, I think, in Pennsylvania.
We may be related, thoug h I can not trace it out. As
stated above, I had two or three uncles who remained north of
the Potomac.Yours, S. M. Boss.
20
The unearthing of this letter from S . M . Boss
I think his name was Samuel~ first called attention
to the error . Daniel W . Boss and I came to a hasty
conclusion that we were connected throug h the fivebrothers referred to . I never g ave the matter any
farther attention until now.
The following is an extract from a letter in reply
to one written by me to Mrs . Betsey (Jackson) Swift,of Forestville , N . Y. , a g randdaug hter of my g reat
uncle, Peter Boss , of whom more hereafter. I have
every reason to believe it reliable . It was written by
Mrs . Swift’s g randdaug hter, Miss Marie Avery
My g randmother seems to have had no fancy for remembering dates or for inquiring about the careers o f even hermost disting uisht ancestors ; but my mother says that herg randmother* used Often to talk of her ancestry, and especially O f the three brothers (the heads of this branch of theBoss family ) who were navig ators, and upon coming to America settled in New York, on the receiving a deed of
their land from the Indians, which was to be theirs “as long
as g rass g rows and water runs .
” Mother did not realize of
what g reat interest this would be to the Bosses of these laterdays , and so she either failed to learn the names of the threebrothers, or has forg otten them ; however she can vouch forthe t ruth of the story that is , it is just as her g randmothertold it to her.
So it is doubtless true that my family came from
one of three brothers who settled in the state of N ew
Amy (Boss ) Jackson.
TWhence the term Mohawk Dutch.
21
York,and not from one of five brothers who scattered
to different parts of the Union .
In a copy of The Orig inal Lists of Persons of
Quality and others who went from Great
Britain to the American Plantations , 1 60 0 — 1 70 0 , cd
ited by John Camden Hotten , it is recorded that atick et from Barbadoe s was g ranted to
Whitehead Joseph, in the Ship Three Brothers, PeterBoss, Comand’. security.
Who knows but this Peter Boss was my g reat
g randfather‘2
In Volume I of “ American Ancestry, pub lisht
by Joel Munsell’e Sons , Albany, N . Y. , 1 8 87, I find
the following
BOSS, LEWIS, Al bany [N . son of Samuel P. Boss ,
of Scituate, R. I. ; son of Benjamin , b . 1 759, d . 1 8 49, servedfive years in Revolutionary war son
‘
of Benjamin, b . 1 727, son
o f Edward, b . 1 68 5 , d . 1 752 (m ., 1 70 9, Philippa Carr ) , freeman,
1 71 3 ; son of E DWAR D Boss (111 . Susannah Wilkinson) ,settled in Narrag ansett, R. I . , May 1 7, 1 71 0 , when he boug htvacant lands sold by the Assembly ; he died about Thefamily is of Dutch orig in . Name spelt Bosch and afterward
In “ British Family Names , pub lisht in London ,1 8 91 , by Elliott Stock , is the following
Boss . Fr. , Bosse ; D . , Boss ; G . , Doh . , Bos ; p . n.
N 0 further intimation than this is g iven — no ink
ling as to where , in Eng land , any bearing this name
may b e found .
Yours very truly, HENRY R . Boss .
22
William Graham Boss to H enry R . Boss.
EDIN BURGH,1 6 UNION STRE E T,
November 2l st, 1 8 98 .
Mr. Henry R . Boss , Chicag o .
Dear Sir : Your letter of November 5 th received .
It is of g reat interest . After reading it perhaps I
should have addressed you as “ Cousin ; and after
all I am strong ly inclined to think that you are off
the same stock as myself, as will appear by the fol
lowing facts .
In the extract which you g ive from Miss Marie
Avery’s letter — the whole tenor of which extract is
so like our tradition — your ancestors had a deed of
lands from the Indians to b e theirs as long as g rass
g rows and water runs .” This is very remarkable . Is it
not possible that themention of Indians ” is an error
introduced in the course of time throug h being trans
mitted orally from one g eneration to another Of
course,if such a deed is extant there can b e no doubt
about the matter.
Now it so happens that this identical tradition,minus the “ Indians ,
”has been handed down in my
f amily word f or word, ref erring to a tenure of land f or“as long as g rass g rows and water runs.
” I have
heard the same from my father, and also from my
aunt , Jane Boss , and others — sometimes with this
addition , that the lands were to remain in the family
provided the de scendants bore the name of “ Boss ,which may mean that , if the elder line ended in a
24
probably b e entered also , thus taking us back another
g eneration .
Another consideration which leads me to the same
conclusion is, you mention that the three brothers are
said to have been sailors . Well,my family have been
inhabitants of the seacoast for many g enerations ,and we know that a love for the sea is just like many
other hereditary characteristics it runs in the blood .
When my father was a boy he was taken one or two
voyag e s for the benefit of his health,to Holland and
the Baltic , by his cousin, Captain Graham (son of
Ag nes Boss , or Graham) , who traded to those parts .
Then my uncle , David Boss , who settled in Osweg o ,U . S . A .
, was a ship-carpenter and sailed round the
g lobe , I don’t know how often, but he was on the sea
most of his life . Then my g rand-cousin , also David
Boss , was a ship -carpenter he stayed at Kincardine
on Forth , here . Then my cousin , Captain William
Burg ess (probably named after his g randfather, Will
iam Boss) , son Of my father’s sisterhMarg aret Boss ,
or Burg ess , sailed between Liverpool and N ew York
he was lost with his vessel — the Ang lo Saxon (steam
er) , I think was her name — while on a voyag e to N ew
York,about forty years ag o, in the Vicinity of Cape
Race ; his widow and family removed from Liverpool
to her parents’home , in or near N ew York, after this
disaster. (I am not aware if Mr. Gellet Burg ess ,author of The Purple Cow,
”is a descendant or not . )
Cap tain Burg ess’brother Ralph is in busine ss at To
ronto .
H E N RY RUSH BOSS.
25
As I have mentioned one disaster, perhaps in thi s
place I may mention David Boss , my eldest brother,who
,althoug h not a sailor, was wrecked near Halifax,
Nova Scotia, while on his way to Boston , about 1 878 ,in the White Star Line steamship Atlantic ; he was
one of the few survivors of that disaster, and since
then has been settled in Manitoba,Canadian N . W .
There are a number of other cousins who were more
or le ss connected with the sea ; also a Captain John
G . Boss , R . N . ,in the early part of this century, who
may have come off the same stock,judg ing from cir
cumstantial evidence ; but I am enquiring .
In my family there are other traditions,which
may b e found in yours . Could you ascertain if there
is anything said about the name itself, or anythingabout a chang e in the name
,however unlikely it may
appear to you , the smallest scrap would be of service .
If you could obtain a copy of your g reat - g rand
father’s sig nature it mig ht show if he had been trained
in the s ame school as mine , a copy of whose auto
g raph I append , taken from a public document dated
at Dumfermline May 29th, 1 746 . There are peculiar
characteristics in the hand , showing no little artistic
taste . Look at the beautiful form of the letter B,for
instance , or any of the letters . The writer appears
to have been a man of superior taste ; this is more
26
apparent in the orig inal document, where the names
are arrang ed in two columns on the pag e , this one
being the center name in the second column,contain
ing twenty-three names . The sig nature is distinctive
in character and shows a man of capacity, which is
borne out by facts . The sig nature also shows an ih
herited natural taste , and may b e of intere st to you ,as it would probably b e derived from the same sources
as the members of your family may b e indebted to
for a part of their natural taste at least.
Also, if you could recover the name of your g reat
g randfather’s wife* and the names of their family ,
also the names of the other brothers and any of their
children’s names,it would help to show if there was
any connection ; and if you could ascertain their
church connection it mig ht show in which way they
had been broug ht up . Do you know if any of them
were Freemasons ? I find four of my family m em
bers of St . John’s Lodg e , Dumfermline , between 1 789and 1 792; one of them the above David , probably .
My g reat-g randfather was a Presbyterian , and
seems to have taken an interest in the church ques
tions of his time in Scotland — I am g lad to say on
the side of freedom and prog res s in the se matters .
H is wife’s name was Ag nes Watt, and their family
consisted of five sons and four daug hters ; as far as I
*All I have ever been able to learn o f her was g iven in
my letter of July 28 , 1 8 98 . See pag e 1 1 of this work .
H. R. B .
27
have learned, their names were David,James
,John
,
William , Andrew, Ag nes , Helen, Marg aret , Isabell .With reference to the lands which my forefathers
are said to have possessed, I find lands in their neig h
borhood mentioned in 1 5 87, called Boys’ Croft .”
This may b e the lands referred to, or it may have
been in another quarter ; but I am enquiring as oppor
tunity offers .
The Peter Boss , commander of the Three Broth
ers, may have been one of an earlier g eneration . I
will try and see the work mentioned .
Returning to the history of our name in Scotland
All account s ag ree in stating that it is of French ori
g in, and that they came over at the time of the con
quest of Eng land in 1 0 66, or shortly thereafter . The
name Bois appears in most of the lists of the com
panions in arms of Duke William of Normandy which
were compiled in his time or immediately after .
The earliest Scotch chronicle in which the name
is mentioned is that of Sir Thomas Gray, written in
the early part of the fourteenth century, while he was
a prisoner in Edinburg h Castle . To quote from Hill
Burton’s History of Scotland, Sir Thomas Gray“ tell s
how King William the Lion broug ht with him (1 1 74
when returning to Scotland from his captivity,
"e
young er sons of the families to whom he was indebted
for courtesies , and how he endowed them with lands .
*King William was taken prisoner by the Eng lish, inbattle, and passed his captivity in Eng land and Normandy .
28
We can not take the passag e as precise statistics .
We may g et more from it by counting it as the shape
into which the chronicler put the traditions of the mi
g ration of the g reat Norman houses to Scotland . In
this View the list of names is instructive
Si e stoint ceaux dez Baillolfs , de Bruys , de Soulis , et
de Moubray, et les Saynclers, les Haye s , les Giffardis,les Ramesays, et Laundels ; les Biseys, les Berkleys ,lesWaleng es, lez Boysis , les Mountg om eries, lez Vaus ,lez C olevyles, lez Frysers, les Grames
,les Gourlays ,
et plusours autres .
Also Hector Bois* in his Chronicle g ives a similar
list of names . In Volume II,pag e 28 1 , edition 1 821 ,
after mentioning the name s of those who came out of
Hung ary, he says : Mony othir
surnames,b e sindry chance s of
time,came out of France in
Scotland ; as Frasier, Sinclare ,Boswel, Mowtray, Montg umme
ry, Campbel, Boyis , Betown,Tai
lyster and Bothwel ; with mony
othir.
This list is also repeated by
Sir David Lindsay, Lyon Kingof Arms
,in his Scots Armorial ,
compiled about 1 542; it is the
R educed com ham h e sm o foldest Scotch Armorial in exist
orig inal . ence and an official reg ister cer
Commonly called Hector Boece.
8 0
Glani, quarterly first and fourth Azure sem" of fleur
de lis arg ent , second and third Arg ent frett" g ules
about 1 425 .
Then , to return to Scotland, we find, probably
late in the twelfth or early in the thirteenth century,a Walter del Bois using a seal having a fieur de lis
for the central fig ure . Henry Laing’s Catalog ue of
Ancient Scottish Seals, Volume II, 1 8 66
N O . 1 0 9, Walter Boisu A fleur de lis of a slender and
eleg ant form , not on a shield . (Leg end ) “ Sig il W alteri del
Bois .
” Appended to a charter by Walter del Bois of threeacres of land at Karruderes to St . Cuthbert’s , Durham — Deanand Chapter of Durham .
Placing these facts tog ether, and bearing in mind
that it was a heraldic practice for young er sons , when
they acquired a position for themselve s , to adopt arms
somewhat different from their fathers’, in many cases
taking other fig ures entirely, but retaining the pater
nal colours ; in this lig ht there is a strong probability
that the colours , white and blue, of the Bois arms are
derived from France , if not from the same family
stock as Boisi — Ile de France .
In this letter I have mentioned lands called Boys’
Croft , situated in the barony of Clackmannan , which
was held by a branch of the Annandale Bruce family
from about 1 860 until about 1 770 . In the history of
this family mention is made of the Boises of Dryfsdale
having married daug hters of the Bruces lords of Ah
nandale . This is very probable , as it would b e a
means of mutual streng th in the contests of those
8 1
times . The history of the name bears this out as far
as I have seen, numbers of them serving the state in
various positions before and after the Bruce family
were advanced to the Scottish throne .
I am Yours truly,WILLIAM GRAHAM Boss .
H enry R . Boss to William Graham Boss .
CHICAGO , June 8 0 , 1 8 99.
Mr. William Graham Boss .
My Dear Sir : Your reasoning in reg ard to our
relationship , on account of the occurrence of similar
g iven names in your family and mine , is ing enious ,at least ; and your theory on this point may secure
some confirmation before we are done with this investig ation. The names Andrew, David, Peter and Will
iam occur in my family,but that prove s little in
favor of your theory. The only Andrew I know of
(Andrew J . ) probably derived his name from the hero
and President, Andrew Jackson , as his father was , I
believe , a stanch Democrat and an admirer of Old
Hickory.
”
The “
g ood old Scotch custom of naming chil
dren after their parents and near relative s does not
prevail in this country to the same extent as it does
32
with you , as can b e seen in the case of my own fam
ily . The following are taken from the lists of name s
in my family Bible
William G. Boss (my g randfather ) , b . May 1 8 , 1 776 ; In.
Leah Storms O ct . 14, 1 795 ; d . Sept . 1 9, 1 8 36 .
Leah (Storms ) Boss , b . Feb . 4, 1 779 ; d . N ov. 1 8 , 1 8 5 8 .
Their children were
Hiram Boss , b . Feb . 4, 1 797 (on his mother’s 1 8 th birthday ) ; m . Sarah Ann Ro g ers May 25 , 1 823 ; d . 1 8
David Boss, b . May 1 8 , 1 799 ; m . Eliz a Swan March 1 8 ,1 823 ; d . at Lyons, N. Y. , July 27, 1 8 47.
William Boss, b . July 2, 1 8 0 1 ; d . Aug . 1 5 , 1 8 1 9.
Melinda Boss , b . Sept . 1 4, 1 8 0 8 ; d . July 1 8,1 8 0 5 .
Selinda Boss, b . Aug . 8 , 1 8 0 5 ; m . John Keeler May 25 ,1 8 24 ; d . March 6, 1 8 63.
Henry Ball Boss, b . May 6, 1 8 0 7 ; Hi . Ann Adelia DixJune 24, 1 8 34 ; d . May 1 8 , 1 842.
My g randfather’s brother
,Peter Boss (b . 175 5 ,
d . at Forestville , N . Y. ,married Catherine
My fam ily record, as I term it,consists of entries on the
blank pag es left for that purpose, between the O ld and NewTestaments, in a Bible “ printed and published, wholesale andretail,” at Saratog a Spring s , N. Y. , by G . M. Davison, in 1 8 26 .
My g randmother and my father purchased this Bible, payingfor it in cider. The earlier entries in it are in the bold
,round
hand of my g randfather, the last made by him being that ofthe marriag e of his daug hter Selinda, in 1 8 24 ; then followentries made by my father, the last being dated 1 8 34 ; thenext entries are in my mother
’s handwriting , While the later
ones have been made by myself.
8 8
Storms (b . at Saratog a Spring s, N . Y. , 1778 , d. at
Forestville, N . Y. , a sister of my g randmother,Leah (Storms) Boss . (They were said to b e sisters of
General Isaac Storms ; but how or where he obtained
his military title , or any other particulars in relation
to him ,I have never The children of Peter
and Catherine Boss were :
Polly Boss , b . June 1 5 , 1 794 ; m . Willoug hby. Children : Maria, Peter, Welling ton, Ann.
Eliza Boss, b. March 28 , 1 795 .
Isaac Boss , b . Sept. 4, 1 797. Children : Eliza, Hamilton,Henry Benjamin.
Ebenezer Boss, b. N ov. 7, 1 799. Children : Leverett,Washing ton, Harry, Kate.
Amy Boss, b. Jan. 20 , 1 8 0 2; In. John Jac kson. ChildrenBetsey (Swift ) , Mary Elizabeth, Eleanor Catherine.
Peter F. Boss, b. in Sarato g a County, N. Y Jul y 4, 1 8 0 4 ;m . Elizabeth Jones (b. at Litchfi eld , Conn , Dec. 3,d . at Mukwonag o , W is , Dec. 1 5 , 1 8 78 . Children : Andrew JLeander P . , Caroline E . , Katie E . , Eva M.
Georg e W. Boss, b. July 4, 1 8 0 6. Children : Marjorie ,Marg ret, Edg ar, Hattie, Lizzie, Maria.
*My cousin, Mrs . Annie (Boss ) N owell, of Sheridan,N. Y., daug hter of Alvin C. Boss, writes me : “ I rememberwhen I wasvery small my Grandmother Boss receiving com
pany from Saratog a Spring s — two brothers and their wives,named Storms .
’ They drove from their home in a doublecarriag e, and Father drove to Fredonia after Aunt Leah, your
[my] g randmother, tovisit with them . They remained atour house about a week , — very intellig ent people and inter
esting ,— but we never heard from them ag ain, as I remember.”
I have an indistinct recollection of thisvisit .
84
Alvin Cornell Boss , b . May 20, 1 8 0 8 ; m . Laurentia Mal
lory (b . at Keeseville, N. (I. 1 8 75 . Children : Sumner,Annie (Mrs. Oliver Newell ) , Jerome, Jennie, Frank W . , Po lly .
This g reat-uncle , Peter Boss , was buried on his
own farm , near Fore stville , N . Y . Forty-two years
later, when his wife, Catherine , died , his remains were
disinterred for removal to the villag e cemetery . The
casket (in a g ood state of preservation) , when opened ,exposed his perfect form and features, even to a flush
on his face,but the corp se immediately crumbled to
dust on being exposed to the air.
The name s I have g iven above coincide in part
with those g iven by you ; but they do not g reatly aid
your theory of relationship .
I presume that my father’s middle name (Ball)was g iven him in honor of Rev. Eliphalet Ball, one ofthe early settlers of Ballston Spa
,and after whom
that now celebrated watering -place was named . This
Mr. Ball, it is said,was a third cousin of President
Georg e Washing ton .
Of the traditions reg arding the family I know but
little , as I have been separated from my older rela
tives the g reater portion of the time since I was about
fourteen years of ag e . My father died when I was
seven , and in my fifteenth year I left school and set
out to make my own way in the world . Consequently
I have heard very little of the traditions that probably
were known even in the g eneration preceding mine .
Now,nearly or quite all that g eneration have passed
over to the g reat maj ority ; and , unless the present
8 5
and young er g eneration have heard and preserved
these traditions, they will probably remain forever
unrecorded . I find it very diffi cult to secure replie s
to the few letters I have been able to write , and there
are but few of my relatives on my father’s side whose
present whereabouts are k nown to me .
One of the traditions I have heard is to the effect
that there are immensely valuable landed interests in
N ew York City, belong ing to the Boss family, which
mig ht b e recovered if only the line of descent could
b e authentically traced . I have never g iven the mat
ter any serious attention, believing the claim to b e on
a par with those in the celebrated “ Anneke Jans ”
case , which seem to me to exist only for the enrich
ment of a few lawyers .
The phrase , as long as g rass g rows , etc . ,is
not neces sarily Scotch, I think . If my memory serves
me correctly, it was used in some of the transfers of
lands by the Indians in the state of N ew York . It
would seem to be an appropriate form to express an
Indian’s idea of “ forever.” Mrs . Betsey Swift insists
that it was Indians who g ave the deed referred to on
pag e 20 of this work ; she obtained the story from her
g randmother, Catherine Boss .
As to physical characteristics I can not g ive you
much information. My father and my Uncle Hiram
were rather short , square-built men, say about fivefeet eig ht inches hig h . The sons of Peter Boss , how
ever, were , most of them , tall and spare , nearly or
quite six feet hig h ; his daug hter Amy, as I remember
8 6
her, was larg e and quite stout . Blue or g ray eye s
and brown hair have g enerally prevailed .
I know little or nothing of the relig ious connec
tions of the earlier members of the family . I believe
my g randmother, Leah Boss , was an Episcopalian ,and some of her children were Universalists ; while
her sister,Catherine Boss
,was a Baptist . Little can
b e predicated on this,however, as the early settlers in
a new country,as Western N ew York was then ,
when churche s were scarce,were apt to form such
relig ious connections as they could , rather than such
as they desired .
From a History of Saratog a County, N . Y. , I
learn that my g randfather held the Offi ce of collector
of taxe s of the town of Milton , being elected thereto
in 1 8 1 0 and 1 8 1 1 and his son,my Uncle Hiram , was
elected to the same office in 1 826 .
In a list of marriag e licenses issued in the prov
ince of N ew York,compiled by the late Dr . Edward
B. O’Callag han, are the following . Dr. O’Callag han
g ives the volumes and pag e s of the books where these
are recorded,and a copy of his work is in the Public
Library of Chicag o :
1 778 , Jul y 1 1 . Boss , Betty, and John Titley.
1 735 , July 20 . Boss , Elizabeth, and John Parsall .1 772, Aug ust 31 . Boss, Jacobus, and Mary Miller.1 761 , April 21 . Boss, Sarah, and Lawrence Harmon.
1 75 8 , Sept . 8 . Boss , Susannah, and Simon Losse.
In response to my inquiry reg arding the above , I
have received the following letter from Mr . Arnold
38
September, 1 75 8 . The above bounden Simon Lossee obtaineda license for himself of the one party and Susannah Boss ofNew York, widow.
h?“
Sig natures : Simon mi k Lossee , Theunis Thew.
In the presence of Jnok
Gadb y.
The names of thevarious husbands do not appear in our
Revolutionary records , so that the above is all the information,I believe, I can g ive you.
Respectfully yours,ARN OLD J. F. VAN
'
LAE B ,
Sub -LibrarianManuscripts.
Mr.van Laer kindly adds the following information from the Clinton Papers ,
”in the State Library
April 1 7, 1 778 -N o . 1299 : “ The Evidence of JosephGordens is as follows He says he heard Francis E lswertand Joseph Gooding — both of Shohawk en Say that theywould Come about five Weeks hence with the Indians and
To ries to take all the Wig s at C ashithtown,namely,
And the persons which would not be hurt, that were King’s
men,v1z Joseph Boss,July 1 1 , 1 78 0 — N O . 31 5 0 , p . 79 : “ Nicholas Boss , of
Capt. Vandeburg h’s company, Charg ed with Disobedience of
o rders in the Late alarm . Pleads that he has no shoes sayshe is under Reco g nizance to appear before the Commissioners once a Month Re cons it hard to serve two Masters.
N O place or ag e is mentioned .
Mr.van Laer addsSince so many diff erent spelling s of the name occur, and
as it seems probable that the family came from Holland , Imig ht mention here that our Dutch reco rds contain a paperdated 6 December, 1 646, showing that Jan Willemsen Bos ,
carpenter, built a house forDirk Holg ers, on Long Island .
39
In another letter Mr . van Laer g ives the follow
ing information concerning the term boss
The Dutch formaster is Baas, which is pronounced bycountry people, and the lower classes g enerally, quite broadl y,somewhat like Boss, and has in this way become incorporatedunder that form
.
in the Eng lish languag e . Bos and Boschare very common in Holland, and are found among all classesand conditions of people .
Some time ag o I received the following lett er from
Mr. Robert P . B oss , of Boston, Mass . Sad to relate ,Mr . Boss’pleasure trip was transformed into a j our
ney of sorrow, by the death of his wife , a few days
after leaving home . Mr . Boss is troubled with an
affection of his eyes , which interferes with his readingor writing ; but he has promist m e that
,when he shall
have recovered therefrom ,he will assist in our inves
tig ation
BOSTON ,April 1 9, 1 8 99.
Mr. Henry R. Boss .
Dear Sir As I am due to g o away on a tripSouth, to be g one two weeks, I can not enter into any extendedco rrespondence now ; but, when I return, will endeavor to g ive
you all the data I possess .
The family has all the characteristics that W. G . Boss
mentions, and in appearance they are apparently the same asten g enerations ag o
‘
.
The first Edward Boss* (my prog enitor ) is supposed tohave come from Holland ; was married to Susannah Wilkinson,
about 1 770 , in Providence, R. I. As near as I can make out ,
See notice of Lewis Boss, pag e 21 . Also see lis t of theAmerican descendants of Edward Boss, on pp . 5 0 ci seq .
40
they were both Quakers ; they were both buried from the
Quak er church in Providence on the same day ; the date I do
not remember, but have it at home. Will g ive you facts later.The Christian names are Edward,William , Peter, Joseph, John.
Nicholas. Our branch forseveral g enerations has been locatedin Newp ort, R. I. , where I was born.
Heping we may in the future evolve something in thefamily line more satisfactory, I am
Yours trul y, R. P. Boss .
PS . I had two uncles, Joseph and John, and an auntwho married a Bliss, who settled in Genesee County, N. Y. ,
over fi fty years ag o .
My friend, Andrew J . Mouat, a master-printer of
this city, claims kinship with you, thru his mother,Mrs . Laurence Mouat , n"e Elizabeth Boss .
Her father was Andrew Bess, 1 8 0 6- 65 ; m. Jean Nicol.Grandfather,Wil liam Boss ; m . Marg aret Graham . These
were your g randparents also .
Great-g randfather, David Boss, b. in the early part of theeig hteenth century ; m . Ag nes Watt.
The following of the other children of Andrew
and Jean (Nicol) Boss are now living in this country :William , at Emerald Grove , Wis . ; Alexander, near
Independence , Iowa ; David, at Pomona , Cal . ; Jean
(Mrs . S . J . Safford) , at Aug usta, Kan.
I thank you for the sug g estion as to the Masonic
connections of the members of the family. Perhaps,if I can find where to write, I can obtain some infor
mation that will b e of value . I have been told that
my g randfather, Will iam G. Boss , was a Royal Arch
Mason (as I am myself) , and that my uncle, Hiram
LE AH (STORMS) BOSS.
Born February 4 . x779; died N ovember 1 8 ,
41
Boss, was a Master Mason . My g reat-uncle , Peter
Boss,was also a Mason, and his Masonic apron is in
the posses sion of his g randson , Andrew J . Boss,of
Mukwonag o, Wis.
This letter is of a desultory, almost frag mentary,character ; but I trust the information here recorded
will afford us clue s to more important discoveries .
Hoping to hear from you soon , I remain
Yours very truly, HE N RY R. Boss .
William Graham Boss to H enry R . Boss.
EDIN BURGH, 1 6 UN ION STRE E T ,Aug ust 1 4th, 1 899.
Mr. Henry R. Boss, Chicag o .
Dear Sir : Your letter of the 3oth June to hand,which contains many facts of interest ; and it is his
torically valuable to learn how your g reat-uncle was
buried on his own farm . I suppose that the countrywoul d b e sparsely peopled at that time .
Judg ing from the name of your g reat-g randmo
ther, — Silvia, — which is by no means common here,I should think that, even supposing that her husband,William, was born in this country, it is probable theywere married in America ; and it would be in the
names of the first g eneration born there that we
42
mig ht expect to find the g reate st ag reement with the
name s of the contemporary g eneration here
Perhaps it is true the leg al phrase , as long as
g rass g rows ,”etc . , may not b e exclusively Scotch, but
it was used here to denote a perpetual holding , and
the tradition in our family here , in the latter part
of the last century and early part of the present
one,was that they held lands under this form , and
the family had been settled in the western district of
Fifeshire for about four hundred years . This coin
cides very nearly with the earliest mention of the
name in contemporary local records (see pag e 1 6)the form of the name at that time being de Boys
in the record . Then we have the tradition that the
name was altered to its present form to disting uish
one branch of the family from another . The story
handed down from one g eneration to another, with
reference to this , is, that two members of the family,probably cousins
,had the same christian name , and
they were near neig hbours ; so it came about, in the
course of affairs , that the one was mistaken for the
other and used to receive letters , etc . which were for
the other, and vice versa . To put an end to the in
convenience which this caused it was ag reed that my
ancestor should tak e the spelling which we have con
tinned to use to the present ; which spelling renders
the common pronunciation very well, being a long ,soft syllable, the 0 having a sound like 0 a in oak . We
are the only family in Scotland who use this form of
the name , and it has been a common saying among
44
usag e in the N ewWorld . I wonder what he called
his new possession : would it also b e an echo of home
memorie s , some name familiar to him from his child
hood , with all its fresh,unsullied associations and
endearments or would it b e a presag e of a new and
better sta te and chang ed conditions of life‘2
Mention is made at pag e 20 that your ancestors
settled on the Mohawk . I find from E . H . Roberts’
N ew York , Commonwealth Series , pag e 41 5 , that the
farmers of the Mohawk Valley,at the time of the
Revolutionary War,were mostly German and Low
Dutch by blood,with a few Eng lish, Scotch and other
nationalities , whose name s are on the roster. If this
could b e referred to, perhaps your ancestor mig ht b e
found among them .
The extracts from the state records are of much
interest . The earliest one , July 20 , 1735 , containingthe name Elizabeth, is notewort hy, as this name is
found here in 175 5 , when Jame s Boss , my g reat
g randfather’s brother, has a daug hter baptized by
this name . It is curious to find a Jacobus or Jame s
married to a Mary Miller in 1772; the Latin form’of
his name may have been due to a whim of the Re
corder. I have not found any of the others in our
family, and of course the ab ove are common names .
Evidently Susannah bore her late husband’s surname .
There can b e no doubt of the name “
Bosch b e
ing common to natives of Holland, just as Wood”
is very plentiful as a surname in Eng lish- speakingcountries . Althoug h I can not point to any partien
45
lar member of my family who settled in Holland, it
would b e strang e if there were none , considering the
g reat intimacy which existed for centuries between
the two countries and my family having been settled
for so many years in the trading district of Scotland
neare st to Holland. There is an instance of a de
scendant of the Panbride family having apparently
settled inAmsterdam . I find,from the Spalding Club
extracts from the Burg h of Aberdeen Records, a John
Boys , about twenty-three years of ag e , at present in
Amsterdam,son of Thomas Boys , Treasurer, receives
a g rant of a birth-certificate , under the burg h seal, in
1 674. If he left descendants there , possibly they
would conform the name to the usag e of the country .
The name has a g reat variety of spelling s in rec
ords here . Before there was any fixed rule, every
scribe appears to have been a law unto himself in this
respect , to some extent . I g ather from the records
that the common pronunciation has not altered for
centuries . This is apparent as early as 1 494 (see
pag e where the record, as was usual, g ives the
abbreviated form Bos,” which has sometimes been
mi stak en for an abbreviation of the name Boswell ;shortly it repre sents the common broad monosyllable
in speech. This is borne out by a reference to H ec
torBois’History,a quotation from the Scotch version
of which I have g iven at pag e 28 , where the spellingis
“
Boyis . The same passag e in the orig inal Latin
edition of 1 527, as written by the author, has the
spelling Boas ,” which indicates that the common
46
pronunciation was just much the same as at present,and it also shows the author to have been perfectlyaware of how his countrymen pronounced his name ,althoug h the spelling in documents varied g reatly.
In the National Manuscripts of Scotland, edited
by Colonel Sir Henry James , is g iven a facsimile of
an ancient manuscript having this inscription on the
marg in at the bottom of the pag e
C olle g u ab erdonensis ex dono Mag istri H ectoris
Bois primi Primarii eiusdemfl‘
Probably this was written by the librarian before
or about 1 5 35 , the year in which the donor died , as I
find from the seal Of the Panbride family in 1 5 0 5 (of
which family the Principal was a son) , the spellingof the name is Boies .” I believe this form is more
peculiar to Dumfriesshire , and it serve s as a connect
ing link for the Panbride familywith the parent house
of Dryfsdale , as mentioned at pag e 1 7.
The forms Boas , Boss, Bees, Bowe s , Poece , are
all monosyllables , and the last one appears to have
been first been made use of by Ballenden in his trans
lation of the Chronicles out of the Latin into Scotch,about 1 5 36, and he knew quite well that this form
which he adopted for the author’s name was just g iving typog raphical form to the popular usag e of the
name . It has been remarked by a writer, in refer
ence to the form Boece , that it is not likely to have
The property of the Colleg e of Aberdeen, by the g ift ofMaster Hector Bois, first Principal of the same.
47
ever been actually borne by anyone of the name . I
ag ree with this , as I have not seen it as a personal
name in any other work or record . Neverthele ss it is
a very felicitous rendering representing the common
pronunciation .
Another noteworthy feature is that these mono
syllabic forms retain this characteristic Of the orig inal
name Bois and it is remarkable that the common
ling ual utterance of the people of the eastern low
lands has also pre served this feature throug h the
centuries to the pre sent day ; where the letter i is
silent in the spoken name , thus it came in the course
of time to b e written , in the eastern lowlands , without
that letter.
In the southwe stern part s of Scotland I believe
the form Boyes is the only one prevalent , and is pro
nounced as two syllables — Boy-es . The Irish form,
ag ain, is said to b e of one syllable , written Boyce .
The forms Bowsie and Bousie are of two syllables,
and are peculiar to the East Neuk of Fife , just as my
own name was orig inally of western Fife . The forms
Boiss , Boys , Boyss , with many other varieties , are
only found in records .
At the pre sent time among the middle classe s the
pronunciation of my name takes a somewhat smart
form , the o partaking of the sound of the same letter
in“ shot ,
” or at other times approaching the sound
of letter a in Bass .”
I find that , with some people who hear my name
for the first time,I am taken for a German era Dutch
48
man . May not a similar thing have happened with
some bearers Of the name in America , and , in theabsence Of sufficient evidence to the contrary, the as
sertion or assumption has been put into print and
taken for g ospel ? In my own case I have had occae
sion to put people rig ht on this s core .
what time hath blurred,Redeem truth from his jaws .
”
The following are a few words which are or have
been in ordinary use in Scotland, having the same
pronunciation in common speech as my name , and
which probab ly have g iven rise to the influence which
has settled the name into itsfpresent spelling
A boss window n Prob ab ly a b ow window.
Old bosses Later equivalents, Old fog ies, big wig s , g uvnors .
Boss, Boce Hollow.
Bos, Boiss* — A cask .
Be ssie — A small wooden dish.
Best , Buest , Bosse, Boist ,* Boiss* A b ox or chest .Bosslock Probably a doorlock made almost entirely Of
wood .
Bossheid (Bos shead ) - The iron hollow receptac le fastened to the standard of a doorway to receive the lock-bolt, etc.
Boysis* Bilboes, fette rs .
A Bosen, or a Boss Is a three-sided wooden frame
work, about seven feet in heig ht, formed like a miniature spire ,used by farmers for placing in the cente r of g rain-stack s,forming a hollow forventilation.
The 11 and y silent.
49
Boss, Boce — An architectural ornament in use early inthe medieval period to the present time, and familiar to architects, masons, carpenters, etc.
I am indebted to a local antiquary for the follow
ing list of Masonic brethren who have long passed
away to their reward . Let us hope that they lived
lives that were ensamples to their immediate poster
ity and brethren
St. John’s Lodg e, Dunf ermline, N o .
Andrew Boss, mason in Baling ry, entered in 1 739.
David Bo ss, no desig nation, entered in 1 764.
John Boss, no desig nation, entered in 1 764 .
David Boss, mason in Dunferm line, entered in 1 792.
Faithfully yours ,WM. GRAHAM Boss .
CHICAGO,ILL .
,October 28 , 1 899.
Mr. Will iam Graham Boss .
My Dear Sir : Your letter is very intere sting in
reg ard to the pronunciation of the name Boss . With
us, the 0 has the sound of 0 a in the word bread, or of
an in haul,the name rhyming with moss .
Mr . Robert P . Boss, Of Boston, has redeemed in
handsome manner the promise made in his letter of
April 1 9 last . I am indebted to him for the followinginformation concerning the American descendants of
5 0
Edward Boss , of whom mention has been made on
pag es 21 and 39 of this work . The I feel almost con
vinced that this branch Of the family has no connection with mine
,I have sent you a copy of the record
and g ive it here in full, that we may have it for refer
ence , e specially in case my investig ations should de
velop any relationship with the Edward Boss branchAME RIC AN DE SC E N DAN TS OF E DWARD BOSS.
FIRST GE N E RATION .
(1 ) Edward Boss, of South King ston, R. I. b . Germanyor Ho lland , 1 65 1 . d . Aug . 12, 1 724, in South King ston, R . I.m . Susannah Wilkinson of Providence, R. I. (a g reat-aunt OfJemima ) , who was b . Feb . , 1 662, and d . Aug . 1 5 , 1 724 . Theywere both Quak ers . Her mother was Susannah Smith (d .
wife of Lawrence'
W ilk inson of Providence, R. I. (d .
Aug . 9, and dau. of Christopher Smith of Providence,R. I. (d . and his wife Alice (d .
SE C ON D GE N E RATION .
(2) Edward Boss , o f Newport , R. I. b . Jan. 20 , 1 68 5 ,
in Newport, R. I. d . Dec . 25 , 1 752. m . Phillis Carr of C annacut or Jamestown ,
R. I . , April 20 , 1 70 9. She was b . Dec. 8 ,1 68 8 , of Caleb Carr of Jamestown, R. I. (d . and PhillisGreene Of Warwick, R . I. (b . O ct . 7, 1 65 8 , d . beforeCaleb Carr was son of Robert Carr of Newport , R. I. (b . 1 61 4,
d . Phillis Greene was dau. of John Greene Jr. (b.
1 620 , d . N ov. 27, 1 70 8 ) and Ann Almy (b . 1 627, d . May 1 7,John Greene Jr. was son of John Greene O f Warwick
(b . 1 597, d . 1 65 8 ) and Joan Tattersall . Ann Almy was dau.
Of William Almy and his wife Audry.
(3 ) Jeremiah Boss, Of Westerly, R. I. b . about 1 697.
d . about 1 774 . m . Martha Spencer Of Exeter, R. I ., March22, 1 722, who was b . Sept . 8 , 1 70 0 , and d . 1 774 . She was
52
R. I. (b . April 29, dau. Of Caleb Gardiner of SouthKing ston and Isabel Sherman of King ston (b . April 9, 1 719,m . Feb . 20 , Isabel was dau. O f Dorcas Gardiner andAbiel Sherman o f King st (b . Oct . 1 5 , 1 684, m . Oct . 20 ,
Abiel was son of Sampson Sherman Of Portsmouth
(b . 1 642, m . March 4 , 1 675 . d . Jan . 27, 1 71 8 ) and IsabellaTripp of Portsmouth (d . before Sampson S . was son
Of Phillip Sherman of Portsmouth and Sarah Odding . Isa
bella Tripp was dau. of John Tripp Of Port smouth and MaryPrime .
FOURTH GE N E RATION .
Children Of (1 0 ) Joseph Boss .
(1 6 ) William Boss , O f Newport, R . I. b . Feb . 24, 1 767 ,
d . m . Edith D . Prior O f Newport, R . I . , Sept . 22, 1 793,who was born April 23, 1 773 .
(1 7) John Linscom Boss , of Newport, R. I. b. May 6,1 757. d . Aug . 7, 1 824 . m . Sarah Boss of Richmond , R. I .,
his second cousin, Feb. 21 , 1 779.
Child O f (1 5 ) Peter Boss .
(1 8 ) Sarah Boss of Richmond , R. I. b . March 1 4, 1 75 8 .
d . Sept . 22, 1 841 or 1 8 44 . m . John Linscom Boss of Newport,R . I. , her second cousin, Feb . 21 , 1 779.
FIFTH GE N E RATION .
Children of (1 6 ) Wil liam Boss .
(1 9 ) Eliza Linscom Boss . b . Aug . 1 0 , 1 794 . d .
(20 ) Christopher Prior Boss . b . May 20 , 1 796. d .
(21 ) William Davis Boss Of Newport. b . April 1 0 , 1 799.
d . March, 1 8 8 3 . m . Eliza D . Stall (b .Jan. 1 0 , 1 799. (1 . about1 8 36 or m . Eliza M. Ambrose of Newport, R . I .
,Dec.
30 , 1 8 38 (b. Sept . 7, 1 8 1 1 . d . April 24,(22) Martha Dickinson Boss . b . N ov. 20 , 1 797. d
(23 ) Thomas L . Boss . b . April 28 , 1 8 0 1 . d .
(24 ) Sarah P. Boss . b . June 1 , 1 8 0 2. d .
(25 ) Robert P. Boss . b . Feb . 21 , 1 8 0 4 . d .
(26 ) Charles Boss . b . Aug . 26, 1 8 0 5 . d .
5 3
(27) John Henry Boss . b . Aug . 22, 1 8 0 6 . d m .
Hannah June 3, 1 826 (b . N ov. 29, 1 8 0 8 . d . Feb . 4,
(28 ) Abby Boss . b . April 1 9. 1 8 0 8 . d .
(29) Philip Martin Boss . b . Jan. 1 9, 1 8 1 0 . d .
(3 0 ) Charles Dickinson Boss. b. March 27, 1 8 12. d .
(31 ) Joseph Boss . b . Dec . 1 0,1 8 1 3 . d .
(32) Catherine Gardener Boss O f NewYork City . b . March20 , 1 8 1 6 . d .
Children of (1 7) John Linscom Boss .
(33 ) John Linscom Boss . b . Sept . 7, 1 78 0 , at Charlestown . d . Aug . 1 , 1 8 1 9.
(34 ) James Boss . b . March 27, 1 784, at 'Newport , R. I .d . March 4, 1 8 0 5 , at Berlin.
(35 ) Joseph Boss . b. March 29, 1 78 5 , at Newport, R. I.(1 . Sept . 1 1 , 1 8 1 4, at Halifax.
(36 ) Eliza Boss. b . Jan. 26, 1 790 , at Newport . d . Oct .
(37 ) Unnamed child . b . April 24, 1 792. (1 . same day,
(38 ) Philip Martin Boss . . b . Aug a l , 1 794, at Newport .
d . Jan. 26, 1 8 1 0 .
(39) Harriet Boss of Newport, R. I. b . July 12, 1 797,at Newport . d . N ov. 21 , 1 8 8 7. m . Dutse Jerauld Pearce ofNewport, R. I .
,Dec. 2, 1 829. He was born April 2, 1 789 ; d .
May 9, 1 849, and was the son of Samuel Pearce and HannahJerauld . He m . as fi rst wife Ahig al 0 . Perry, April 3, 1 8 1 1 ,who (1 . July 4
,1 827. Dutee Jeraul d Pearce was United States
district attorney 1 8 12, attorney- g eneral 1 8 1 9— 1 825 , member ofCong ress 1 825 — 1 8 37, presidential elector 1 821 , 1 825 , 1 848 .
(40 ) Nicho ls Gardner Boss . b . Jan. 8 , 1 799, at Newport . d . N ov. 1 7, 1 8 36 .
(41 ) Joseph Elliot Boss . b . March 6, 1 8 0 1 , at Newport .d . March 5 , 1 8 8 6.
SI" TH GE N E RATION .
Children of (21 ) William D . Boss and Eliza D . Stall .
(42) Isaac s . Boss. b . April 1 1 , 1 823 . d .
54
(43 ) Nancy B . Boss . b . Oct . 1 8 , 1 825 . d .
(44 ) Abby S . Boss . b. Dec . 1 5 , 1 827. d .
(45 ) Will iam D . Boss . b . March 22, 1 8 30 . d .
(46 ) Will iam D . Boss . b . Jan. 6, 1 8 32. d .
(47) Charlotte E . Boss . b . March 25 , 1 8 34 . d .
(48 ) Robert P. Boss . b . Feb . 20 , 1 8 36. (1 .
Children of (21 ) Wil liam D . Boss and Eliza M. Ambrose.
(49) Robert Prior Boss . b . Saturday, Jan . 1 1 , 1 8 40 , ata . m . m . Clarissa P. Pearce Of Newport, R. I ., Sept . 1 ,
1 8 61 (b . Dec . 23, 1 842, d . May 7, She was the dau. of
Benjamin W. Pearce of Swansey, Mass . (b . April 9, 1 8 19, m .
Aug . 2, 1 8 41 ) and Clarissa Carpenter Of Rehoboth, Mass .
(5 0 ) William Ambrose Boss . b . Saturday, March 26,
1 842, at 4 p . m .
(5 1 ) Charles Edwin Boss . b . Sunday, Jan. 7, 1 846, at4 a . m . d .
(52) Edith Prior Boss . b . Saturday, Oct . 25 , 1 8 5 1 , at4 p. m . d .
Children of (27 ) John Henry Boss .
(5 3 ) Stephen P. Boss. b. Aug . 21 , 1 828 . d . m . May
(54 ) Edward J . Bo ss . b . May 7, 1 8 30 . d . Sept . 3, 1 8 32.
(5 5 ) Abby J. Boss . b . Oct . 1 , 1 8 33. d . m . Feb . 1 ,
(56 ) Mary C. Boss . b . N ov. 1 1 , 1 8 3 5 . d . Feb . 6, 1 8 8 3
(5 7) John H. Boss . b . Dec. 1 9, 1 8 37. d . June 1 8 , 1 8 72.
m . Feb. 1 3, 1 8 64 .
(5 8 ) Lucy L . Boss . b . July 1 9, 1 840 . d . 111 . March
(59) Hannah E . Bo ss . b . Oct . 1 1 , 1 8 42. d .
(60 ) Thomas E . Boss. b . Aug . 1 8 , 1 8 45 . d . March
(61 ) Tim othy D . C . Boss . b . N ov. 22, 1 848 . d .
m . Jan. 1 1 , 1 8 79.
(62) Serena J. Boss . b . Oct . 1 4, 1 8 5 1 . d . In. May
5 5
Child of (39 ) Harriet (Boss ) Pearce.
(63 ) Dutse Jerauld Pearce Jr. , of Newport, R. I. b . July27, 1 8 33 . d . m . Martha Palmer O f Taunton, Mass . ,
June1 1 , 1 8 62. She was the dau. O f Stephen J. Palmer and MarthaHawkins, and was b . N ov. 1 5 , 1 842.
SE VE N TH GEN E RATION .
Children of (49) Robert Prior Boss .
(64 ) Carrie Burnett Boss . b . May 1 5 , 1 8 62, at Newport, R. I.
(65 ) Nellie Ambrose Boss . b . March 4, 1 8 65 , at Newport , R. I .
(66 ) Edward L . Boss . b . Aug . 30 , 1 8 75 , at Boston,Mass .
In reg ard to the firs t Edward Boss,mentioned
above , I g lean the following additional information
from Austin’s Genealog ical Dictionary of Rhode Isl
and, pub lisht by Joel Munsell
’s Sons
,Albany
,N . Y. ,
1 8 8 7
He and seventeen others boug ht seven thousand acres inNarrag ansett of the vacant lands ordered sold by the Assembly.
September 22, 1 724, administration on his estate g ranted to
his son, Edward Boss, of Newport . January 1 1 , 1 725 , theTown Council ordered that Edward Boss, the eldest son of
deceased , should have the land , b e paying proportional sums
to brothers and sister. [According to the foreg oing g enealo gical record , this Edward Boss had, but one brother and no sis
ten ] September, 1 725 , suit was broug ht by Henry KnowlesJr. and Susannah, his wife, daug hter of Edward Boss, deceased ,ag ainst Edward Boss , Of Newpo rt , for £1 40 , due for a fi fth Ofthe homestead of 1 54 acres . It was declared that EdwardBoss d1ed about Aug ust, 1 724, leaving three sons , Edward ,the eldest, Jeremiah and Peter, and one daug hter, Susannah.
In the inventory O f the estate of Edward Boss is one“ neg ro
Abram ,
5 6
It is also stated that the second Edward Boss marriedPhillipp [a Carr. Their children : Mary, Freelove, Abig ail .
I have been nosing around among the books
in one of our librarie s , and have picked up a number
Of scraps of information . The they are Of a fragment
ary character, they are worth recording here , and it
is possible they may, at some time or another, make
connecting links in the chain we are trying to form
In the Reg ister Of the Old Dutch Church Of King s
ton, N . Y. , I find the following . The variations in the
names of persons and places are according to copy,”
and sug g est how easy it would b e to transform Bos
or Bosch into Boss
MARRIAGE S .
Dec. 6,1 71 1 — Jacobus Bos, “ young man, and Eyke
Van der Merke,
“ young woman,” both residing in Mormer
[Marbletown] .June 24, 1 726 — Dirk Bosch, b . in Mormel
, and Antjen
de Lang e, b . in King stown , and both residing under the jurisdiction of Morm el .
1 728 (date not g iven) — Johannes Bosch, b . in Mormel,
and Marytjenvan Etten, widow of Cornelius Ennis , b . in H orly
[Hurley] , and both residing inMormel . Banns reg istered on
April 21 .
1 728 (date not g iven) — Johannes Kleyn, widower, andAng enietjen Bosch, both residing in Nieuw-Morme ltown [NewMarbletown] .
May 1 3 , 1 728 — Benjamin E k erly, b . on Lang e Eyland
[Long Island] , and Styntjen Bosch , b . in Mormel .
1 735 (date not g iven) — Thomas Moor, b . in Liseb eton
[Elizabethtown] , and Maria Bosch, b . in Mormel , and bothresiding there . Banns reg istered Feb . 2.
SAMUE L MATTH E W BO SS.
Born at Yo rk , Pa April 3, 1 797, died at Lee sburg , Va
Aug ust 22, 1 872.
5 8
April 23, 1 71 5 — Barent du Bois , b . in H orly, and J3 0 0myntjen duBois , b . in King stowne .
June 20 , 1 71 7 — Philip du Bois, b . in the Nieuw Pals ,and Ester Gimaar, b . in King stown.
April 1 6, 1 71 8 — Louwies du Bois , b . in King stown, and
Jannetjenvan Vlied, b . in King stown .
O ct . 20 , 1 71 8 — Peter Van E st, b . in Sommersset [Somerset County, N. J and Madeleentjen de Boys, widow of Geurt
Roosa, b . in Kin g stown.
June 21 , 1 720 — Louwis du Bois , b . in Horly [Hurley] ,and Marg rietjen Jsusz, b . in King stown .
N ov. 1 7, 1 720 — Zymen Jacob sz Van Wag ening en, b . in
King stown, and Zara du Bois, b . under the jurisdiction of thePalts [New Paltz] .
March 3 0 , 1 721 - Benjamin de Bois, born under the jurisdiction Of the Pals [New Paltz] , and C atryntjen Zuyland , b . in
H orly.
June 1 7, 1 722— Hisk ia du Bois and Annatjen Peersen,both parties born and residing under the jurisdiction of King stown .
Dec . 9, 1 722 — Petrus Math. Louw, b . in B orly, and
Catrina du Bois , b . in the Pale , and both now residing in thelatter place .
April 20 , 1 723 — Godfried Wolven, b . in H oog duytsland
[Germany] , and Zara du Bois, b . in King stown.
Feb. 12, 1 725 — Petrus Smeedes,b . in King stown, and
Catrina du Bois, b . in Horley .
May 1 3, 1 726 — Nathaniel du Bois and Gertruy Bruyn,the former residing near the Pals [New Paltz] and the otherin Savong onk [Shawang unk ] , where the marriag e took place .
Sept . 1 5,1 726 — Petrus Bog ardus , b . in King stown, and
Rebek ka du Bois, b . in B orly [Hurley] .
September 27, 1 726 — Johannes Tappen and Tjaatjen deBois, both parties born under the jurisdiction of King stownand residing there.
59
N ov. 1 0 , 1 727 — Efraim du Bois and Anna-Catrina deLamester, both parties bo rn and residing under the jurisdiction o f King stown .
1 728 (date not g iven ) — Jacob iVernoy, h . under thejurisdiction of King stown, and Annaatjen du Bois, b . in Raysester [Rochester, but not the present city of Ro chester, N .
1 728 (date not g iven ) — H endericus ter-Bosch, b . at theVischk l l [Fishkill] , in Duytisch [Dutchess] County, and Rachel Freer, b . in the Pal s [NewPaltz] . Banns reg istered May 5 .
Oct . 4 , 1 728 — William Danie lsz and Catrina de Bois .
N ov. 1 3, 1 728 — Johannes de Bois and Rebekka Tappen,
both parties born and residing under the jurisdiction of King stown.
Dec. 6, 1 728 — Johannes H erdenb erg Jr. and Maria de
April 7, 1 729 C om e lis de Bois, b . in the Pal s , and AnnaMarg rieta H oog teeling , b . under the jurisdiction of King stown
April 26, 1 73 0 — Josefat de Bois and Tjaatjenvan Keuren, b . in King stown.
Jul y 1 8 , 1 731 — Gerrit du Bois , b . under the jurisdictionof H orly, and Marg rie tjen E lmendorff, b . under the jurisdiction Of King stown .
1 732 (date not g iven ) — Jonathan du Bois, b. in King stown and residing at theVisk il [Fishkill ] , and Ariaantjen Osterhout, b . and residing in Brabant [a desig nation for a portionof the o ld town of King ston] . Banns reg is tered July 30 .
Aug . 5 , l 732— Ysaak du Bois and N eeltjen Roosa, bothborn and residing in H orly.
May 6, 1 733 — H enderik us du Bois, b . in the Pals, andJannetjen Hoog teeling , b . under the jurisdiction of Kin g stown.
Oct . 19, 1 733 — Nathan du Bois and Susanna Coo l, bothparties born and residing under the jurisdiction of King ston.
June 21 , 1 734 — C oenraad E lmendorff Jr. , b . under thejurisdiction of King stown, and Zara du Bois, born under thejurisdiction of Horly .
60
July 1 4, 1 734 — Josis Elting , b . in King ston and residingin the Pals, and Helena du Bois , b. and residing in the Pals .
Dec. 1 1 , 1 736 — Johannes du Bois and Judik je Wynkoop,both parties born and residing in H orly .
Sept. 9, 1 737 — Cornelis Nieuwkerk and N eeltjen du Bois ,both part ies born and residing in H orly .
March 9, 1 739 — Thomas Bosch, b . and residing underthe jurisdiction o f Mormel, and Lisabeth Merkel, b . at theKerk eland and residing in King ston.
O ct . 3 1 , 1 740 — Andries Spring steen, b . at the Visch-Kil
[Fishk ill] and residing in Duysis [Dutchess] County, and
Catrina Bosch, b . and residing in Mormel .
1 743 (date not g iven ) — H enderikus Oosterhoud and Pie
ternelle Bosch, both residing in Brabant . Given a certificateFeb . 27.
Aug . 1 0 , 1 744 — Henrich Brink, farmer, and Susanna daBois , both residing in the county o f Ulster .
Sept . 27, 1 745 — Samuel Dubois and Marietje Burhans,widow o f William Leg g .
Oct . 24, 1 745 — Louis Bevier Jr. , b . in the Pals and re
siding in Mormel , and Hester Dubois , b . in the Pals and residing in Rochester.
1 745 (date not g iven) — Jacobus Bosch Jr. , born and
residing in Mormel [Marbletown] , and Annaatjen Merkel, b .
at the Kerk eland [Churchland ] , and residing in Mormel .
Banns reg istered Oct . 1 3 .
1 745 (date not g iven) — Andrew Lefevre, b . in the Pals ,and Rachel Dubois , b . in Schawe g onk [Shawang unk ] , and bothresiding in the Pals . Banns reg istered O ct . 20 .
1 745 (date not g iven) — Johannes Van der Merken and
Susannah Bosch, both b . and residing in Mormel. Banns registered N ov. 1 7.
May 22, 1 746 — Lodewyk H orenb eek and Maria Dubois ,both parties born and residing in Rochester.
May 24, 1 746 Nehemia du Bois, b . and residing underthe jurisdiction of King ston, and Catharina Brink, b . and residing in H orli [Horley] .
61
June 8 , l 746 - Jacob de Bois, residing at the Visk il, andAntjenvan Bommel, residing under the jurisdiction o fKing ston.
May 1 5 , 1 748 — H isk ia du Bois Jr. and Rachel Nieuwkerk, both residing under the jurisdiction of King ston.
Sept . 27, 1 749 Salomon du Bois Jr. , residing in thecounty of Albanie [Albany] , and Marg aret Sammans, residingin the county O f Ulster.
N ov. 3 0 , 1 75 1 — Petrus Maste and Sara Dubois , both bornand residing in King ston.
May 28 , 1 75 2— Isaac Dubois Jr. , residing under the jurisdiction of Albanie, and Lena Samman, residing in Schawe g onk .
N ov. 3, 1 752— John West and Tannek e Dubois , both t esiding in Ulster County .
May 25 , 1 75 3 — Henricus Horenb eek and Maria Dubois,both born and residing in Rochester.
June 1 , 1 75 3 Philippus Muller, b . in Katsk il [Catskill] ,and Susanna Dubois , b . and bo th residing under the jurisdiction of King ston.
Oct . 31 , 1 754 — Johannes Gerardusse Hardenberg , b . in
Horli, and residing under the jurisdiction of Ro chester, andCornelia Dubois, b . and residin g in Rochester.
Dec. 20 , 1 754 — Charles de W it and Blandina Dubois ,both residing in Mormel .
Sept . 26, 1 75 5 — Jacob du Bois, b . in B orly and residingunder the jurisdiction of King ston, and RebeccavanWag enen,
b . and residing in W ag endal [Wag ondale , in Ulster County] .
June 1 8 , 1 75 7 — Gen et Defi'
enpoort , widower, and MariaBos , spinster (residence, Mormel or Marbletown) .
March 22, 1 75 7 — Philippus Dubois , b . and residing underthe jurisdiction of the Pals , and Anna Hue , b . at the Wale Kil
[Walkill] and residing under the jurisdiction of the Pals .
N ov. 1 5 , 1 75 7 — Johannes Schoonmaker and Catharinadu Bois, both parties born and residing at the Sag ertje [Sau
g erties] .
Dec. 1 7, 1 757 Andries de W it and Rachel DuBois, bothparties born and residing in Ulster County.
62
March 26, 1 75 8 Daniel Ter Bos, ship-captain, and C ornelia Rykman, both residing at the Vis Ki] [Fisk ill] , Dutches
[Dutchess] County .
N ov. 26, 1 75 9 — Abraham Elting and Dina Dubois, bothborn and residing under the jurisdiction of the Pals .
April 1 4, 1 760 — Matheus Dubois and Catharina Hoof,both born and residing under the jurisdiction of King ston.
Aug . 1 6, 1 760 — Samuel Le g , b . and residing in Braband ,
and Sara Dubois , b . under the jurisdiction Of King ston and
residing in Braband .
Oct . 5 , 1 760 - Isaac Dubois , widower, and Jannetje Rosa,both residing under the jurisdiction of H orli.
Feb . 1 4, 1 761 — Georg e Lassing and Lea Dubois, b. un
der the jurisdiction of King ston, and both residing in Braband .
Jan. 27, 1 762— Matheus Dubois, b . and residing underthe jurisdiction of King ston, and Trientje Dubois, b . and re
siding under the jurisdiction of the Pals.
May 28 , 1 762— Cornelis Wynkoop and Lea Dubo is , bo thresiding in Ul ster County .
Oct . 9, 1 762— Johannes Garvy and Marretje Du-Bois .
Oct . 25 , 1 762— Salomon Du Bois and Ariantje Du Bois .
O ct . 25 , 1 762— William Thompson and Tjatje Du Bois .
Dec. 1 6, 1 763 — Tob yasvan Buuren and Sarah du Boys ,both Of King ston.
N ov. 24, 1 764 — Abraham H eermanssen, of DutchesCounty, and Catharina du Bois , of Ul ster County.
Feb. 1 8 , 1 769 — Cornelius Dubois Jr. , b . and residing in
Hurley , and Geertje Van Vliet, b . in King ston and residingin Hurley .
April 1 5 , 1 769 -Josua Dubois and C atharena Schep
moes, both parties born and residing under the jurisdiction of
King ston.
Oct . 1 8 , 1 770 — Jeremia Dubois and C atriena Masten,both parties born and residing under the jurisdiction Of King stoun.
63
May 4,1 771 — Jacob Dub oies and H endireca Duboies,
both born and residing in Horle, near King stoun.
Dec. 1 7, 1 75 3 — Johannis N. Dubois and Marya Oosterhout, both born and residing under the jurisdiction of King ston.
Dec. 22, 1 775 — Petrus P. C rispel and Sara Dubois, “ in
Hurly.
”
July 5 , 1 776 — Thomas Janson, b . and residing in Marmel [Marbletown] , and Janeke Dubois , b . and residing in thesame place.
April 21 , 1 777 — Cornelius Sweert and Helena Dub oys ,both parties born and residing under the jurisdiction o f
King ston.
Dec. 25 , 1 779 — Petrus Dub oys and Ariantj e N ouk irk ,bo th born and residing under the jurisdiction O f H orly.
Oct . 1 0 , 1 78 1 — Samuel Dub oys and Maria Roberson,
bo th born and residin g under the jurisdiction Of King ston.
April 20 , 1 78 3 — J0 suah Dub oys and Marg rit Masten,
bo th born and residing in King ston.
Oct. 22, 1 78 6 — Jacob Brink and Elisabeth Dub oys, bothborn and residing under the jurisdiction Of Marmel .
June 28 , 1 78 7 — Matheus Dub oys and Marg rit Tefi’en
bord , both born and residing under the jurisdiction of King ston.
Dec . 3, 1 78 9 — Abraham Meier and Annatje Dub oys , bothparties born and residing under the jurisdiction of King ston.
N ov. 1 8 , 1 790_
— Petrus Dub oys and Bellic Post, bothparties born and residing under the jurisdi ction o f King ston.
May 1 6, 1 793 — Jacobus Dub oys, widower, and CatharinaRyker, widow, both from under the jurisdiction O f King ston.
Jan . 25 , 1 795 — John C. Dub oys and Maria Seilant, bothresiding under the jurisdiction of Hurly .
Jan. 1 , 1 798 — John Dubois and Elisabetvan Wag enen,
both from under the jurisdiction of King ston.
Jul y 1 8 , 1 8 0 0 — Daniel Worthen and Marietje Dub oys,both residing under the jurisdiction O f King ston.
Aug . 28 , 1 8 0 0 — Isaak Bosch, b . under the jurisdiction O f
Marmel and residing in Seb okan [Shokan] , and Betsie Mc
64
Keflie, b . at the Fisch Kill [Fishk ill] and res1ding under thejurisdiction of W oodstok [Woodstock] .
May 4, 1 8 0 1 — Elias Willcox and Catharine Bosch, bothresiding under the jurisdiction of Marmel [Marbletown] .
May 20 , 1 8 0 4 — GerritVanWag enen and Elisabet Bosch,both residing under the jurisdiction of Marmel.
April 23, 1 8 0 9 — Andrew Dub oys and Rachel Cons tab el,both residing in Kin g ston.
Aug . 21 , 1 8 0 9 — Derick Dubois and Evelina Suyland ,
both Of Hurley .
When I beg an this list , it was my intent to include
only the name s B os, Boss , B osch, Ter Bos and Ter
B osch ; but , you will Observe , these names almost
disappear,and we have the various forms Of du B oy,
Du B ois,Dubois
, etc .,and it would not b e surprising
if these were variations of the name we are seeking .
The suspicion of this is streng thened by the Dutchi
ness of very many of the Christian name s g iven in
the list . I must confess , however, that , until it was
sug g ested in one of your letters, I never entertained
the remotest idea that there could b e any connection
between the names“ B oss and Dubois . ” But
when one reflects upon the indifference of people in
reg ard to the sp elling Of proper name s,
— even their
own,
— a century or two ag o , it can easily b e seen
how the transformation would b e made . Added to
this is the fact that in the early day , in this country,many Of the records , especially in churches and simi
lar bodies , were kept by persons of slender learning ,who would b e very apt to make errors in transcribingnames with which they were unfamiliar . In the heck
66
N ov. 25 , 1 778 , Benjamin Barber m . Susannah, dau. of
Pete r Boss, both Of Richmond .
Feb . 9, 1 775 , Charles Boss m . Mary Webster, both of
Richmond .
N ov. 26, 1 8 12, David Gardiner m. Martha Boss , widow of
Jonathan.
South King stown, R . I .
Jan. 30 , 1 845 , Abiel Sherman m . Susannah Boss.
Feb . 1 4, 1 763, Peter Boss m . Susannah Stanton of Richmend.
Aug . 8 , 1 745 , Richard Boss Of Charlestown 11 1 . Mary Babcock of South King stown.
April 1 4, 1 742, Geo rg e Gardiner m . Sarah Boss.
In a list of freemen in the Towns of South King stownsDec . 21 , 1 696, is Petter Boss .
In a similar list in South King stown, 1 742, is Peter Boss.
From a record of the Richmond Family I obtain
the following :
Edward Richmond , b . 1 78 0 , in Exeter, R. I . ; m . PhebeBoss of Griswold , Conn . H ad four blind children. Lived inExeter.
Almira Richmond, b . in Hopkinton, R. I ., Aug . 20 , 1 821 ;
d . N ov. 1 3, 1 8 57 ; m . , in 1 8 38 , Ezek iel J. Boss .
At least one of the family seems to have received
political honors , for I find that at the election held in
Aug ust, 1 8 1 6, John L . Boss Jr. ,one of the Federalist
candidates for Cong ress , was elected in Rhode Island .
Of the members of the Boss family whose names
I have g athered from the local records , it seems to
me that most of them are likely to have been descend
ants of the first Edward Boss , the the names do not
appear in the list sent by Mr. Robert P. Boss.
67
The Revolutionary records oug ht to afford much
inf ormation, if one only k new where to look and what
to look for. Such an investig ation, however, would
involve an expenditure of more time and means than
are at my disposal.
In a list of Massachusetts soldiers and sailors in
the Revolution I find the following :
Ebenezer Boss, b oy, brig antine Tyrannicide, commandedby Capt. John Cathcart ; eng ag ed May 12; discharg ed June23 [year not g iven ; probably
Jabez Boss , ship General Mifilin, commanded by Capt .Georg e W. Babcock ; list dated Sept . 9, 1 78 0 ; ag e , 20 years ;complexion lig ht ; residence, Massachusetts .
James Boss, g unner, ship General Mifiiin, commanded byCapt. Georg e W. Babcock ; list dated Sept. 9, 1 78 0 ; ag e , 1 9years ; complexion, lig ht ; residence, Massachuse tts .
In a list Of Revolutionary pensioners pub lisht by
the United States Governm ent in 1 8 35 , I find the fol
lowingW ashing ton C ounty, R . I .
Jabez Boss, private ; Rhode Island continental line ; placedon pension-roll Oct . 1 3, 1 820 ; comm encement of pension, Aug .
1 6, 1 820 ; ag e, 64 . Dropped ; did not serve nine months incontinental line.”
Providence C ounty, R . I .
Benjamin Boss, serg eant, Rhode Island continental line ;placed on pension roll Sept. 23, 1 8 1 8 ; commencement of pension, Aug . 1 0 , 1 8 1 8 . Suspended under act May 1 ,
Just as I am closing this letter, I receive the following from Dr. C . W . Larison , of Ring os , N . J
68
In that leaflet entitled “ The Boss Family ” I take someinterest — the more so because, at one time, I edi ted a littlemag azine devoted to the history of this locality, in which inearly times lived sturdy men whose family name was Bo ss . As
early as 1 71 7 one Henry Boss had a g uardian by name RaceIn November, 1 721 , Honas Boss boug ht Of Nathan Allen afarm less than a mil e from the offi ce in which I am writing thisletter, which farm passed from father to son until 1 8 5 3 . Thissaid Honas Boss had a son Peter, who had a son William ,
who had a son Peter, who died, very old , in 1 8 5 3 . Traditioninforms me that brothers of Peter went to York State [NewYork] , at a time at which from this locality went many to set
tle in Central and Western New York.
William Boss, son of Peter, married Mary Larison, siste rto my g randfather Larison, from which union issued a numerous prog eny.
Honas Boss came into this neig hborhood with that g reatinflux of relig ious zealots who , intending to land at New York,by some mishap were driven out of their way and found themse lves in the mouth o f the Delaware , up which they sailed to
Philadelphia ; thence overland they started thru virg in foreststo reach their comrades in New York . But , lured by the g oodness of the soil as proven by the forest thruwhich they passed ,they purchased and settled upon estates extending from theDelaware River to the Hudson. So I have little hope that
youwill establish a line of descent from this family. However,in case you do , come over tovisit me and I will show you thehouse still standing — constructed of hug e hewn timberswhich was built by the primog enitor, Honas Boss, and occu
pied by himself and his descendants un til 1 8 5 3. In it I havevisited many a patient. The g ood yet, it is the oldest housein Central New Jersey, so far as I know.
The Bosses, as far back as I can learn of them, were larg eof stature, intellig ent, ente rprising and accommodating , andof that suaveness of manner which wins the respect of all g ood
69
citizens. The one with whom I was best acquainted was awell-proportioned , dig nifi ed man, six feet six inches tal l, andas g ood as he was long . He was a tailor by trade ; but , during the long evening s of winter and the afternoons of Sundayin summer, he taug ht classes the art of sing ing . At one timehe was a member of the Leg islature of New Jersey, and oftenhe held other important positions . The b e g enerally carriedhis points, he intentionally ofi
'
ended no one .
Today, in this country, those of the stock are few.
Very respectfully, C. W. LARISON .
This letter, now pretty leng thy, is, as you see,
mainly a collection of memoranda ; but, by havingthese bits of “ testimony ” broug ht tog ether in one
book, we may, perhaps , mak e out a clear case, even
if much of the evidence is but circumstantial.
Very truly yours , HE N RY R . Boss .
William Graham Boss to H enry R . Boss .
1 6 UN ION STRE E T , EDIN BURGH,
December Sl at, 1 8 99.
Mr. Henry R . Boss , Chicag o .
Dear Sir : Truly your letter of 28 th October con
tains a larg e number of facts , and you say well thatMr . R . P . Boss has fulfilled his promise handsomely
in his valuable contribution to the record of the name .
I don’t know if the history of the Quaker sect would
70
throw any lig ht on the nationality of the first Edward
Bos s mentioned, but there appears to me some doubt
as to where he was actually born ; it would b e inter
e sting if proof was forthcoming of his having been a
German or a Hollander. Perhaps this statement may
have been of later orig in than his time .
In the larg e number of fact s which you have ohtained from source s examined, doubtles s most of them
are the record of Dut ch bearers of the name Bosch,and you rig htly say that they sug g est how easily the
name mig ht b e altered to suit the environment . In
point of time the spelling B oss appears to b e earlier
than the Dutch, B osch or Bos , with you , and it may
arg ue a different source ; I have seen the name Boysmentioned in one Of the Eastern States as early as
1 61 6 or thereabout , but I can not lay my hands on
the reference at the time of writing .
On looking over my notes having reference to ln
fluences bearing on the name , I find I have omitted
an important one, and I send it herewith :
Boece Th'e medieval form for Boethius, the name of anancient Roman philosopher, author of The Consolation of
Philosophy,” a g reat and fam iliar classic during the MiddleAg es and early Renaissance . Competent authorities state thata larg e number of versions of this work appeared during theseperiods. The following selections may serve to show how farreaching its influence was
France : Boece,” a Provencal poem O f the eleventh cenO
E ng land : King Al fred’s translation of the “ Consolation,
in the ninth century.
“ Boece,” by Geoff rey Chaucer, secondhalf of the fourteenth century.
71
Scotland : “ Boece de Consolation, a copy in the libraryOf Mary Queen Of Scots, in the second half of the sixteenthcentury.
Hector Boies , the author, in his Latin works used
the name of Boethius , apparently from the similarity
of his own name to the then current medieval name
for this ancient writer, and perhaps also from sympa
thetic influence of his writing s .
Bellenden, the translator of Hector Boies’Chroui
cles , naturally used the accepted form“ Boece ” in
his work , as it was ready to hand and g ave the under
stood pronunciation oi the name in Scotland ; it also
had the merit of an e stablished reputation . This is
the only instance of the name written in this way ; it
is simply a literary version , which has continued in
use to the present tim e ; and doubtless after appear
ing in this connection it would exercise some influence
on later forms of the name in Scotland, as will b emore apparent when we come to consider the name
as written after the fift eenth century .
In considering the variations in the name as writ
ten in documents from the twelfth century onward,the g reatvariety is at once apparent ; a feature whichis by no means confined to this name alone . All the
Norman names have been treated in the same way,more or less . To beg inwith the twelfth century, whenit first appears in contemporary documents in Sectland, and confirming to some extent the traditionalaccount of the arrival of the name as g iven at pag es27 and 28 :
72
We learn from Bain’s Calendar of Documents t elating to Scotland, Vol . II, pag e 422, No . 9, which is
an abstract of a roll of early g rants by Scottish king s,nobles and others to the Hospital of St . Peter of York,that a charter was g ranted by Robert de Brus, second
of the name , who was Lord of Annandale 1 1 41 — 1 1 71 .
He received this extensive lordship from his father,the Lord of Skelton, in York shire , who had a g ift of
it from his friend, King David the First, about 1 125 ,which was confirmed to his son by King William the
Lion in 1 1 66, to b e held of him by the service of ten
knig hts .” The deed runs in abstract
Ro bert de Brus to all his men Franks and Ang les of thewhole vale of Anant . Grants to the brethren of St. Peter ofYork for his father’s and his own souls , and those of his motherwife and children, a house in Lochmaben with its “ mam
sura ” and land . Witnesses : Lady Eufemia, Peter de Turp,Ivo de C rosseby, Humfrey del Boys, Robert Al b alestor, RobertMalet, William the chaplain, Ro g er .
As usual at that time, the document is undated,but it may b e sometime between 1 168 and 1 171 , as
the g rantor died in this latter year.
It is instructive to note the order in which the wit
nesses’names occur, as they would b e arrang ed partly
according to precedence : the Lady Eufemia was the
wife of the g rantor, who is followed by three repre
sentatives of the Norman-French settlers or their descendants — the Franks of the document, because they
spoke the French of Normandy ; the next two wit
nesses represent the Ang lo-Saxon element in the dis
73
trict , and the native section is possibly represented
by Rog er. Also a point worthy of note is the simple
prefix “ de g iven to the first two of the Normans,
tending to confirm the statement made by Bardsley,
in his “ Eng lish Surnames ,”that those who are de
scribed as del or du were in all probability later
immig rants .
And in this connection it is of interest to point to
the quarter in Normandy where the Bruce family held
their fief, as it may also b e in the district from whence
the Bois family came . What conduce s to favour this
supposition is the fact of other Norman families who
were settled in Annandale or its neig hborhood hav
ing come from the Cotentin . M . de Gerville , in his
Recherches , identifies the remains of Le Chateau
d’Adam , at Brix in the Cotentin , between Cherbourgand Valog nes , as the site of their ancient home in
Normandy.
Among the companions of the Conqueror in 1 0 66
was the Sire de Bruis , who Obtained the manor of
Skelton in Yorkshire , and other extensive properties .
In the Roll of Battle Abbey compiled after the battle
of Hasting s , and g iving a list of the chief Normans
who foug ht there , we find the Sire de Bois . It is not
known when this roll was actually drawn up , but it is
supposed to have been some time after the event , and
it is not looked on as altog ether trustworthy, it beingsupposed that additions were made to it in order to
include the names of the chief adventurers who came
over after the conquest and acquired a position in the
74
country, or of those who afterward rose to positions
of note .
It was about the time of this charter, or, g enerally
speak ing , in the second half of the twelfth century,that armorial bearing s beg an to be
used as hereditary cog nizances ; and
we find the Bruces of Skelton bearing“ Arg ent a lion rampant azure .
” And
the second Robert de Bruis of Annan
dale — 1 1 41 - 1 171 — or his son , Rob
ert , the third in succession , — 1 1 71
1 1 91 , — used a seal bearing p er fess ,first , a lion passant ; second, a saltire and chief. We
have here an early example of a compounded coat of
arms — the Bruce lion placed passant in the position
Of honour on the shield, and the saltire , or St . An~
drew’s cross showing the crusader ;the bearing s may b e described
briefly as Annandale -Bruce ,and the
blazon may run first arg ent a lion
passant azure ; second , arg ent (or
perhaps Or) a saltire and chief
g ules . The Bruce family afterward
laid aside the lion and bore the
simple saltire and chief.
This is the earliest example of
the saltire and chief as armorial hearing s in Annan
dale , and the saltire or St . Andrew’s cross is probably
derived from service in the Crusade s , which were en
g ag ed inat this time ; the third Crusade— 1 1 8 8 — 1 1 9I
75
is believed to mark the period when heraldic ensig ns
became hereditary . And we learn that in 1 1 90 a
g oodly company of knig hts and e squire s from Annan
dale and the neig hbourhood accompanied King Rich
ard the First to the Holy Land ; and it was in this
crusade that the crusaders had the cross on the breast
of their surcoat disting uished by different colours : the
French were red, the Eng lish white and the followers
of the count of Flanders g reen .
Geoffrey de Vinsauf, who accompanied King Rich
ard on this crusade , mentions in his Itinerary ” three
bearers of the name who disting uished themselves on
various occasions . The first one noted is an archer
named Wil liam du Bois , a Norman , and a most skil
ful archer,” who rendered excell ent service in Cyprus
in 1 1 91 then in the same year, at Ramula, in the Holy
Land, in the company of the Earl of Leicester, who
defeated the Turks , among others honourable mention
is made of Arnald da Bois , who may b e the same
person spok en of below, and in this case it is quite
possible the lien on the canton may b e an honourable
augmentation of his arms ; this is one of the early
members of the Eng lish branch of the name , and, no
doubt , related to the Scottish branch of the time .
Then , in the following year, when King Richard nu
dertook the relief of Joppa , which was besieg ed by
Saladin, the chronicler says The word was forth
with g iven, the g alleys were pushed to land ; the kingdashed forward into the waves with his thig hs unpro
tected by armour, and up to his middle in the water ;
76
he soon g ained firm footing on the dry strand ; behind
him followed Geoffrey duBois and Peter de Pratelles,and in the rear come all the others rushing throug h
the waves .” They are led to victory by the lion-heart
ed king , and relieve the town .
From the same writer we learn that the Crusad
ers had various heraldic ensig ns , as in the army at
Assur : “ There you mig ht have seen their most ap
propriate distinctions , standards and ensig ns of vari
ous forms ;” and ag ain , in the march to Jerusalem ,
“ shields emblazoned with lions or flying drag ons in
g old,” and “ the royal standard of the lion .
Althoug h the document quoted contains the ear
liest instance of the name Bois being found in
Scotland so closely associated with the g reat family
of Bruce , yet, judg ing from heraldic evidence,which
is of some importance , there is reason to suppose they
were old allies . We find at the beg inning of the fol
lowing century an Ernald de Bois bearing two bars
and on a canton a lion passant ; and a Walter Bois
bearing on his seal a lion rampant ;also another of the name bearingGules a lion rampant double queued
arg ent .”The bearing
of the lion was a ia
vourite symbol in ear
ly heraldry, and these
tinctures , white and red, and white
and blue , were hom e by various m em
bers of the Bruce family in common
77
with others ; but there was always some difference in
the arrang ement, as these few examples show. The
point I wish to emphasize is that the earliest Bruce
bearing s were lions varied between these tinctures ,and the presence of the same animal and tinctures in
early Bois arms , and the contemporary feudal con
nection between the two Norman houses .
Then in Scotland we have toward the end of the
thirteenth century an example in the seal of the
widow of SirAndrew de Bois , Lord of
Redcastle in the north, which seal
bears two lions rampant combatant ,and four small shields bearing this
lady’s paternal arms , a bend .
”The
accompanying outline shows the her
aldic portion of the seal the full size
of the orig inal, which is surrounded
with the leg end, Sig illum secreti
Elizabeth Bysete .
” Also another ex
ample in the impression Of a seal appended to a deed
in 1292; the seal 1 8 circular in form ,bearing a
“ lion
rampant on a shield suspended by a strap from
what appears to b e an oak tree , and between two
smaller trees of the same species , forming a bosky
backg round to the owner’s e scutcheon ; the whole en
closed within the leg end,“PARMI C E U HAUT BOIs C ON
DURAY MA MIE,which appears to b e a playful allusion
to his name , and also possibly referring to his posi
tion in the country g eog raphically . I hope to refer
to this seal ag ain .
78
Possibly the family associations may g o back to
the time when they were Viking er, previous to the con
quest, in the early part Of the tenth century, of that
province of France which was called Normandy after
them . But we may b e able to say something about
this when we come to consider their staunch adher
ence to the Bruce family during the time of their con
test for the Scottish crown and national independence .
Meanwhile let us examine the various forms of
the name as found in documents from the twelfth
century onward . The lists are instructive as showingthe various stag es of evolution and transformation
from the simple forms of the Norman-French to the
more or le ss corrupted nomenclature of a chang ed en
vironm ent in later time s . Each variant in its respective g roup is g iven in chronolog ical sequence as far aspossible
,and as a matter Of course they overlap from
one century into the next .
The twelfth century del Boys , del Bois, de Bois , (Latinized ) de Bosco , de Boscho .
The thirte enth century del Bois, de Bois , de Boys,Boys, du Boys, (Latin ) de Bosco , de Boscho .
The fourteenth century de Bois, de Boys, (Latin) deBosco .
The fif teenth century, first half — Boys, Bois , de Boyis ,de Boys . Second half — Boyis, Boyes , Best , Boist, Bust,Boiste, Buste, Bowse, Boyce, Bos, Bois, Bowsie, Bousie , (Latin) Boecii.
The sixteenth century Boies, Boyis, Boys, Boise, Boyes,Bowse, Boiss, Bowsy, Boyise , Boyse, Boas, Boese, Boice,Boece,Boist , Boyiss, Boeis, Buse, Buyss, Bowey, Bowosye , Bowsie,Bonsie, Buist, Busie. Latin — Boethius , Boetius , Boecius ,
8 0
In the following century the name is written with
the prefix de onl y ; this is considered the most an
cient way, and it is said there was a fashion about this
time for those of Norman -French descent to lay aside
del ” and du” and use de ,
”in order to make their
de scent appear as ancient as possible .
In the early part of the fifteenth century there
is a dropping of the;
prefix, but the orig inal form is
found, with slig ht variations , till about the middle of
the century, when a chang e takes place — the sig n of
foreig n descent being practically confined to the first
half of the century. During the second half they
seem to have made up their minds to transform the
name as much as possible ; a number of causes prob
ably operated to bring this about , such as decay of
medieval learning , the dawn of the Renaissance , and
increase of population . Whatever the cause , there
can b e no doubt about the g reat chang e which has
come over the name . All the old name s were more
or le ss affected in this way,and the one under consid
eration is just a g ood example of the treatment which
the Norman-French names received when the bearers
had become thoroug hly incorporated into the nation.
About the beg inning of the last quarter of the centurywe first encounter such forms as Bowse , Be st, Res ;and with reference to this last one , it is probably a
contraction for a long er form ,occurring only twice ,
as far as I have seen — once in 1 494, ag ain in 1 498 ,
and applied to a John Bos in Fifeshire and to an
Al exander Bos in Aberdeenshire . The only Latin
8 1
version of this time is found in 1 492— 94, and is of in
tere st,being record of a payment to Mr . Hector Boies
,
while at the University of Paris , where he was a stu
dent, and teacher of philosophy in Montaig u Colleg e ;showing how early he came under the influence of the
'
ancient Roman philosopher, Boethius — an influence
which affected his whole life -work .
In the sixteenth century we have a further instal
ment of variants , about half of them hardly recog nis
able as the successors Of the early times : the forms
Boas , Beice, etc . are probably owing to the influence
of Mr. Hector Boies and his writing s in the early part
of the century . A special feature in the formation of
the name , which had its beg inning in the latter part
of the previous century, is the lengt hening by adding
a syllable , such as in Beyes, Bowsie , etc . , coming to
a climax in the trisyllabic Bowe sye , which is found in
the Records of the Convention of Royal Burg hs held
at Edinburg h in 1 5 5 5 possibly the clerk may have
been puzzled over the name of the representative
William Bowsy— from the Royal Burg h of Crail, in
the East Neuk of Fife . Another feature is the total
absence of any prefix, the Renaissance seeming ly
having eclipsed medieval usag e even in surnames .
About the middle of this century a chang e comes
over the available records, and the name appears
quite merg ed in the g eneral population ; a number ofthem maintain a re sponsible position in the country
,
but there is none holding hig h e state . The name b e
g an to decline in worldly position about the middl e of
82
the fifteenth century ; perhaps the loss of the ancient
connection with the Bruce familyjmay have influenced
their status adversely . The Dryfsdale house , which
may b e considered the parent house in Scotland , is
said to have ended in an heir female about 145 0 ; and
the Panbride family appear to have held their estate
for about a century later.
Passing to the Latin versions of thi s century,they are found to b e , without exception , either ap
plied tO Mr. Hector, or directly traceable to his influence among men of letters of that time ; most of the
example s are found in the Records of Aberdeen as
published by the Spalding Club .
We will now look at the seventeenth century and
later example s , most of which are such a s are not
found previously . We have reached the period when
surname s may b e said to have become fixed into their
present forms ; of course , as the lists show, there are
a few versions which became hereditary before this
time ; a g reat factor in this respect would b e the more
g eneral diffusion of education . But even for all the
endeavours to educate there are still found a g ood
variety in the written names , even when applied to
the same person , as exemplified when we meet with a
bearer of the name who lived in the latter part of this
century and the early part of the eig hteenth, havinghis name variously written Bees, Boos , Bows , Rewis ;the first form being the correct one as written by the
bearer, James Be es , who was a covenanting clerg yman .
8 3
Another matter for consideration is the locale of
the name in Scotland . Let us take “ Boyes ,” first
,
as its natural habitat , so to sp eak , is Dumfriesshire ,in the Lochmaben district of Annandale and neig h
b ourhood, where the first Norman French bearing the
name are found . This form appears to have been
assumed about the latter part Of the fifteenth century,is peculiar to the district
,is the only one found
there , and may b e accounted for by the unchang ingnature of the population ,
being a farming and paste
ral country ; the people are practically the same
race as they were five centuries ag o . In the eastern
counties of Forfar and Fife,on the other hand
,the
g reatest variety of forms are found in actual use and
in written documents , and it may b e taken that all
the present varieties , excepting Boye s and Be ss, had
their orig in in the se two countie s ; the forms Boas ,Bees
,Boaz
, etc . are of Forfarshire , and Bowes , Buist,Boosie
,etc . are Of Fifeshire . One influence in this
county which appears to have g iven rise to this last
form and its varieties,Bowsie , etc .
,is the pre sence
in place -names and in ordinary speech of the Scotch
word “ bow,
” meaning cattle or farm stock,from
which we have the term “ Bowhouse ,” cattle -house
,
contracted into Bows ,” and the plural form Buss
es,” pronounced “ be e se ,
” or in common speech the
cattle are“the b e es .
” In the course of my enquiries
I find a farmer whose farm is called “Bowhouse
,
”
known as “ Boosie” colloquially, althoug h his sur
name is quite different . The common practice is to
8 4
Speak of farmers and proprietors by the names of
their places of abode : thus we find John Rolland of
Burnside is colloquially “ Burnside ;” on the other
hand,the farmer in documents would b e described as
Georg e Smith in Bowhouse .
This g reat variety in these eastern counties is
very likely partly owing to the fact of their being in
the center of trade and commerce during the fifteenth
and two following centuries , and in the midst of a
mixed and increasing population having intercourse
with the continental ports of France , H olland , etc .
As showing how the name spread throug h the
country after g aining a footing , we may run over the
chief families
Humfrey del Bois o f Dryfsdale, Dumfriesshire, in thesouthwest, about 1 1 70 . [Bain
’s Calendar, Vol . II , etc . ]
Thomas de Bois of Og leface, Linlithg owshire, in the central lowlands, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. [1296Rag man Roll , etc. ]
Sir Andrew de Bois, of Redcastle, Rossshire , in the north,about 1259— 91 . [Bain
’s Calendar, Vol . II : Family of Kil
ravock .]Alexander de Bois Of Castle Urquhart, on Loch Ness, In
the north, about the end O f the thirteenth and beg inning of
the fourteenth century . [Hector Boies’Histo ry, folio 30 8 ]
(The latter two are beyond the Hig hl and line, and wereadvanced outposts of the Norman influence in Scotland , wherewe read of castles being built by King William the Liontoward the end of the twelfth century . There was so muchland forming a barony set aside for the King
’s representative,
the g overnor of the cas tles, and the post may have beenhereditary . Redcas tle is inhabited at present, and is said tobe the o ldest inhabited castle in Scotland . )
8 5
Patrick fiz Johan de Boys , of Lanarkshire, in the westernlowlands, 1296. [Rag man Roll ]
Richard de Bosco, of Jedburg h, in the south, 1 30 5 .
[Bain’s Calendar, Vol . II. ]Hug h Boies of Panbride, Forfarshire, in the eastern low
lands, about 1 35 0 . [Hector Boies’History, folio
Al exander Boys, scutifer (esquire ) , and burg ess of Dunferml ine , May, 1 438 , Fifeshire. [Re g istrum de Dunfermlyn,
Al exander Bos, of Belhelvie, Aberdeenshire, 1 498 . [E xchequer Rolls, Vol . " L]
John de Boyse, the Laird of C ardney, Forfarshire, about1 5 5 0 . [Re g ister of Cupar Abbey, Vol . IL]
CHRISTIAN N AME S.
We will now g ive a little attention to the christian
names during the same centuries ; and, as before , it
will b e understood that the names overlap the divi
sions,also in a number of cases , after the twelfth cen
tury,there are more than one contemporary bearing
the same name . Beg inning with the twelfth century,in which they make their first appearance in Sect
land, we naturally expect to find them few inf
numb er,
even althoug h there are not more than six on record .
I am inclined to think there were more than one bearer
of the name who arrived in Scotland during this cen
tury, because we have one named as a witness of the
Bruce charter before 1 1 71 , and we have the return of
King William from captivity in 1 1 65 , accompanied
by a number of Normans,among whom the name is
found as g iven at pag es 27 and 28 . The discrepancy
may b e an error of the chronicler, but there is nothing
8 6
ag ainst the probability of more than one arrival at
different time s . And in connection with this King’s
return we note that he was a prisoner at Valog nes in
the Cotentin, and at Falise in Normandy, and that
the final ag reement for his release was consummated
at York , - in which district the Bruce family were set
tled,— from whence he departed to Scotland aecom
panied by the Normans . Shortly after his return we
find a William de Bois witnessing documents as one
of the King’s clerks ; he was afterward Bishop of Dun
blane and Lord Chancellor of the king dom from 121 1
to 1226. In what relation the six bearers of the
name stood to each other I have no means of know
ing but they occupied honourable positions , as they
are found witnessing important documents along with
other Normans of the court .
The distinction of first using surnames belong s
to the Norman-French, and it is g enerally believed
that most of them were taken from their places of
abode ; the practice came into vog ue about the close
of the tenth century, or early in the eleventh . Thus
Humfrey del Bois is simply Humfrey of the Wood, or
Forest,and it has been sug g ested that they were for
esters , having charg e thereof for a superior, and hold
ing part in virtue of their office ; but whatever may b e
the correct explanation of their position in relation to
the wood or forest , it appears to have settled into a
hereditary surname about the time of the Conque st in
1 0 66 . Thus it is one of the oldest surnames on record,and it is not surprising to find it underg oing so many
8 8
As introductory to our examination of the lists
g iven above , we will take a g lance at the orig in and
sources of the early christian names — a subj ect of
much interest , carrying us back into the mists of Nor
therm antiquity and the mytholog y of our ancestors
Out of the six names found in the twelfth century,five of them are of Teutonic orig in , namely
Humfrey, support of peace ; or, as quaint old Camdensays, House-peace, a lovely and happy name, if it could turnhome-wars betweenman and wife into peace.” A g reat favourite with the early Normans and borne by many a noble knig htbefore and after the Conquest. Miss Yong e, to whose work Iam indebted formany o f these notes, says that from being anoble and kni g htly name it came to be a peasant
’s appellation ;
and , as shown by our lists, it fell out of the vocabulary ofnames in the course of a few g enerations, and is but rarelymet with now.
William, helmet of resolution. From the Teutonic mytholog ical deity Wili, the Will, and the German W il-helm ,
covering the head with the helmit of resolution. According to our
old author, this name has been very common in Eng land sincethe Conquest, and he g ives an instance of a festival being heldby King Henry the Second in 1 1 73, when it was comm andedthat none but those of the name of Will iam should dine in theGreat Chamber, when one hundred and twenty-two of thename, all kni g hts , sat down.
Hug h, mind , or thoug ht , supposed to be from “ hu,” the
Scandinavian word for thoug ht . Hug inn, one of the two ravenswhich sat on the shoulders of Odin and revealed to him all
that passed in the world ; the other Munninn, memory ; andwhen Thor made his famous visit to Utg ard it was Hug i alonewho was able to outstrip him in the race — like a flash of
thoug ht.
8 9
Richard, or Richardet, the first syllable from the samesource as rag an,
he who executes judg ment, stern king , or
according to Camden, powerful and rich disposition, and sig
nified powerful in the army ; one of the Paladins . There werethree Dukes of Normandy who bore the name , and any num
ber among the Normans ; it g ave name also to three king s ofEng land, and has been a common one in the country eversince .
Walter, g eneral of an army, from Waldh eri, powerfulwarrior, a very old name in the North and borne from thenceto Normandy, which furnished twenty-eig ht of the name toDomesday Survey of Eng land after the Conquest .
Galfridus, Geo ff rey,Godfrey, joyful peace, or g ood peace,believed to be from Guth, one of the Northern deities, and
thoug ht to have been larg ely used by the Normans of the time ,from Gottfried of Lorraine, the famous crusader.
Radulfus, Ralf, house wolf , from the Gothic “ razn,a
house, or a shield from the protection g iven. The name isfound in St . Rudulphus, bishop of Bourg es in 8 8 8 ; and thirtyeig ht o f the name are g iven in Domesday Book, and manybearers are found among the crusaders, which were drawn fromthe western chivalry .
Robert, brig ht fame, or fam ous in council , orig inallyHruadperaht, a bishop who founded the first Christian churchat Wurms about 70 0 ; from the hig h estimation in which hewas held, his name spread throug h Germany and into France,where it assumed the form Robert , and g ave name to Ro lfGaug e, the fi rst Duke of Normandy, when he received Christian baptism ; where it spread among his Norse followers andwas thence carried on by their descendants, who fi rst broug htit to Scotland in the early part of the twelfth century.
Gilbert, brig ht pledg e, from Giselhar, the pledg ed warrio r, or, as Camden says, in the quaint way of Queen E lizabeth’s time : “ I jud g e it to sig nifie Brig ht or brave pledg e, forin old Saxon ‘
g isle sig nifi eth a pledg e . So it is a well fittingnam e for children, which are the only sweet pawns of love b etween man and wife.”
90
These being most of the early distinctive appella
tions , if not actually descriptive name s at the time ,perhaps there may have been a ling ering tradition of
their orig inal significations. It will not b e necessary
to extend the list further, as it sufficeth to indicate
the sources from whence the early settlers derived their
names .
In our list of the thirteenth century containingfourteen names , no fewer than eig ht of them are also
Teutonic , while there are three of Greek derivation
Alexander, Andrew and Marg aret ; these are found atan early period in Scotland, and are believed to b e
due to the ancient connection with the church, before
the separation into the Latin and Greek divisions in
the eig hth century . The Celtic or Scotch church is
said to have adhered to the Greek party, and St . Ah
drew’s being the patron saint of Scotland has caused
his name to b e widely spread throug hout the country.
The name Thomas , occurring at the end of the previ
ous century and also during this one, is a saint name ,probably from St . Thomas of Canterbury, who was a
g reat friend of King William the Lion, who dedicated
the Abbey of Arbroath to the honour of God and of
St . Thomas , in the year 1 178 ; his memory and his
trag ic death exercised a g reat influence in our island
for many g enerations afterward , and no doubt many a
Thomas would b e named after him .
With the advent of the fourteenth century there
is a falling off in the ancient mytholog ical and other
Teutonic names , and an increase of saint names,
92
church was losing her hold, after the revival of letters
in Italy during the previous century, when classic in.
fluences received a new birth .
For a moment please return to the name as found
in the twelfth century,when the g reatest number of
Teutonic christian names are met with, and alongwith this we see a wonderful piece of evidence of the
intermixture of the Northmen with the Franks , or na
tives of Neustria (the name of the province before itbecame our Normans’home) . In the course of about
three g enerations after their settlement there , and
with their usual proclivity for taking wive s from
among other tribes , they have become mixed with the
Frank s,land now speak a dialect of the French ; then
they add to their Teutonic personal names a Frank
word as a further distinction and probably descriptive
of their place of abode , or from their occupation or
office . Thus we have the Norse and Frank combined ,and g iving names and surnames from both sources to
their descendants . Very likely this rise of surnames
would b e a necessary measure taken to disting uish
one family from another ; as this practice was con
tinued in after times when they were settled in E n
g land and in Scotland, where a son , on obtaining an
estate , very often adopted the name of the property
as his distinctive appellation, and which was contin
ued by his descendants as their surname . In Sect
land, the usag e with name s of this class g ave rise to
the desig nation ,“ of that Ilk , as Forbes of Forbes ,
or Forbes of that Ilk .
93
The name Humfrey appears to have beena favour
ite with the Dryfsdale family during the first three cen
turies of their residence there . They were a knig htly
family,as the military title Sir,
” applied to them ,
shows ; and the one already mentioned at pag e 72
was very likely one of the ten k nig hts of Annandale
who had to g ive military service to the King for their
lands , held of the Lords of Annandale . This landed
military class were a g reat power in the state at that
time , and the king s of Scotland encourag ed the Nor
mans to settle in the country, as they were the most
effi cient soldiers of their day the chivalry of the Mid
dle Ag es . Besides thi s encourag ement from'
the king s ,it is said the ladies also favoured the new comers , and
this in part accounts for their rapid assimilation and
diffusion over the country.
The name Will iam was of frequent occurrence
among the Normans of the period . Whether any of
them derived it from their g reat leader, Duke Will
iam ,or those in Scotland from King William ,
it is
impossible to say, but it is not found in Scotland b efore their time , and it appears to have taken a firm
hold in the country of their adoption , as the lists in
part show. They also appear to have been fond of
the names Galfrid or Geoffrey and Rudulph or Ralf, as
they are found in other familie s about this time . These
three names — Humfrey, Geoffrey and Ralf — may b e
said to have died out in the course of the fourteenth
century ; but most of the others have continued to the
present .
94
In the thirteenth century there is a marked in
crease of bearers of the name ; they are more than
trebled, as a few of the name s are repeated by differ
ent bearers . We see here a result of the long and
wise reig ns of three g ood king s , dwelling in amity with
their neig hbour, which has been likened to a g olden
ag e ; fromWilliam , in 1 1 65 , to the death of his g rand
son , Alexander the Third, a hundred and twenty years
after, when the country was plung ed into the distract
ing conflicts of what was practically a civil war, for
we find those of Norman descent pitched ag ainst oth
ers of the same race , their kinsmen ; just to mention
one instance,de Bois ag ainst de Bois , or the Scotch
Norman branch ag ainst the Ang lo-Norman branch of
the family . And in the following century there is a
falling off in recorded names , accounted for by the
long strug g le of the War of Independence, in the lat
ter p art of the thirteenth and early part of the four
teenth century, with its accompanying disorg anizing of
peaceful pursuits , and consequent loss of life — a time
when many of the Norman house s were completely
cut off . And during the fourteenth century the family
appears to have been just able to maintain its footingin the country ; after the death of The Bruce , in 1 329,the country was ag ain overwhelmed with war and dis
asters , in which they bore a full share , as far as can
b e g athered from the records . An instance of devo
tion to their country has been mentioned at pag e 1 8 ,under date 1 332. With the fifteenth century we soon
beg in to see sig ns of returning prosperity and a nu
96
pears to approach completeness , when they laid aside
their distinctive mark of Norman-French descent and
accommodated the name to vernacular usag e , the
knowledg e of which died out in the course of time ,and g ave rise to erroneous conj ectures , in after times ,with reg ard to the orig in of the name . And here I
may mention that a cousin informs m e that a friend
of his,who seeming ly was interested in surnames ,
would maintain the name to have been “ Boswell ”
orig inally, and that the last syllable had been dropped,when the truth is that “
Boswell ” was orig inally de
Bois -ville ,” as it is actually found in early records
with this form of the suffix, and the first syllable is
just the same as the orig inal of Boss ; a compari
son shows how both names have been subj ect to the
same chang es , both having lost the letter i, under the
same capricious influences .
After this dig ression we will now turn to the six
teenth century . During this and the succeeding cen
turies the same christian names are continued , havingbefore this become the recog nised christian names of
the country . The Reformation of relig ion in 1 5 60 does
not seem to have made much difference in the chris
tian names used, with perhaps the exception of Pat
rick,
” a saint name, which is found in 1 5 36. I have
not found this name after the above date , and prob
ably the chang e in the church may account for its
absence since then ; but it has not been a favourite
one . The name Georg e, occurring in 1 5 36, may pos
sib ly b e a saint name .
97
From my examination of the name I should say
there has been very little , if any, chang e in it , as actu
ally borne by any branch of the family, since the early
part of the seventeenth century. And, so far as I am
aware, the list of forms g iven as presently in use in
Scotland is complete . A remarkable fact contained
in this list is the total extinction of the orig inal or
thog raphy,“ Bois ;
” and out of the fifteen examples
as hom e now, only one-third are even composed of
the same number of letters as the orig inal, thus show
ing clearly that the g eneral tendency has been to
leng then the name, by adding a syllable at the end,
in most instances . My own experience of variations
as applied to myself is not extensive , but I have been
addressed as Bos, Bost, Boas , Bowes ; which are lik ely
the result of carelessness or predilection on the part
of the writers . And this may account for many of the
varieties found in documents , and for exceeding ly few,
if any, of those found in actual use . But, as already
mentioned , the present form of the name was deliber
ately adopted as a difference .
THE N AME IN FICTION .
Seldom is the name found in fiction, but as a nat
ural consequence of increase of popul ation we mig ht
expect to find a bearer of the name in such a position
as is described by John Galt, Scotch novelist , in histale , The Provost , written about 1 821 . There is no
proof or knowledg e of anyone of the name havingactually been a town drummer ; but the tale g ives a
98
picture of life in a Scotch burg h about one hundred
years ag o.
The tale is told by Provost Pawk ie, the chief act
or, and as an amusing sketch may b e introduced here .
Althoug h it is a rather roug h piece of stuff, there is
truth to nature ; and at first sig ht a character havinga more honourable part in a story mig ht have been
more acceptable to natural pride , but I hope we have
g ot pastLord, what will all the people say,
Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor "
and not set down all bearers of the name as knig hts
or e squires , as some of our family histories were wont
to do . Let this pass and allow us to see the enter
tainment provided in the tale
THE TOWN DRUMMER .
N or did I g et everything my own way, for I was oftenthwarted in matters of smal l account, and suff ered from them
g reater disturbance and molestation than thing s of such littlemoment oug ht to have been allowed to produce within me ;
and I do not think that anything happened in the whole courseof my public life which g ave me more vexation than what Ifelt in the last week of my second provostry .
Formany a year one Robin Boss had been town drummer; he was a relic of some American-war fencibles , and was,to say the plain truth of him, a divor body, with no manner ofconduct, saving a very earnest endeavour to fill himself fou as
often as he could g et the means ; the consequence of whichwas that his face was as plooky as a curran’bun and his noseas red as a partan’s tae .
One afternoon there was a need to send out a proclamation to abolish a practice that was g rowing into a custom, in
1 0 0
and this just act of mine was immediately condemned as a daring stretch of arbitrary power ; and the consequence was, thatwhen the council met the next day, some sharp words flewamong us, as to my usurping an undue authority ; and thethank I g ot formy pains was the mortification to see the worthless body restored to ful l power and dig nity, with no otherreward than an admonition to behave better for the future .N ow, I leave it to the unbiassed judgment of posterity todetermine if any public man could be more ung raciouslytreated by his colleag ues than I was on this occasion. But ,
verily, the council had their reward .
AN ALARM.
The divor, Robin Boss, being , as I have recorded, reinstated in offi ce, soon beg an to play his old t ricks. In thecourse of the week af ter the Michaelmas term at which mysecond provostry ended, he was so insupportably drunk thathe fell head foremost into his drum , which cost the town fiveand-twenty shilling s for a new one — an accident that was notwithout some satisfaction to me ; and I trow I was not Sparingin my derisive commendations on the worth of such a publicoffi cer. Nevertheless, he was still kept on, some befriendinghim for compassion, and others as it were to spite me .
But Robin’s g ood behaviour did not end with breakingthe drum and costing a new one . In the course of the winterit was his custom to beat, Go to b ed, Tom,
” about ten o’clock
at ni g ht, and the reveille at five in the morning . In one of
his drunken fi ts he made a mistak e, and , instead of g oing his
rounds as usual at ten o’clock, he had fallen asleep in a chang e
house, and, waking about the midni g ht hour in the terror ofsome whisky dream, he seized his drum, and, running into thestreets, beg an to strike the fire-beat in the most awful manner.
It was a fine, clear, frosty moonlig ht, and the hollowsound of the drum resounded throug h the silent stree ts lik ethunder. In a moment everybody was afoot, and the cry of“ Whar is ’t ? whar ’e the fire ? ” was heard echoing from all
1 0 1
sides . Robin, quite unconscious that he alone was the causeof the alarm, still went along beating the dreadful summons.
I heard the noise and rose ; but while I was drawing on my
stocking s, in the chair at the b ed-head, and telling Mrs . Pawk ie to compose herself, for our houses were all insured, I suddenly recollected that Robin had the nig ht before neg lectedto g o his rounds at ten o
’clock as usual, and the thoug ht cameinto my head that the alarm mig ht be one of his inebriatedmistakes ; so, instead of dressing myself any further, I went tothe window, and looked out throug h the g lass, without openingit , for, being in my nig ht clothes, I was afraid of taking co ld .
The street was as throng as on a market day, and everyface in the moonlig ht was pale with fear. Men and lads wererunning with their coats, and carrying their breeches in theirhands ; wives and maidens were all asking questions at oneanother, and even lasses were fleeing to and fro , like waternymphs with urns, having stoups and pail s in their hands .
There was swearing and tearing of men, hoarse with the rag eof impatience, at the tolbooth, g etting out the fire -eng inefrom itsstance under the stair ; and loud and terrible afar off ,and over all, came the peal of alarm from the drunk en Robin’sdrum .
I could scarcely keep my composity when I beheld and
heard all this , for I was soon thoroug hly persuaded of the fact .At last I saw Deacon Girdwood, the chief advocate and charm.
pion of Robin, passing down the causey like a demented man,
with a red nig htcap, and his b ig -coat on — for some had criedthat the fire was in his yard .
“ Deacon,” cried I, Opening thewindow, forg etting in the jocularity of the moment the risk Iran from being so naked, whar away sae fast, deacon ? ”
The deacon stopped and said , Is’t oot ? is
’t oot ?
Gang your ways hame,”
quo I, very coolly,“ for I hae
a notion that a’ this hob b leshow ’s but the fume o
’ a g ill inyour frien’Robin’s head .
”
It’s no possible "” exclaimed the deacon.
1 0 2
Possible here or possible there, Mr. Girdwood,” quo’I
,
“ it ’s owre cauld forme to stand talk ing wi’
you here ; we’ll
learn the rig hts o’t in the morning ; so, g ood nig ht ;
”and
with that I pulled down the window. But scarcely had I doneso when a shout of laug hter came g athering up the street , andsoon after poor drunk en Ro bin was broug ht along by the cuffof the neck, between two of the town officers , one of them carrying his drum . The next day he was put out of offi ce forever,and, folk recollecting in what manner I had acted toward himbefore, the outcry about my arbitrary power was forg otten inthe blame that was heaped upon those who had espoused Robin’s cause ag ainst me .
So much for Provost Pawk ie and the supposed
worthies of an out-of-the-way Scotch burg h of 1 790 .
There are still Pawk ie Provosts among us , and are
likely to b e to the end of time ; but the town drummer
is an offi cial of the past , and will no more entertain
the burg hers with his cantrips .
But to return to matters of fact, in connection
with our present enquiry : The author was a native of
Irvine , Ayrshire , 1 779- 1 8 39 ; he probably became
acquainted with our name in the west of Scotland , as
it orig inated in the adjoining shire of Lanark .
And to sum up : This being an imported sur
name, as proved by the early Bruce charter quoted and
by the lang uag e in which it first occurs , it has simply
been treated by the Scotch people so as to adapt it to
their own mode of speech, by the process of assimila
tion to words having a widely different meaning , but
which were current among themselves , and which their
tong ues could easily “
g et round ,”to use a common
expression relative to the pronunciation of an uncom e
1 0 4
From the abundant examples g iven there can b e
no doubt that the name has acquired its varied native
dress in the proces ses of assimilation and absorption ,and from natural increase of families , g iving rise to
chang es in spelling to difference of one household from
another. And , as showing how strong ly local influ
ences have operated , there is not one of the forms in
use which may have been adopted as a difference,which indicates any consideration for the orig inal
meaning of the name ; thus tending to show that the
orig inal meaning had been lost or overlooked, after
the lapse of about three hundred years . It is true
some modern writers say that the name has been
translated into the ordinary one “ Wood,”but of this
I have seen no evidence further than the armorial
bearing s of families of this name being oak trees,which is clearly allusive, — the earliest examples cc
curring along with the name about 1 5 0 0 .
Armorial bearing s have been aptly defined as si
lent names ,” and in Workman’s Scot
tish Armorial,compiled about 1 565 ,
is g iven the annexed coat of arms for
the name of Blackwood , a Lanark shire
name . The blazon is Arg ent a sal
tire and on a chief sable , three oak
leaves Or . The saltire and chief andThe Black wOOd Arm oak leaves sug g est that they may b e
derived from the Annandale family, and lend colour
to a translation of the name , but of this there is no
direct proof.
1 0 5
And to end this long , rambling letter, I b eg to
remain Yours truly,WM. GRAHAM Boss .
NOTE : The second fi g ure at pag e 74has been inserted by inadvertence, and I takethis opportunity of g iving the correct bearingfrom an orig inal impression of the seal in theBritish Museum ; and althoug h I mentionthere that the saltire or St. Andrew’s crossrepresents a crusader, yet, as the first Bruceof Annandalemarried the heiress thereof, theheraldic fi g ures onthe second half may be
maternal descent, the male coat having precedence.W. G. B .
H enry R . Boss to William Graham Boss .
CHICAGO , June 1 , 190 0 .
Mr. William Graham Boss .
My Dear Sir : At last , after much tribulation and
many unforeseen hindrances, and very many thing s
forcing themselves on my attention and taking my
time , I have at last succeeded in g etting your letter
in type , and am thereby reminded that it is my turn
to contribute to the fe stivities .” I shall not b e able
to do so as successfully as you have done ; indeed ,
1 0 6
my contribution, when compared with yours , will b ea beg g arly one .
To me , it is passing strang e that so many people ,who, it would seem , oug ht to b e interested in the sub
j ect of our inquiry, are so utterly indifferent to it
that they refuse , or neg lect, to answer the simplest
letters of inquiry. It is not that my letters do not
reach them ; for the envelops bear a printed reque st
for their return in the event of non-delivery, and not
one of them has ever come back to me . I have
hope that, when we shall have g ot out one volume on
the subj ect , it may b e broug ht to the attention of
those who can and will afford the information that I
am now seeking , so that the publication of a sub se
quent volume will b e justified .
I have received the following letter from Dr . C . W .
Larison , which contains several points of interest
RrN s os, N. J March 1 , 1 90 0 .
Henry R . Boss
In reading the pag es relative to the Boss Family which
you"
sent me , I see that one of your correspondents speculatesconcerning the orig in Of the family by name Boss and the derivation of the name Bo ss . Hoping to help some in arriving at aproper conclusion in these matters, and to make you certain inthe matter of orig in of Honas Boss, the primog enitor of theBosses in the county of Hunterdon, N. J I b e g to state a fewfacts
Honas Boss and Henry Boss, as appears in the deed bywhich they held lands which are now a part Of the villag e inwhich I live, came from the Palatinate, between Wolfenb fi t
tel and Halberstadt, in Saxony . They came to this country in1 70 7, along with the Ents and Butterfauses, ancestors of my
1 0 8
who boug ht it ; and to show that he who sold the land was thelawful owner thereof, and that the purchaser was a proper person to own lands and act as a member of society, the historyof each was g iven, if not a citizen of one of the Am erican colonies, clear back to the nation, township, city or villag e fromwhich he came ; and in case he had made stop-overs on theway, these stopping s, if he had staid only a little while, werein the deed mentioned . Further, in each of these old deeds
(and in my possession are many an old parchment by whichthe first settlers held their lands ) is stated the rank, occupation, station in society, etc . of both him who made the deedand him to whom the deed is made. Further, until near theRe volution, if a piece of land had been so ld twenty times , eachdeed of conveyance had to enumerate each person who had
prior thereto owned said lot of land and the date of the deedby which he held it , etc. So it happens that one of these old
ramakins, as we call them, often contains a deal of veryinteresting history.
The name, written by Honas Boss and by his brother,Henry (a very wealthy man, who never married ) , as I haveseen in several papers writ ten by themselves, in Dutch, is Boss.
The Ents, Butterfauses, Johnsons, Bosses, etc. were veryproud of their nativity, and from parent to children have handeddown in tradition and in writing the story of their exile, thehardships they suff ered in coming to this country, their strugg les and their labors in cutting away a virg in forest and establiebing in this g oodly land homes and institutions which seemedto be very sacred to them . The speaking of the tong ue nativeto this people was so persisted in that my g reat-g randmother
(died in my g randmother and my mother, when to
g ether, spoke in Dutch . In the same tong ue, inmy childhood,I have heard the older Bosses , the Laushes , the Ents et al .
talk, when chatting of matters relating to olden times .
I do not recall any books, papers or other thing s in printwhich will inform you respecting folk s by the name of Boss .
1 0 9
In New Jersey, or elsewhere, I have seen the name seldom . O f
persons in New Jersey there are, so far as I know, very fewwhose name is Boss .
Pleased will I be if in any way I can further contributeto your work of g leaning facts relative to the work you havein hand . Very respectfully,
C. W . LARISON .
Tho the families named by Dr . Larison seem to
have come to America from provinces in Germany, it
also appears that they were Dutch , or Hollanders .
They themselves may have been but soj ourners in
Germany previous to their emig ration hither, or they
may have been the immediate descendants of Dutch
sojourners there . But direct evidence of their Dutch
orig in is afforded by the persistence with which they
clung to the tong ue of H olland , up to and includingthe g eneration immediately preceding Dr . Larison
’s .
A correspondent sug g ests , as my g randfather’s
middle name was Garner, that that may have been
his mother’s maiden name . (See Sylvia Boss , pag eThe supposition is a probable one .
In a work entitled Contributions for the Gene
alog ies of the First Settlers of the Ancient County of
Albany,”
pub lisht by Joel Munsell, Albany, N . Y
1 872, I find the following
BOS (Bosch, alias Van W estb roeck ) , Cornelis Teunise ,it is said, came to Beverwyck in 1 631 as servant or bouwk nechtto Cornelis Maase Van Buren. His wife was Maritie TomaseMing ael , who after his death in 1 666 married Jurriaen JanseGroenwout . He owned considerable real estate in thevillag e .
At his death he had one daug hter, Wyntie , living . He was
1 1 0
accused frequently before the court of slander and b ack b iting fin 1 657 by DO . Schaets ; in 1 65 8 of having defamed the honorable court ; and ag ain in 1 65 9, for which he was fined
g uilders and banished for twelve years ; next year he was ag ainarraig ned for a similar off ense ag ainst Willem Teller.
BOS, Pieter Janse, and Susanna Barentse . his
wife, m . 1 78 8 . Children : Eytie, baptized March 24, 1 689 ;
Jan, bap . Aug ust 4, 1 691 ; Jenneken, bap. in New York Decemb er 1 , 1 693 ; Sara, bap . in New York June 20 , 1 697.
BOS (Bosch ) , Gysb ert , and Hester Ryck [Ryck se VanVrank en his wife . Children : Rachel, b . March 12, 1 772
:
Marytie , b . January 24, 1 766 ; Rebecca, b. September 1 4,1 768 ,
Hester, b. July 1 6, 1 771 ; Pieter, b. Aug ust 1 3, 1 777.
The same work state s that
Pieter Bog ardus ,mariner,married Wyntie Cornelis Bosch,daug hter Of Cornelis Teunise Bosch and Maritie Thomas Min
g ae l . (Bog ardus died in
The city of N ew York has pub lisht“ Records of
N ew Amsterdam ,
” as the city was named , translated
from the orig inal Dutch . In Volume III of these rec
ords,among the Minutes of the Court of Burg omas
ters and Schepens of N ew Amsterdam ,
”is found the
following . In the same Minutes mention is made of
Albert Bos or Bosch, and of Hendrick , Jan , Jan Jan
sen and Pieter Cornelisen Bos :
Sept . 27, 1 65 8 : Pieter C ornelisen Bos of Pumerlant, shipcarpenter
,appears in Court exhibiting certain writing of pro
curation under sig nature, and not notarial, of Phil ip Schoerlemaar, dated 24 April, 1 65 8 , invirtue of which he demands fromLauwerens Jansen the sum of fl . 65 0 . Holland Currency, whichthe aforenamed Lauwerens Jansen recd on bottomry from theab ovenamed Philip Schoerlemaar. Lauwerens Jansen appears
1 12
Among the members of the Dutch Church , N ew
York,in 1 68 6, were
Hendrick Bosch, en zyu huysvrow, E g b ertje Dirck sen.
Among the small burg hers in N ew Amsterdam
(N ew York) , in 1 65 1 , was
Jacob Willvan der Bos, mason.
Some months ag o, an enthusiastic friend in Lon
don,E ng ,
who is connected with N otes and Queries,inserted in that periodical a copy of the printed slip
which I have been sending out, asking for informa
tion ; and to this I have had some replies . The first
one , as nearly as I can make it out, — for the writingis of the vertical kind and very difficult to read , — is
as followsp
WIN DERME RE BAN K, BOW N E SS,Westmoreland, September 3, 1 8 99.
Dear Sir: Seeing your query as to your ancestors, inN otes and Q ueries, I write to say that a Thomas Boyse married Berners Preston, of Watling ton Hall, Norfolk, and has
one son, Aug ustus Freeman, born September 26, 1 822.
Thomas Boyes, g reat-g randson of Nathaniel Boyse, settled in Weeford 1 78 1 , and purchased the estate of Bannow.
He married Marg aret Jackson. H is son, Samuel, marriedDorothy Carew
, and had Thomas (his heir) , Shaft and Richard . His son married Jane Stratford , but he had no children,so was succeeded by his brother.
Is this any g uide to you ?Faithfully yours , ELISE A. STRON G .
The following would seem to add to the chances
of variation in the form of our family name . That of
Bas s is not infrequent in this country, or in this city,
1 1 3
some of its members having acquired considerable
prominence28 AN GE L HILL , BURY Sr. E DMUN Ds
,
SUFFOLK, September 1 0 , 1 8 99.
Dear Sir: Observing your note in N otes and Queries, asking for information about the Boss family, I just write to say
that,in editing the Parish Reg ister of Horning sheath, alias
H orring er, two miles from this town, I have come ac ross several entries of the Bass family in the eig hteenth century, andone entry in the seventeenth century where it is written BossTwo hundred years ag o , when spelling was less fixed than it isnow , the same name was often spelt sometimes with an a, sometimes with an O, and then as time went on would g et fixed in
one or in the other. It may, therefore, help you to find what
you want if you know that your name is probably the samename as Bass .
I do not see any William and Sy lvia in the H orring er
Reg isters . The Bass entries lie between 1 699 and 1 78 6 .
Yours truly, SYDE N HAM H A . HE RVE Y .
So far as the American Bosses are concerned , I
think Mr . Hervey’s surmise is incorrect ; for, somehow,
— I can not tell why, - I f eel that , in this case ,at least , there is no connection between the names
Boss and Bass .
Mr . R . A . Colbeck , a professional compiler of g e
nealog ies, etc . , writing from London , E ng .,under the
date of October 2, 1 8 99, make s some interesting sug
g estions , as follows
Permit me to state, with reg ard to surname, — it is worthConsideration, — that, even if the orig in is p roved , it can onlybe a very small matter of interest, and would certainly notassist in the least with reg ard to tracing family history .
1 1 4
Should such orig in be simply traditional — the fact remainsthat all matters of tradition must be eliminated from g enealog y, as this science must rest upon facts alone — any such tradition can not truly be termed bits of family history .
”
The only correct way to compile and p rove a pedig ree isto commence with the earliest members contained in the family history in hand, and to trace back , step by step,viz . , g en
eration by g eneration, and supply incontrovertible proofs of
result, by extracts from records , reg isters, wills, etc .
A few years ag o a friend pickt up in a bookstore
in this city, and presented to me , a copy of the sec
ond edition of Goold Brown’s Grammar,
”
pub lisht
about 1 8 32 (for the title-pag e is missing and only the
certificate of copyrig ht remains to fix the date) . On
the inside of the cover is written , in a childish hand ,“ Susan A . Boss’ Book , Clark son , N . Y . The same
name occurs in other parts of the book , and once that
of “ Julia D . Boss ;” and in one instance the words
Clarkson Colag e ,” sig nifying that there may, some
time , have been a colleg e there , tho I have been un
able to find any mention of it in the only local his
tory that I could g et access to . There has never been
a Susan or a Julia in any branch of the family which
I have known , or in any of the collateral branches .
I have written to several parties at both Clarkson and
Brockport, but, tho I inclosed stamps for return post
ag e , I have received no reply . This , by the way, is
not an unusual experience with me .
Clarkson is a little place of about three hundred
inhabitants, in Monroe County, N . Y. , a few miles
from Rochester, the county seat , and about three
1 1 6
From a record of the Wilkinson Family I learn
that Hon . M . S . Wilkinson married a Sally Boss
only this,and nothing more . Morton Smith Wilkin
son was born at Skaneateles , N . Y. , in the central
part of that State , January 22, 1 8 1 9. H e settled in
Minnesota in 1 847, and in 1 8 59 was elected United
States Senator,holding that position until 1 8 65 . H e
served in the lower house of Cong ress from March 4 ,1 8 69, until March 3, 1 871 . Mr . Wilkinson died some
years ag o . One of his g randsons lives in Minnesota ,but , tho I have written him , explaining the obj ect of
this inquiry,he make s no sig n , and I am left in the
dark on those points concerning which I most desired
information .
“ The Germans (including the Dutch and Swiss
and a few Hug uenots) were practically the only for
eig ners in colonial times . In 1 727 a law was passed
requiring them to take the oath of alleg iance . All
males of and above sixteen years of ag e were com
p elled to do this .”6 The lists of the names of these
foreig ners have been compiled, indexed and pub lisht
as Vol . " VII, Second Series , Pennsylvania Archives .From this volume I have g athered a few items that
may sometime b e of interest to us .
The word qualified ” herein refers to the takingof the oath of alleg iance to King Georg e and the Prov
* Letter of Rev. A . Stapleton, A . M. , M. S. , in the C hicag o Daily N ews.
1 1 7
ince of Pennsylvania, which, it seems , was required
of all foreig ners immediately upon their arrival here
List of foreig ners imported in the ship Two Brothers,Thomas Arnott, Master, from Rotterdam . Qualified October
Johannes Bosch .
List of foreig ners imported in the ship Peg g y, JamesAbercrombie, Commander, from Rotterdam, last from Plym
outh. Qualifi ed September 24, 1 75 3 .
Franz Joseph Boss .
Foreig ners imported in the ship Nancy, Capt . John E w
ing , from Rotterdam , took and subscribed the usual oath and
declaration on Saturday, the 1 4th of September, 1 75 4 . [Inhabitants of Lorain ]
Christian Boss .
List of foreig ners imported in the ship Sally, John Osmond, Commander, from Rotterdam . Last from Portsmouth,E ng . Qualified Aug ust 23, 1 773 .
Johan Christoph Boss .
List of foreig ners imported in the ship Union, AndrewBryan, Captain, from Rotterdam , last from Cowes . QualifiedSeptember 30 , 1 774 .
Jacob Boss .
List of passeng ers per the ship Tom , Capt . F . R . C . Permein, Master, from Hamburg h. Arrived October 12, 1 8 0 2.
Johan Gotfried Bosse .
In the Newberry Library, in this city, is a quaint
volume , printed in Dutch, entitled Lesven en Daden
Der Doorbuchtig hste Zee -Helden en Outdeck ers van
Landen , Beser Euwen.
” Written by Lambert van
den Bos, 1 61 0 — 98 . Printed at Amsterdam 1 676 .
In Rose’s Biog raphical Dictionary, pub lisht in
London in 1 8 53, I find the following
1 1 8
BOS, the surname of some Dutch artists. Jerome, calledalso Bosche, born at Bois-le-Duc , about 1 470 , excelled in painting specters and other supernatural subjects, which g enerallyo ff ended by their extravag ance, in spite of a free hand and
skilful coloring , that g ive them considerable value as works ofart. He has, however, so painted some serious subjects as toavoid his faults, and yet exhibit the excellence really belonging to him . He was likewise an eng raver, and died about1 53 0 .
— Lewis Jauseu, also born at Bois-le -Duc, but rather earlier than the preceding , became eminent for painting flowers,fruits and plants, ordinarily g rouped in g lasses, or vases of
crystal, half fi lled with water. He died in 1 5 0 7.— G
’asp er Van
deu, a marine painter, born at Hoorn, in 1 634, is dis tinguishtby a lig ht free touch, a pleasing tint of color and an artfulmanner of handling . He died in 1 666 .
The same work g ives Lambert Bos, born Novem
b er 23, 1 670 , at Warcum , in Friesland (in the Nether
lands) , who became eminent as a scholar .
On pag e 1 12, in the list of members of the Dutch
Church in N ew York , I should have inserted :
Albert Bosch, en zyn urow hug/s, E lsje Blanck .
It seems tome that all the information I am able
to g ather is of a fragmentary,“ patchwork ” charac
ter. It is possible , however, that some of these odd
bits may afford clues to matters of much g reater im
portance . But — are we any nearer a solution of the
problem than when we beg an
I shall await your next letter with much interest,and hope that I may sometime b e able to present
something of g reater value than I have hitherto .
Yours very truly, HE N RY R . Boss .
120
belong ing to Lanarkshire , are on record in 1296 .
They held a small estate in the parish of East Kil
bride at that time , and from whom their lands took
the name of “
Boysfield.
”N ot that they g ave the
place this name themselve s ; but most likely it would
b e g iven to their possession by neig hbouring inhabit
ants,in much the same way as a farm in the state of
Minnesota , belong ing to my cousin Andrew Boss , son
of Andrew Boss and Jane Nicol of La Prairie , Rock
County, Wisconsin , was called Boss’ Corner by
people in the district . As it was a stopping -place for
stag e-coaches a g eneration since , this would possibly
lead to the desig nation, in a colloquial manner .
This place in Lanarkshire provides a g ood ex
ample oi the chang es which names underg o in the
course of time : In 1 41 6 the name is Boysfeld ; in
1 5 0 2— 4 it is Boysfeild and Boyisfeld ; about 1 640 and
1 68 0 it has become Bosfeld ; before 1793 it has set
tled into Bossfield, and retains this form until the
present time .
So far as I have seen , the early Boys proprietors
do not app ear to have continued long in possession ,as a part of it belong ed to anbther family in the year
1 41 6, and it had ag ain chang ed hands previous to
1 5 0 2. And there is no record of anyone of the name
Boss having belong ed to the parish or district at anytime . Mr . Ure , who was the parish clerg yman , g ives
a list of the surnames in the district when he wrote
his History of East Kilbride about 1 790 , and this one
is not among them ; neither do the parish records ,
121
which g o back to 1 68 8 , record any of this surname .
The name Galt, as we have seen connected with our
name in fiction, is found in the parish and neig hbour
hood at the end of the eig hteenth century ; and in all
probability the author of “
The Town Drummer ” bor
rowed his name for the character from this place .
From enquiry and consideration of the history of
our name in Scotland I think the true explanation of
the orig in and source of the name , as borne by those
in or from Scotland , who are all descended from one
common ancestor, must lie with the traditional ao
count as handed down by my ancestors . I confess
that I was rather skeptical of it at one time , but ,since looking into the matter, and having found other
traditions in the family to b e substantially correct, I
see no reason to doubt the g eneral accuracy of the
tradition , e specially in the lig ht of the evidence in
reg ard to the history of the name which I have been
able to collect .
The traditional account is that the name was
orig inally Boswell, or more probably Bosswell , as it
used to b e very often written , and that they had been
settled in the western district of Fifeshire for many
g enerations , where they possessed lands from father
to son , for three or four hundred years , on the terms
that it was to b e theirs so long as g rass g rew and water ran , and so long as it continued in the family
name by lineal succession . This latter provision
mig ht mean that if the male line failed the property
would return to the superior,or that the husband of
122
an heir female would b e required to take the family
name .
In the course of time it happened that a near
neig hbour and kinsman , traditionally spoken of as
The Laird ,” who
,my g randmother used to say, was
named David Bosswell , and my ancestor, also named
David Bosswell , were , throug h dwelling in the same 10
cality, often mistaken for one another by the post offi
cials, who are said to have sent up the letters , etc . in a
b ag once a week , the letters for one being delivered to
the other, and vice versa . To put a stop to the incon
venience caused by this misdelivery of letters , etc . ,it
was ag reed that my ancestor should drop the second
syllable of his name and use only the first one , which
his descendants have continued to use , with some ex
ceptions to b e mentioned further on . Thus it comes
about that another saying in my family, that all the
Scotch Bosse s are related to one another,just means
that they are all de scended from this one common
ancestor who chang ed his name . I have not asoer
tained when the chang e took place , but I suppose ,from the comparative freshness of the tradition , and
considering the political and social state of this coun
try during the second half of the seventeenth century,that the chang e was made about that time . Our tra
dition points to an ancestor immediately before my
g reat-g randfather, David Boss, 1 7 — 178 9, perhaps
his father,as the one who made the chang e . And I
suppose , from the traditional account , that they would
b e portioners or vassal kinsmen to the Laird , the chief
124
Leith , and Isobel Rosswell, his spouse , dated 1 5 th
April,1 695 . Isobel was a family name , and my
g reat-g randfather also had a daug hter so named .
As showing how the tradition has been kept alive
in the family,I remember my father telling me that
about 1 820 , when his father was thinking of removingfrom Sunnyside farm , in the parish of Saline , at the
approaching expiry of the lease , he was offered the
farm of Bandrum,in the same parish
,by the proprie
tor, at a fixed rent , to him and his heirs for as longas g rass g rew and water ran , and so long as the fam
ily name continued in succession . Somehow he did
not accept this offer, but removed to the farm of Over
Dalkeith (situated in a hilly country and so named to
disting uish it from Lower or Nether Dalkeith) , in
the adjoining parish of Fossoway , Perthshire , where
he finished his earthly career in 1 8 37, and was in
terred in Saline churchyard beside his kindred . His
wife , Marg aret Graham ,— twin daug hter of David
Graham in B ellsdyk e , parish of Airth , Sterling shire ,by his first wife
,Lily Boyd
,survived him for about
twenty-five years , and was buried in the same g round ,where their monumental stone bears record alongwith other stones of their kindred . My g randfather
had the reputation in his day of a capable farmer and
being particular to have all his affairs decently in or
der, and while still in the flesh he secured a last
resting -place for himself and his beloved wife, as the
headstone is dated 1 8 17, the year of its erection . I
g ive herewith a facsimile of his sig nature , from his
125
last Disposition and Settlement , executed at Dun
fermline on the 23d September, 1 8 36 , when he was
about eig hty years of ag e . The settlement is too long
to quote here with its various provisions for the dis
position of his e state and provision for his wife . But
his sig nature may interest some of his de scendants
on your side of the g reat pond .
A g enealog ical account of the Boswells of Bal~
muto , Fifeshire , formerly the chief of the name here ,was g iven by Sir Robert Doug las , in his Baronag e of
Scotland , published in 1798 ; but in the early g enera
tions , besides other errors , there is no proof of the
succession as g iven by him . Althoug h their numbers ,so far as recorded , are not g reat in the twelfth
,thir
teenth and fourteenth centuries , they are found in
sufficient numbers , and in a variety of positions , to
g ive rise to doubt in family succession , in absence of
writ ten evidence . But there is no doubt that those
of the name in the south of Scotland belong ed to the
same family stock .
From an examination of the name Boswell in
Scotland it appears that our abbreviation of the name
was simply an adoption of the ancient practice of
contracting the name in writ ten records , and an
ciently it was also a heraldic practice for bearers of
126
the name to carry on their shields an allusive fig ure ,as denoting the first syllable of their family name ,But this will b e better understood if I g ive a sketch
of the name from its first appearance in our island,
and it will b e seen that chang es in the name are not
a new thing .
Like the B ois family and many others , the Bos
wells are descended from one or more of the numerous
adventurers who came over with William Duke of
Normandy in 1 0 66, or soon thereafter . This was a
land for colonization at that time,and doubtless
many would arrive at intervals during the Norman
period . In M . Leopold de Lisle’s list of the chief
men who accompanied Duke William , two of the
names are mentioned under what evidently was a
place-name ; their names are Guill aume de Biville
and Hanfroie de Biville . Perhaps they were from one
of the places of this name , in the district between
Rouen on the Seine and Dieppe on the coast, Saint
Valery, the port of embarkation , occupying a position
in the same neig hborhood .
Boville as a place -name is also found in the same
di strict , and probably g ave rise to a separate sur
name ; we will take note of the arms of this name
presently . And of course many came over of whom
there is no record of when they first landed on this
island,both before and after the Conquest in the lat
ter part of the eleventh century. Soon after the Nor
man settlement , the name s de Bevill,” de Boevill,”
“
de Bovile,
”etc . are found spread over Eng land in
128
vid and his brother King Malcolm,and others , previ
ous to his accession ; althoug h this charter is undated ,it would probably b e g ranted soon after he became
King , as the monks are said to have been very careful
to obtain confirmation of their possessions from each
new sovereig n without undue delay . And the position
which the record of the g ift occupies , in the list of
donations , in the charter — occurring , as it doe s ,among those first mentioned as belong ing to the Ab
b ey— favours a very early date for the time when
the g ift was made . Kelso Abbey was founded there
about 1 126, and the Abbey Church about two years
later, by King David of pious memory . There are
no remains of the Abbey building s surviving to our
time ; but from the stately fragment of the church
remaining to this day , we g ather that the architecture
is mixed in style , althoug h chiefly Norman in its
main feature s of massive streng th and endurance and
severity of decorative portions ; passing into the more
g raceful first pointed, or Early Eng lish style , typify
ing a period of transition in stone and mortar, and
coincident with the chang es which the Norman name s
were underg oing during the same era, when a collat
eral welding proces s was taking place among the vari
ous peoples in the country, Saxons , Scots , Normans ,Eng lish, etc .
,who had settled there under David , our
first feudal King .
The spelling of the name in this transcript repre
sents the orthog raphy of the time when the reg ister
was made from the orig inal document , and the time
129
of the transcript has been found by the editor of the
record to b e of the first quarter of the fourteenth cen
tury . The orig inal spelling , in all likelihood,would
b e more akin to the following example of the name
from the same neig hbourhood, and of the same pe
riod, but from the contemporary orig inal record .
About 1 1 64— 74 the Liber de Mailros records the
earliest instance of the abbreviated form of the name,
so far as I have seen, when a dd de or David
de Boiuil, witnesses a charter of lands in Teviotdale ,lying just under the Merse , the river Tweed runningbetween the two, and the Teviot emptying its waters
into the Tweed at Kelso . The lands witnessed to, in
this charter, are situated to the east of Jedburg h, inthe parishes of Hownam and Morebattle ; and I would
note here the early Occurrence of the name near Jcdburg h, in Teviotdale , and its form , as it foreshadows
a variety of the name to b e found in the succeedingcenturie s ; also the Christian name of this witne ss isnoteworthy, being the first occurrence of David
, sug
g esting the influence of King David on the colonists
whom he was the means of planting in this district ,and it would b e quite natural for a colonist of this
time to call one of his sons after his benefactor . From
a consideration of these two early instances of the
name I am inclined to place the arrival of the name
in the district during the first thirty years of the
twelfth century.
The next bearer of the name found connected
with Teviotdale is Robert de Boseuill or Bosuile , as
1 30
his name is variously written , between the years 1 175
and 1 1 8 8 , who appears to have been a man of posi
tion in this district, as a juryman and as a witnes s to
various important matters . Then we require to pass
over a few years until about 1224,when we have a
Henry de Boyville witnessing a charter of the landsof Lesseline , Aberdeenshire , g ranted by John, Earl of
Hunting don, in Eng land, which was an appanag e of
the Scottish crown at this time ; he was a g reat
g randson of King David the First, and the g rantee
was Norman , son of Malcolm , who became the pro
g enitor of the Leslies , who afterwards took the name
of this property as their family surname, and became
the Leslies of that ilk . The place where this charter
was g ranted is not mentioned, but most of the wit
nesses appear to b e Scotsmen — one of them named
de Lamberton,” apparently of the place so called in
the Merse , Berwickshire . And this Henry may b e theparty referred to by Nisbet, the g reat Scottish herald,who
,writing about 1720 , says that he had seen a
charter of the lands of Oxmuir, in the Merse, in favour of the Boswells , of the time of King Alexander
the Second, 121 4- 49, but whom he does not particu
larize . How long they possessed lands at Oxmuir I
do not know, but we will find the name there ag ain .
Meanwhile , to preserve the chronolog ical order, let us
pass into the adj acent county of Dumfries .
In Annandale , at the court of Sir Robert Brus ,lord thereof, we have , on July 29, 1249, as a witness
to a g rant of lands , William de Boyville, who proba
1 32
land into Teviotdale , passing Jedburg h and Rox
burg h, on into Lothian . Another Roman road ran
north from Carlisle , in Cumberland , on the west,throug h Ayrshire , to the vicinity of Glasg ow, where
we shall also see a branch of the family settled before
the middle of the thirteenth century .
Now, returning to the southern district of Scot
land , at the county town of Peebles , on July 4, 1259,at an inquisition held there on certain lands , before
the justices of Lothian, we have a Rog er de Bodevillserving as a juror . If I mistake not , the third letter
of the name is a clerical error, and perhaps he is the
same person who is placed third in Doug las’account
of the family .
Passing to the Merse ag ain, we learn from Kelso
Abbey rent-roll, drawn up in 1290 , and the earliest
rent-roll which has been pre served till our time , that
William de Bosuile , of the parish of Hume, paid an
annual rent of two shilling s and six pence, two hun
dred eg g s , and four days’work . This would b e for
lands held by him there — in all likelihood the farm of
Oxmuir, extending at the present day to a little over
two hundred acres . The modern farmsteading stands
close by the site of a previous one , and I am informed
that an ancient setting of small causeway stones has
been come upon about five feet under the present surface
, on the old site . There used also to b e a number
of very Old trees close to the farm — a sure sig n of
long -continued occupation ; but they were all blown
down about twenty years ag o, during a g reat storm .
1 33
The situation of Oxmuir is on a southern sunny slope ,about six hundred feet above the sea level, from which
a g reat expanse of the Merse is beheld, with Kelso lying at the base , about five mile s distant, on the riverTweed , and beyond it Teviotdale .
And passing into Teviotdale , we find the Bishop
of Carlisle , in July, 1293, empowering the Abbot of
Jedburg h to absolve the clerg y within his jurisdiction
who had been excommunicated for delaying to pay
the tenth g ranted for the crusade to the Holy Land ,proclaimed at this time ; and in September followingthe Bishop reports that one William de Boyvill hasobdurately sustained a sentence of excommunication
for forty days and more , and asking the aid of the
secular power to enforce payment . Generally the
Scots at this time appear to have been very unwillingto pay this tax, as this same Bishop made another
effort, two years after, to recover tenths still unpaid .
But of how William finished his resistance to this im
post there is no record . It required no little courag e
to withstand an all -powerful, despotic church, in such
a superstitious ag e , in this country, and we can hardly
realize the effect of church thunder on all the relations
of the offender who came under the ban of the church ;it was a strict boycott of him and his, in every way .
Thi s member of the family appears to have been
a man of substance in the neig hbourhood of Jedburg h,and I take him to b e a de scendant of David de Boivil ,already mentioned in the same locality in the previous
century ; and it is worth while to note the spelling of
1 34
the name in both cases , as we shall have occasion tomention him ag ain .
We have now arrived at the time when armorialevidence becomes available , so let us look at the her
aldic fig ures of the early:b earers of the name . By the
middl e of the thirteenth century the name g enerally
has become somewhat more bovine in the spelling ,leading the old bearers to indul g e in allusive or cant
ing armorials , and no doubt the
armorial fig ure s would have a
strong reflex influence on the
name . We will beg in with the
Eng lish families , as they were the
earliest settlers in this country ;and we find in Tristram Risdon
’s
notebook, compiled early in the
seventeenth century, that RadolArg ent , a bul l passant
g ule s . phus Beov1ll, of Cornwall County,between 1231 and 1272, carried : Arg ent , a bull passant
g ules . And Sir Reg inaldus Beavill of Gwarnock , inthe same county, about 1289- 90 , also carried the samearms . A later variation of this armorial, borne by
the same name in Eng land, is, Ermine , a bull passant
g ules , armed and ung uled Or .
In Suffolk,ag ain , those of the name Bovill, as
William de Bovill bore on his seal, between 1272 and
1 30 7, a shield quarterly — probably, Quarterly Or and
sable ; as one of this name , in the same county, in a
roll of arms compiled between 1 30 8 — 1 4, had his arms
blazoned quarterly in these tinctures . Other mem
1 36
Boseville , del counte de Roxburg h, on whose seal isthe same charg e , a bull
’s head cabossed, and the legend, S’Will’i de Boyvile .
” Seals at this time do notshow the heraldic colours of the shields , but in heraldic practice these two shields would b e differencedin the colouring . Also in heraldic law,
the head,when
shown on a shield, is held to rep
resent the whole animal, in much
the same way as , in portraiture ,the head indexes the whole person .
And please note the variation in
spelling of the name of this Rox
burg hshire representative, whom Itake to b e the same man that we
A bul l’s head cabossed . have seen defying the church in
1293 , near Jedburg h, Teviotdale .
Eustace de Boyvill e , del counte de Dunfres, whoseseal bears
,a saltire and on a chief a bull’s head couped
fes sways,with the leg end, S
’Eus Boiws
i
tl
at
l
paqlr
gfr
l
i
z
e
gghi re,
tacii de Boiwill. This is the representative of theAnnandale branchof the name , already mentioned in
1249 ; and they are said to have
continued, in the main line , in pos
session of the property at Wham
phrey, till the year 1 5 1 3, when an
heir female married into the Johns
ton family and carried the prop A salfi refi nd 0 11 8 0m a
bull’s head couped fesserty w1th her.
ways :
The other three , whose seals have not come down
1 37
to us , are : William de Boseville , del counts de Berwyke - the same , in all probability, who is mentioned
in Kelso Abbey rent-roll of 1290 , and of the parish of
Hume , in that county ; Richard de Boyvile , del countsde Are ; and another William de Boseville , burg ess ofRoxburg h , acting in his official cap acity of councillor,tog ether with the alderman and other ten councillors ,who take the oath of fealty on behalf of the commu
nity and town of Roxburg h , in token whereof theyaffix the burg h seal . And perhaps a seventh repre
sentative in the person of William Bule , del counts
de Are .
The various spelling s of the name are worthy of
note , as they indicate the forms it was to assume
after this time , in the various b ranches settled in dif
ferent localities of Scotland . There were three main
branche s : One settled in Teviotdale and the adj oining Merse , one in Annandale and one in Ayrshire .
The Ayrshire and Annandale families both ap
pear on record about the middle of the thirteenth cen
tury, in their respective localities ; and a peculiarity
in the spelling of their name , so far as I have seen,is
the absence of the letter 3,and in the course of time
it easily slipped into one syllable,as we find it writ
ten,in 1 362, Boyll ; in 1 367, Boyuil ; in 1 460 , Thomas
Bullyn,the canon of Glasg ow,
bears a bull’s head
cabossed on his seal ; in 1 482, Boyle ; in 1 5 0 0 , Boyl ;in 1 5 12, Boyle . The chief family of the name in Ayr
shire were the Boyvils of Caulburne , or, as it has b ecome modernly , B oyle of Kelburn ,
in the district of.
Cunning ham , North Ayrshire . They were advanced to
1 38
the peerag e in the seventeenth century, as Earls of
Glasg ow, and they still are proprietors of Kelburn ,
which they have held at least from the middle of the
thirteenth century . Their family arms are : Or, three
bucks’horns g ul es ; and , allowing for chang es made
in the course of time , possibly these tincture s would
b e the heraldic colours of Robert de Boyvil, the bearerof the bull’s head cabossed in 1296 .
Returning to Teviotdale , in the county of Box
burg h, where we have seen the name on re cord b e
tween 1 1 64 and 1 1 75 , under the contracted form de
or de Boiuill, and finding the name on the seal
in 1 296 as de Boyvile , with the bull’s head cabossedas armorial bearing s , I think there is no doubt even
thoug h we find one recorded in the same locality with
the s in the name or the Latinized form ,which is easily
accounted for by the clerkly habit of the scribe — but
that the local pronunciation would b e something like
as if it had been spelled Bule .
” Then ,ag ain , Will
iam de Boyvile , - to take the spelling on his seal,of the county of Roxburg h or Teviotdale , swears fealty ,in Aug ust , 1296 , at Berwick , along with a small g roup
of chief men from the same district , among whom are
some well-known names in the section round Jed
burg h, for centuries after this time ; one of the be st
known being the Baron of Cavers , on the Teviot .
The heraldic bearing of the bull, or the bull’s
head , are arms parlantes , or arms hinting at the
name of the bearer ; and in the course of time the
armorial fig ure would have some influence in chan
1 40
the bear’s head is for Baron Forbe s ; the brock may
b e for Mackenzie , Baron of Kintail ; the beam and
bloody yoke for Hay, Earl of Errol ; the three cre s
cents for Seton -Gordon,Marquis of Huntly, cock 0
’
the north ; and the cinquefoil for the Lord Living s
ton. But , whatever the exact reference s may b e ,there is no doubt that the writer is indebted for his
fig urative allusions to the days of heraldic display and
p ag eantry , when armorial bearing s displayed in the
field on b anner or shield were enoug h to p roclaim the
presence of more or less disting uished name s .
After the year 1296 the name de Boyvile disappears from thevicinity of Jedburg h, to reappear inthe neig hbourhood of Selkirk in 1 31 5 , as Turnbull or
Tornebule , and well on in this century, after underg o
ing this transformation ,it ag ain comes to lig ht in the
records as e stab lished near Jedburg h,where the name
of Turnbull has always b een most numerous , bscom
T u mb uumms .ing one of the strong est border
clans of stark moss - troopers in
Teviotdale . They continued to
use the bull ’s head cabossed as
their armorial ensig n , as in 1 439
John Turnbul,Bishop of Ross
,
and in 1 45 1 W illiam Turnbull ,Bishop of Glasg ow and founder
Arg ent , a b um h ead wof the University there , — both
boss“ Bab ‘ea am ed O rsons of Teviotdale familie s , - and
Turnbull of Minto, Teviotdale , in 1 45 5 , all bore a
bull’s head cabossed on their shields . And then
1 41
some wealthy and pious one — or more probably a
number of them , perhap s the whole clam— contrib
utes to build and re store a part of Jedburg h Ab b ey
about 1 48 0 , when the family shield bearing the bull’s
head cabossed was placed on a buttress to commem
orate their g ood work , as was the fashion of that
time ; remaining there to this day as a memori al of
the name , buttressing the church which their prede
cessor of the year 1293 defied so obdurately . And
here I would note the colouring of their armorial
shields , namely, a white shield with the bull’s head
cabossed sab le ; so coloured in the oldest heraldic
re cords , the Armorial de Berry , about 1 45 0 , g ivingthree bulls’heads cabossed , two and one sable
,armed
Or ; and the spelling of the name as Tourneb oulle .
These colours and those of the Fifeshire Boswells’
arms are identical , althoug h the fig ures are different,which will b e seen when we come to consider them .
I am aware of the popular story of the orig in of
the name Turnbull, but it is very doubtful if it was
applied to any other than the Philliphaug h family in
Selkirkshire , unle ss the whole clan chang ed their
name by prefixing the syllable Turn,in the four
teenth century ; but the more likely way is that the
first syllable would b e floating among them for some
time before it became fixed to the family name , and
I am inclined to think it would orig inally b e derived
from a place -name . Perhap s the ancestor of the fam
ily who settled in Teviotdale in the twelfth centurymay have posse ssed lands called Turn , and his des
1 42
cendants , as they multiplied toward the beg inning of
the fourteenth century,would b e called Turn-Bouils
,
to disting uish them from their neig hbours and kinsm en
,the Boyuills or Bosseuylls of the Merse
,or per
hap s for some more local reason . There is at least
one place in Teviotdale called Torn or Turn ; and itwas a common enoug h practice for a surname to b e
attached to a place -name by way of distinction . Justto mention one near Kelso
,called Newton Don ; this
was orig inally the Newt own , or Little Newton, and
after coming into the posse ssion of a family named
Don it g ot the addition of this family name,or collo
quially the proprietor would b e N ewtondon.
Before quitting this matter I would note that the
common p ronunciation , in Teviotdale,of the name
Turnbull is Trumell, and the se are much farther re
moved from one another than Bule is from Boiuil or
de Boyvile , the orig inal family name . Nisbet , the
Scottish herald,in 1722, says the name of this family
was Ruel orig inally , but he g ive s no authority for the
statement .
Sweet Teyotfi'
well do I remember the happy days
of childhood on the banks of your clear stream , when
I have bathed in thee , during summer’s heat,and
sported in the cold of winter on your frozen waters,
and with childish awe beheld the rush of your torrents
when in spate t
Lo cal , Teyot T
'
Feviot t In sudden flood .
1 44
the annual fair of St . James on the site of the ancient
burg h . In conformity with his position as a man of
substance , he had his own seal — an indispensable
adjunct to a man of affairs in medieval Scotland .
How I should have liked if an impre ssion of his seal
had come down to our time " About 1 338 , while he
was Alderm an,his wife , Isabella dc Merlinton, g ave
one acre of land in Broxlawe , in the territory of New
ton,
— the modern Newton Don , — to the canons of
Dryburg h Abbey , out of piety for the health of her
own soul,and of her husband , her ancestors and
succe ssors . From this we learn that they had a fam
ily ; and as one of the witnessing burg e sse s to docu
ments , in the town , is William de Bosevile,during
the time our Alderman was in office , I am inclined to
think we have a son of his also a Burg e ss of the town .
Also contemporary with the Councillor, in the
town,we find one Alexander de Bos, or Boeville , as
his name is entered in the contracted and full forms ,in the Exchequer Rolls , recording the e scheat of his
g oods to the King , and the amount of eleven pounds
and ten shilling s , as received therefor, by the Cham
b erlain of Scotland , who presided in the court , held
at Roxburg h , while on his yearly eyre , or circuit j our
ney, sometime between June , 1 328 , and December,1 329, when he visited the Royal Burg h and market
town,and held a court to try certain causes pertain
ing to burg hal law . This contraction of the name is
found occasionally after this , and we have seen a very
early example of it about 1 1 64 , in the same district ,
1 45
and we shall refer to other instances , occurring after
a similar interval of time . In what relationship this
Alexander stood to the Aldermanwe have no evidence ,but it is interesting to find so many of the family
on record , connected with this ancient burg hal com
munity .
The places called Newton and Broxlawe lie abouttwo miles north from Kelso , close to the Eden Water.
Newton was orig inally in the parish of Edenham or
Ednam , and had a chapel subject to the mother
church of St . Cuthbert of Ednam . About the mid
dle of the twelfth century, as already noticed , we have
seen Pag ani de Bosseuille g ifting one bovate of land
in this parish to the Abbey of Kelso ; and where we
find,at a later date , the family name apparently pos
sessing lands in the same parish , as witness the pious
donation of the Alderman’s wife , in the g ift of one
acre of land lying here . And it also happens that ,for upwards of three centurie s after the date of Isa
bella’s g ift , lands lying in Newton were called Bos
well’s lands , so named in 1 598 ; and ag ain called
Boswal-lands in 1 642, and described as extending to
two carucates , or two hundred and eig ht acres . Tak
ing all the circumstance s into consideration , so far as
I have seen,this appears to have been the place where
the name was first settled , north of the Tweed , early
in the twelfth century .
Now to notice the remaining one named in the
Ragman Roll of 1296 , William de Roseville , of the
county of Berwick . There is no doubt this is the
1 46
same that we have seen in the rent-roll of Kelso Ah
b ey in 1290 , as occupying lands in the parish of
Hume , to the north of Kelso . And we have seen N is
b et , the herald , mention them there , ln Oxmuir, b e
tween 121 4 and 1 249. The Boswells must have been
settled here very early, as they also left their name
behind them attached to lands in the parish ; for by
a retour of inquest , among the Earl of Home’s MSS. ,
dated l 6th April , 1 5 5 1 , mention is made that the lands
called Boswellands, in the town of Home , are held in
chief of the Abbot and convent of Kelso , for service ,and are valued at four pounds yearly . Then in 1 60 5
the same lands are described as lying in the eastern
part of the town of Hume , above Burrig , and extend
ing to a husbandland , or twenty-six acres . The name ,as applied to these lands , appears to b e quite forg ot
ten locally , but the field called the Burrig s is still
pointed out ; and from an examination of the g round
this husbandland appears to lie to the north of it, and
separated from Oxmuir, on the east , by the roadway .
From the se circumstances , probably, the husbandland
would b e the holding of a young er son of the family,unless it was a part of Oxmuir in their time .
The town of Home , or Hume , is a quaint old sur
vival of a medieval villag e , and has been in a state ofdecay for many years ; the houses nestling along the
slopes , with their ancient g ardens stretching behind
them ,containing visible evidence of the cultivation of
many past g enerations , who lived in the villag e , and
now sleep in St. Nicholas’ churchyard under the
1 48
nlate to the besieg ers throug h fortune of war. The
prisoners were marched to Roxburg h or Marchmount"e
Castle , and sent off from thence , in detachments , to
various castle s in Eng land ; two knig hts and four es
quire s , of whom Walter was one , being sent to N ot
ting ham Castle , on May l 6th of that year. H e appears
to have been kept in durance for a considerable time ,as on November 23 , 1298 , the King orders the Sheriff
of Notting ham to pay Michael Mig g le and Walter de
Boseville , e squires , Scottish prisoners in Notting hamCastle , three pence each , and their warder two pence ,daily . Their fellow prisoners who were sent to this
castle all appear to have been liberated before this
time , which may b e accounted for by a practice , in
that ag e , of holding prisoners of war to ransom , and
becoming part of the busines s of war, some captures
proving a valuable reward for the risks of warfare .
Walter does not appear to have been able to buy him
self out of prison , as we ag ain meet with him at the
end of September in 1299, when the same Sheriff has
a warrant for moneys paid to Walter de Bozeville ,Michael de Mig g le and Rog er le Clerk, esquires , Scot
tish prisoners ; and Michael is fortunate in g ettingdeliverance from prison, leaving Rog er, who had been
transferred from another castle , to keep Walter com
pany . How long after this he remained in prison,or
if he sig hed for a sig ht of the Merse land and his
* This is written Marchmound , Marchmont or Marchmount .
1 49
friends , does not appear by the hard , dry facts of
record .
In 1 329, the Exchequer Rolls record a payment
of thirteen pounds six shilling s and eig ht pence , as
paid to William de Boswill , at Scone , - an ancient
seat of the Scottish court, adj acent to the city of
Perth, — on behalf of Sir Alexander de Setoun,a
landowner in Lothian and Berwickshire , and four
years after this Governor of the town of Berwick . We
can not localize this member of the family, but he
apparently was a trusted ag ent of the representative
of one of the foremost Norman families in Scotland ;and if he was not the Alderman of Roxburg h, or a
son of his, most likely he would b e a son of the Ox
muir or Hume family .
About the middle of the fourteenth century, or
after 1 345 , the name disappears from the southern
district of Scotland . Perhaps in these troublous times
their fortune s had waned , and in c onsequence they
would not b e in a position to b e placed on record .
But the name does not appear to have died out alto
g ether, as one representer, called Robin Boswel, is
found witnes sing a document in the vernacular, at
Melrose Abbey, on the 2l st of September, 1 5 35 . And
here we would note the parish called St . Boswell s ,next to Meh'
ose , a comparatively modern appellation,dating from the beg inning of the seventeenth century,and named after St . Roisel, a seventh-century preacher
here , but doubtless influenced by the surname in the
district . Shortly before the middle of the fourteenth
1 5 0
century, when the name sink s out of sig ht in the
Merse , or border district, it makes its first appear
ance on record in Fifeshire , and afterward the chief
seat of the name .
We have now reached the period when the name
first appears as settled in Fifeshire . Before proceed
ing to sketch the history of the name there , which I
hope to do at another time , I will collect a fragment
or two here in reference to matters m entioned in pre
vions pag e s .At pag e 1 1 7 you g ive the name s of six sea cap
tains as carrying settlers to the continent of America
in the eig hteenth century . The first three Thomas
Arnott , master of the Two Brothers , Jame s Aber
crombie , commander of the P eg g y, and John Ewing ,captain of the N ancy
— are all bearers of Scotch
name s found in Fifeshire . I have already referred to
the continual intercourse between the east coast of
Scotland and the opposite coasts of Germany, H ol
land,France , etc . ,
and it is interesting to find Scotch
sailors eng ag ed in trading between the continent of
Europe and the N ew World . The names Arnott and
Abercrombie are taken from place s so named in Fife
shire,and I don’t know if there may b e any connec
tion between Captain Arnott’s Two Brothers and
Captain Boss’ Three B rothers , mentioned by you at
p ag e 21 ; but, curiously enoug h, the Arnott family
and the Bosswells in Fife shire had intercourse with
each other in centuries past , for they were neig h
bours .
1 52
quarter-deck of the Victory. The King also recognized Captain Boss’ service s by presenting him some
piece s of g old plate . After the passing of the ReformBill in 1 8 32, the Captain was elected to Parliament
C apt,“ Boss cm t and m otto .for Northallerton , in his na
tive county .
I have pleasure in sub
j oining Captain Boss’crest
which, I believe , commemo
rates an important act of
service done by him — and
his motto : EVE RY MAN AC
O ll t o f a naval corone t , an arm ,
C ORDING To HIS W ORKS .
m hand a b i l le t, all proper. It appears the name 18
found in Yorkshire frequently, but as to its orig in
there I have no information . Whether derived from
an early Saxon or Danish settler, or from the place
called Bossall in that county, or whether it is the con
traction for Bosswell, is undecided . There has been
a long line of the Boswell family in Yorkshire , from
the twelfth century downwards , and the name there
has underg one various chang es in the spelling , the
contraction being made use of in records , if not in
actual living intercourse .
I remain Yours faithfully,
WM. GRAHAM Boss .
1 53
H enry R . Boss to William Graham Boss .
CHICAGO, September 30 , 1 90 1 .
Mr. William Graham Boss .My Dear Sir : Over three years have now elapsed
since this correspondence between us beg an . To me
it has been a source of much pleasure . It has been
extended far beyond any limits that either of us,prob
ably, anticipated . I deeply reg ret that I have been
able to contribute so little on my side ; but I rejoice
that you have g athered so much . I have , however,labored under g reat difficulties , a portion of which
unnecessary to mention here — I could not anticipate .
In addition to being a very busy man , all my wak
ing hours being fully occupied with various affairs in
addition to the everlasting bread-and-butter question
and other cares , — I have for the g reater part of the
last half-century or more been absent from my birth
place and my native State , and hundreds of miles
from the most likely sources of information, while the
older members of my family — the conservators of the
family traditions have died and left no sig n . Docu
mentary source s of information have been out of my
reach, even if any such exist .
The truth is, the pioneers in this country were too
busy making history to b e able to devote much time
to the writing of it . Even when my father settled in
the western part of the State of N ew York , which I
think must have been about 1 825 — 30 , he was thoug ht
1 54
to have g one beyond the bounds of civilization — to
the then Far West . Of postal facilities there were
few and the rates of postag e so nearly prohibitory that
communications between families so separated were ,like ang els
’visits , few and far between . Small won
der is it , then , that we have so few records from which
to draw material for family historie s
Your theories reg arding the orig in of and the nu
merous chang es in our family name seem to b e fairly
well supported by the facts you adduce . The meag er
records I have been able to find and the transcripts I
have g iven therefrom would seem to indicate that lik e
chang es , tho not so numerous , have been g oing on in
this country since the name was planted here . For
instance , reference to the extracts from the Reg ister
of the Old Dutch Church at King ston, N . Y. , g iven on
pag es 56— 64, shows the possibility, and even probab il
ity, of unlook ed-for variations . The record of bap
tisms in the same church , referred to on pag e 65 , dis
covers stil l worse ariations, some of the later recorded
names running into Terb osch a name which would
hardly b e suspected of any relationship to Boss . If
you are correct in your supposition that the name
may even have been connected with the armorial bear
ing s of the Turnbull family, we need not b e surprised
at any other of the numerous variations that you have
recorded .
Dr . A . Hamilton, the well-known filolog ist and
spelling -reformer, of Toronto, Ontario , Can . , writes
me as follows :
1 56
manag er or dictator of a party org anization, especially one whouses such leadership arbitrarily or for private or partizan purposes ; the head of a “ ring .
”
It will b e observed that all the se authorities g ive
the Dutch word baas as the orig inal of the term . The
Century Dictionary, however, g oes into the etymolog y
more fully, and shows how the word has had or may
have had other sig nifications than those g iven above .
The following is interesting :
Middl e Dutch, baes, master of the house, also a fri end ;feminine, baesinne, mistress of the house, also a friend ; cog natewith Flemish baes, parallel with Low German baas, master,foreman (derived from Danish bas, master ) , parallel with O ldHig h German basa, and with Middl e Hig h German base,
feminine, aunt, German base, feminine, cousin (dialecticallyalso aunt, niece ) , apparently ultimately identical with Germanwase, cog nate with Low German wase, feminine, cousin, aunt.The word , in the masculine, seems to have meant kinsman,cousin,” and to have been used especially as referring to themaster of the household, the chief “ k insman ” in fact or bycourtesy.
There are numerous other definitions of the word
g iven in the dictionaries , several of them of a tech
nical character, as in architecture, bookbinding and
other arts , and others of an humorous k ind .
I have been endeavoring to learn at what time
my g reat-uncle , Peter Boss , settled in We stern N ew
York, but, so far, without success . Mrs . Mary A .
Avery (mother of Mis s Marie Avery, a letter from
whom is printed on pag e 20 ) writes me from Utica,N . Y as follows
1 57
As to the time when my g reat-g randf ather, Peter Boss,settled in Chautauqua County, I have no knowledg e ; but itmust have been considerably over one hundred years ag o .
It was in this Mohawk Valley that the Boss brothers settled , on lands deeded to them by the Indians . These landswere situated between the sites of Rome and Troy, N. Y.
Grandmother Amy Boss Jackson has told me many a quaintstory of their adventures and experiences . I g reatly reg retthat I can not now recall any o f them .
A few days since , I was reading the proof of a
mailing -list for an outside party, and came across
the name of Dunn , Boss C o . , at Milton , Wis. I atonce wrote Mr . Boss,
” and have received the follow
ing interesting and hig hly satisfactory reply
MILTON , W is ., September 25 , 1 90 1 .
Mr. Henry R. Boss , Chicag o , Ill.Dear Sir : While I was absent your letter came, and on
my return it was not handed to me for several days ; but Ihope that what I have written will be of interest to you. Ishould judg e that we come of the same stock .
My g reat-g reat-g reat-g randfather came from Holland .
He was a sea-captain, and on his first voyag e to this countrylanded at Newp ort, R. I. He was so well pleased with thecountry that he soon made another trip hither, bring ing withhim two brothers, one of whom settled at Narrag ansett andthe other in New York State. My ancestor, whose name wasEdward , settled in Newport ; our family are descended fromthis one .
My g reat-g randfather married Eliza who was of
Irish descent . They had two daug hters — Betsy and Polly ;
* In the list o f “ Am erican Descendants o f E dward Boss,furnisht b y Mr. Ro b ert P . Boss, o f Bo ston, this nam e is g iven as
Linscom . (See pag e H . R . B.
1 5 8
also five sons . The sons were . Joseph, who was a bak er ; E dward and Philip, who were both officers in the navy ; Johnwas president of one of the Newport banks ; and William , my
g randfather Boss, who married Edith Dick inson Prior. My
g randfather was born in 1 763, his wife in 1 773 ; they weremarried in 1 793 . They had fourteen children, as follows
Eliza Liscom, b. Aug ust 1 1 , 1 794.
Christopher Prior, b. May 20 , 1 796.
Marthy Dickinson, b . November 20 , 1 797.
William Davis, ,
b . April 1 0 , 1 799.
Thomas Lisoom,b . April 23, 1 8 0 1 .
Sarah Prior, b. June 1 1 , 1 8 0 2.
Ro bert Prior, b. February 21 , 1 8 0 4.
Charles Prior, b . Aug ust 28 , 1 8 0 5 .
John Henry, b . Aug ust 23, 1 8 0 6.
Abbie, b . April 1 9, 1 8 0 8 .
Philip Martin, b. January 1 9, 1 8 1 0 .
Charles Dickinson, b. March 12, 1 8 12.
Joseph, b . December 20 , 1 8 1 4 .
Katherin Gardner, b . March 1 0 , 1 8 1 6.
Joseph Boss, my father, came from Newport, R. I. , whena b oy, and lived the rest of his life in Little Genesee, All eg anyCounty, N. Y. He was m arried to Eliza Crandall Decembe r25 , 1 8 39 ; they had two children Susan Mariah Boss, b . July7, 1 8 42, and Martin Prior Boss, b . March 31 , 1 845 . Susan M.
married James Harry Ing raham , October 6, 1 870 , and theyhave made Providence, R. I . , their home, where they run theBreezy Bluff House
,a summer hotel ; they have two children
Fred Fadden Ing raham ,b . September 1 0 , 1 8 73 , and Louis
Harry Ing raham , b . May 8 , 1 8 79. Martin Prior Boss marriedLaura S . Gallag her, July 25 , 1 8 70 ; she died July 24, 1 8 8 8 .
They had three children — Helen W insmore Boss , b . June 1 0 ,1 8 74 , Laura Boss , b . April (and died in infancy )and Ira Crane Boss , b . December Martin P . Boss
has followed mining eng ineering , and is now President of theAmerican Bank of the City of Mexico .
1 60
State. I k nowvery little about the Bosses, as I was born inMichig an, near Jonesville . Then father moved to Wisconsinwhen I was three years Old, and to Minnesota when I waseleven. I enlisted, when eig hteen, in 1 8 62, and served threeyears in the Sixth Minnesota Volunteer Inf antry. This townor postoffice I named in 1 891 .
Mr. Sidney Smith, Of Boston , Mass . , — who , like
myself, was born at Forestville , N . Y. ,— sends me
the only authentic information I have been able to
obtain concerning the Masonic affiliations of my rela
tiy es , as follows
Hanover Lod g e of Free and Accepted Masons institutedat Forestville, 1 824 . Charter members and first O fficers : Lnther Thwing , Ezra Puffer, Seth Snow, Albert H. Camp, W al
ter Griswold , Richard Smith, Ephraim Judson, William Jones ,Elijah Robinson. Discontinued 1 828 .
December, 1 8 49, this Lodg e was rechartered . The firstOfficers were : Albert H. Camp, Daniel B . Parsons, WilliamColville, Rodney B . Smith, Isaac Boss, Marshall Cass, CharlesBrown and Elisha Robinson. Isaac Boss was Secretary.
Isaac Boss , mentioned above , was a son Of Peter
Boss and a cousin Of my father.
A newspaper excerpt sent me records the death,on Jul y 31 last, at Berlin , Prussia, Of Dr. Julius Robert Bosse , former Prussian Minister of Public Instruo
tion , at the ag e Of sixty-nine years . It is not probable
that Dr. Bosse’s family had any connection with your
family or mine , at least for many g enerations ; but
his life and death may well b e mentioned here , if only
for the similarity in names . H is career was a distin
g uisht one .
1 61
Mr. Charles F . Boss , Of Washing ton , D . C . ,has
favored me with the following letter. While he in
dulg es somewhat in theorie s and speculations , he at
the same time furnishes many facts of interest and
adds to the evidence in favor of the early settlement
of the Boss family (or families) in this country and
Of the extent to which the family name has spread :
1 31 6 FLORIDA AVE N UE N. E .,
WASHIN GTON , D. C ., Aug ust 31 , 1 90 1 .
Mr. Henry R. Boss, Chicag o , Ill .Dear Sir: I am very g lad that you have undertak en to
g ather the history Of the Boss family, and have been g reatlyinterested in reading the proofsheets you have sent me Of thework as far as completed .
I have considerable information in relation to our familythat I have g athered from books in the Cong ressional Library,and will endeavor to add to what you already have . The tradition that you speak of — relative to the three brothers,navig ators,
”— is the same that has been g iven to me . I find
records O f Peter Boss as early as 1 68 0 ; at that time he com
mended the ship Three Brothers. I find the family in colonial days in Connecticut, Rhode Island , New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland, but have not found them in Virg iniauntil my own family went there, about 1 8 0 0 . Many membersof the family were soldiers in the Revolution.
THE NAME .
In Olden times, before the use of family names, as youknow, it was the custom to call a man by his trade or business.
John the smith became John Smith ; Thomas the coppersmithbecame Thomas Coppersmith ; William the carpenter becameWilliam Carpenter ; and so one coul d g o on indefinitely. In
think ing Of this matter Of our family name, it has alwavs been
1 62
my belief, inview of the tradition in reg ard to our ancestorshaving followed the sea, that one ormore g enerations Of themwere ship captains or masters , or, as the Dutch would say,
Baas orBoss . Perhaps one of them performed some especiallyvaliant deed ; and it does not require a g reat stretch of my
imag ination to see him standing before the King and hear thelatter say to him ,
“ You have been my faithful servant. As areward, you and yours shall be known as Baas . Arise, SirPeter.” And from that time he would b e known as PeterBoss .
THE TRADITION S .
One tradition I have heard is that three brothers came tothis country from Holland , in the ship Three Brothers, and
that they were the ancestors of all in this country bearing thename Boss . The little information I have g athered disprovesthe latter part Of the asse rtion, as many of the name have arrived at various times and places . As to the first part Of thetradition, it seems to m e probable that Peter Boss, commanderof the ship Three Brothers, was the only one of the name whocame over in that vessel . One can perceive how easy it wouldbe for a man to say to his son, My g randfather came here inthe ship Three Brothers ; and in after years the son mig htsay to his son,
“ My g reat- g randfather came to this countrywith his three brothers .
” This , I think, is possible. We findmention O f but one more at this time In 1 690 we
find Peter Boss as the author of a book g iving an account of atrial in Philadelphia, Pa ; and in the fi rst half Of the nextcentury the famil y is found in Rhode Island. As Peter hadtrouble with the Quakers in Philadelphia, what is more probable than that he left Philadelphia and went to Rhode Island,where Ro g er Williams had established a more liberal g overnment so far as relig ion was concerned ?
Another tradition is to the eff ect that my g reat-g reat
g randf ather received a letter from the Old country telling himof a leg acy left him there, and that he promptly tore up the
1 64
From the Civil and Military List of Rhode Island, 1 647compiled from the reco rds by Joseph Jenk s Smith, and
published at Providence, in 190 0 , by Preston Rounds C oPeter Boss , Ensig n, Third North King stown Company,
Militia of Newport County, May, 1 731 , and ag ain in May O f
the succeeding year.Captain Caleb Boss, Sealer of Duck, May, 1 732. (The
author does not explain the meaning of sealer Of duck,” butI imag ine the Captain was an inspector of canvas or duck , andstamped it to show its quality. )
William Boss, Ensig n, Westerly County Company, 1 732June, 1 75 8 , John Boss was Chaplain and Surg eon
’s Mate ,
and on a subsequent pag e John Boss is named as Captain of
the Third Company, West Greenwich .
Joseph Boss, Ensig n, First Reg iment , Newport CountyFourth Company, June, 1 78 5 , On a subsequent pag e he ismentioned as Captain of this company, and in June, 1 794, heis still holding the title ,
Peter Boss, Lieutenant, Charlestown, Aug ust, 1 774.
BenjaminBoss Jr., First Lieutenant, Scituate Lig ht Infantry ; aft erward Captain of Scituate Hunters
,February, 1 791 ,
to May, 1 794 .
Joseph Boss Jr. , Captain Fourth Company of Newportand Bristol Brig ade, May, 1 792, to 1 797.
Joseph Boss Jin, Ensig n, 1 796 ; also, May, 1 797, Artillery of Newport . [The difference in rank would indicate thatthese were two different men.]
Joseph Boss Jr. , Second Major, February, 1 798 , to June,1 799, First Re g iment Newpo rt County,
From “ New York in the Re volution, and Colony and
State, records arrang ed by James A . Roberts, Comptroller, I
g et the followingJeremiah Boss, private, Van Rensselaer Reg iment, Niles
Company, New York State.
1 65
Heinrich Boss, Tryon County As sociated Exempts .
Joseph Boss, private, First Re g iment.William Boss, Duchess County Militia (Land Bounty
Rig hts ) .
From Archives of Maryland, Muste r Rolls and other records of service of Maryland troops in the Revolutionary W ar,
published by authority of the State under the direction of the
Maryland Historical Society, 190 0 , I g et the followingOctober 1 3, 1 78 1 , the following received from Robert
Denny such sums as were due them :
Christian Boss, and others, enlisted Fifth Re g iment Maryland , Aug ust 23, 1 78 1 , for period of war ; was in the serviceNovember, 1 78 3.
From Citizen Soldiers Who Served at Battle of NorthPoint and Fort McH enry, September 12 and 1 3, pub
lished by N. Hickman, Baltimore, 1 8 5 8 :Georg e Boss, private, Eag le Artillery ; Georg e J. Brown,
Captain.
John Boss, private, Sixth Reg iment Maryland Militia ;Thomas Shepard, Captain.
From Hammersly’s Army and Navy Re g ister
Hiram Boss, of Massachusetts, cadet in Military Academy, 1 8 1 8 .
Edward Boss appointed Lieutenant in the Navy, June27, 1 799.
Joseph Boss appointed Midshipman March 2, 1 799.
From “ Census of Pensioners, published by the UnitedStates Government
Ben Boss, born’
in 1 757, living in Rhode Island, 1 840 ,ag ed 8 3.
Sarah Boss, born 1 75 8 , living in Newport County, R. I.,
1 840 , ag ed 82.
James Boss , living with Jane Boss, in Dinwiddie County,Va. , 1 840 ; born 1 760 ; ag ed 8 0 .
1 66
In the Historical Reg ister of the Offi cers of the Contineutal Army, War Of the Revolution, April , 1 775 — Decembe r, 1 8 8 3,by F. B . Heitman, published in Washing ton in 1 8 93, is thefollowing record of one Georg e Boss, “ also called Bush,” of
Pennsylvania :Captain of Hartley’s additional reg iment January 1 3,
1 777 ; reg iment desig nated Eleventh Pennsylvania December1 7, 1 777 ; transferred to Sixth Pennsylvania January 1 7 1 78 1 ;
transferred to Third Pennsylvania January, 1 78 3, and servedto close Of war.
From the War Department I have the record of anotherGeorg e Boss from Pennsylvania, as follows :
Georg e Boss served as an Ensig n, Adjutant and Lieutenant in the Fourth Pennsylvania Reg iment, Revolutionary War.He was commissioned Ensig n June 2, 1 778 ; his name is bornewith rank of Lieutenant on a list dated Aug ust 1 7, 1 78 0 , in abook compiled from the records of the org aniz ation mentioned,under the head of “ State Of Pennsylvania ag ainst the UnitedStates forDepreciation of Pay of the Army .
”
The “ Archives of Pennsylvania g ive the name of Daniel0 . Boss of Alleg heny County, Pa. , private Pennsylvania Militia; pensioner May 1 3, 1 820 ; died June 7, 1 828 .
The following is my g randfather’s war record , as Obtained
from the War Department : It is shown by the records thatone Abraham Boss served as a private in Captain Martin Kitzmiller’s company, Fifty - seventh Re g iment (masons and miners )Virg inia Militia, in the service at Baltimore,War of 1 8 12. His
name appears on the records O f that org anization, covering theperiod from Aug ust 23 to September 23, 1 8 1 4, with remarks :Commencement of service, Aug ust 23, 1 8 1 4 ; expiration of
service, September 1 6, 1 8 14 ; term of service, 26 days .
” As theBritish entered Washing ton on Aug ust 24th, it is evident thatmy g randfather came to the defense of this city ; and when theAmericans were routed he and his company went to Baltimore,
168
his family b ack , it would be found that they were slaves ownedby someone of our family name in the South.
In the Cong ressional Library, in this city, are two copiesof a book written by Peter Boss, previously referred to in thisletter. The title-pag e Of one of them is as follows :
N E W E N GLAN D’S SPIRIT or PE BBE OUTION
Transmited to
PE N N SILVAN IA
And the pretended Quaker found persecuting the trueCHRISTIAN QUAKE R
In the
T R Y A LOF
Peter Boss, Georg e Keith, Thomas Buddand W illiam Bradford
At the se ssions held at Philadelphia the N ineth, Tenth andTwe lth Days of Decemb er, 1692, g iving an account
o f the most Arbitrary Procedure of that C ourt .Printed in the Year 1 693.
The title-pag e of the other copy reads nearly lik e theabove, is described as
“ Licensed,” is dated “ Octob 1 9
and at the foot is the following :
P rinted fi rst b eyond -Sea and now reprinted in London for
Richard Baldwin in Warwick Lane 1 693.
From the Civil and Military List of Rhode Island , previously cited
Peter Boss appointed Justice of the Peace , at Weste rly,R. I ., May, 1 735 . Also same name and title at Warwick, 1 736 ;North King stown, May, 1 738 ; South King stown, May, 1 746 .
John Boss, Justice of the Peace, West Greenwich, June,.
John L. Boss, one Of a Committee on the State of FerryWharves , May, 1 799.
From Colonial History of New YorkJacob Boss and others were naturalized at New York in
1 734, by act Of Assembly. [This was requisite to make g oodthe titles to lands boug ht by the Eng lish from the Dutch .]
1 69
In a work entitled “ Painters , Sculptors, Architects and
Eng ravers,” by Clara Erskine Clement, published by James
R. Osg ood C o . ,I find the following :
Abraham Bosse, born at Tours, 1 61 0 . He wrote a treatise called “ La Manier de g raver a L
’eau fo rte et au Burin.
He left a g ood number O f plates, principally from his own de
sig ns . They are bold and masterly, etched with unusual spiritand freedom .
Yours respectfull y, CHAR LE S F . Boss .
Hon . Fernando Jones , of this city, who was born
at Forestvill e , N . Y. ,eig hty-one years ag o , called on
me recently . Mr. Jones is a remarkably well-preserved man, being as active , bodily and mentally, as
most men Of half his years . H e informed m e that
three families of the Joneses — not related in any way
to one another — settled in or about Forestville about
the same time ; but he did not tell m e when. They
were all from Connecticut . As a daug hter Of one of
the Joneses, Elizabeth, married Peter F . Boss , son of
my g reat-uncle (see pag e one may readily g ues s
that the families were acquainted before they settled
inWestern N ew York , and even that Uncle Peter Boss
emig rated from Connecticut . Should this g uess
and it is only a g uess — b e correct , it would connect
my forebears with the N ew Eng land branches of the
family.
November 28 , 1 90 1 .
I have been so long in g etting this letter in type
that I shall have to beg in with a new date . The de
lay, however, is compensated for by the additional
1 70
information that I have Obtained , some Of which has
been incorporated in the pag es preceding .
Mr . Charles F . Boss — who is very enthusiastic
in g athering information concerning members of the
Boss family — has placed me under additional Oblig a
tions by furnishing m e with copies Of the followingletters , received by him
UN ITE D STATE S POST OFFICE ,FLEMIN GTON , N. J O ctober 21 , 1 90 1 .
Mr . Charles F . Boss .
Dear Sir: Your letter came duly to hand . In reply willsaymy father came from Ring os, N . J. H is father’s name wasPeter Boss, and he had a brother William . I always understood we were of German descent. My father had three brothers and two sisters — Joseph P. Boss, Henry Boss , John Boss,
David B . Boss, Joannah Boss and Rebecca Boss ; all are nowdeceased . I am sorry I do not know more about my people ;but we were poor and had to work for a living , and did not
pay much attention even to our own people, except to make a
I have a brother who lives at Fairview, Ill ., who is Olderthan I am , and I think he woul d remember more than I can.
Yours truly, A. W. Boss, P . M.
STE PH E N S CITY, VA . , O ctober 28 , 1 90 1 .
Mr. Charles F. Boss .
Dear Sir: My wife (who was Sarah F . Boss ) received aletter from you, dated October 1 5 th, asking for informationOf the Boss family . She g ave it to me to answer, and I havebeen looking up old papers to see what I could find . I had aclipping from a Baltimore paper g iving an account of Georg eBoss ,who was one Of the Old Defenders , who met in Baltimoreonce a year ; I loaned it to Mrs . Johnson in Leesburg , and itwas lost . Georg e Boss was an uncle of my wife
’s father, S . M.
172
Court of London, held June 12, 1 829, Lydia Boss, John Ran
dolph Boss, Peter Gibson Boss, Lydia Louisa Boss, Marg aretEliza Boss and Elizabeth Fox Boss , plaintiff s,” in a suitversusSamuel M . Boss and Peter Boss, and it was stated that PeterBoss was not an inhabitant Of this country . Neither my wifenor her sister, Mrs . Julia W. Wrig ht, knows anything aboutthe above-named persons, some of whose nam es are very similar to S . M. Boss
’ family names .
In the American Manuf acturer dated June 1 9, 1 841 ,published at Pittsburg , Pa. ,mention is made of Daniel C . Boss,
a member of the Pittsburg Blues, wounded in battle at Fo rtMeig s, May 5 , 1 8 1 3 .
I was in Mechanicsburg , Pa. , about twelve years ag o, andsaw the name Boss over the door of a photog rapher. I wentin and had a long talk with him . I, as well as he, was convinced that he belong ed to the same family . He was muchlike S . M. Boss in his quick movements . I do not rememberhis g iven name . Respectfully yours,
T. W. MCARTOR .
I have received the following interesting letter
from Mr . Homer B. Boss , of Bing hamton, situated in
southern central N ew York . It was written at the
instance Of my only surviving brother, my young er
brother having died in infancy, a few days previous
to the death Of my father
BIN GHAMTON , N. Y. , November 1 0 , 1 90 0 .
Mr. Henry R. Boss .
My Dear Sir: I received a letter, a few days ag o, fromWilliam E . Boss, Bath, N. Y. , requesting my aid in helping to
g et statistics of the Boss fami ly. I fortunately have a recordback as far as my g reat- g randf ather, which I g ladly furnish
you. It is as follows
Philip BOSS, b . January 29, 1 743, d . March 1 0 , 1 8 0 7 ; m .
173
Dorcas James, b. May 1 6, 1 746, d . February 1 6, 1 825 . I haveno knowledg e Of brothers or sisters .
Children of aboveJohn Boss, b . O ctober 1 5 , 1 770 , d . March 8 , 1 8 36 ; m .
Elizabeth Stanton, b. June 2, 1 771 , d . December 1 7, 1 824 . Ihave no knowledg e Of brothers or sisters .
Children Of above :Philip Boss, b. February 1 4, 1 795 ; d . April 3 0 , 1 8 79.
Electa Boss, b . September 29, 1 797 ; d . March 24, 1 8 79.
E la W. Boss, b . June 1 1 , 1 8 0 0 ; d . December 1 5 , 1 8 82.
John Ross Jr. , b . Aug ust 1 4, 1 8 0 2; d . September 2, 1 8 5 5 .
Benjamin B . Boss , b . April 30 , 1 8 0 5 ; d . December 8 , 1 826 .
Eason Boss, b . September 8 , 1 8 0 7 ; d . December 5 , 1 8 5 1 .
Alfred Boss, b. April 29, 1 8 1 0 ; d . November 4, 1 8 64 .
Bradl ey Boss, b . June 1 4, 1 8 12; now living at Kennedy,Chautauqua County, N . Y.
William H. Boss, b. June 1 2, 1 8 1 4 ; d . October 21 , 1 8 34 .
E liza V. Boss, b . November 6 , 1 8 1 8 ; d . Aug ust 1 5 , 1 8 91 .
Children of E la W. Boss , whose wife was Louisa Butler,b . February 23, 1 8 0 2; d . February 3, 1 895 :
Almira Eliz . BOSS, b . Aug ust 1 1 , 1 822; d . O ctober 1 9,
Sally Jane Boss, b . June 8 , 1 824 ; d . Aug ust 25 , 1 8 5 7.
Henry W. Boss , b . Aug ust 1 6, 1 827 ; now living at Binghamton, N. Y .
Helen M. Boss , b . January 1,1 8 32; now Mrs . Holladay,
living at Fabius, N. Y.
John Boss, b . March 1 4, 1 8 34 ; d . March 7, 1 8 35 .
Homer B . Boss,b. February 14, 1 8 36 ; now living at
Bin g hamton, N . Y.
Louisa M . Boss, b . June 1 0 , 1 8 38 ; now Mrs . Larrabee,living at Bin g hamton, N . Y.
Francis E . Boss, b . September 1 1 , 1 840 ; d . September
Morris E . Boss , b. April 8 , 1 8 43 ; d . June 1 4, 1 90 0 .
1 74
Charles W . Boss, b . April 7, 1 8 45 ; now living at Binghamton, N. Y.
The only male child living of above family (the chi ldrenof E la W. Boss ) is Harry W. Boss , son of Charles W. BOSS ,born, I think, in 1 8 69.
I have reason to believe your g reat- g randfather, WilliamBoss, and my g reat-g randfathermig ht have been brothers . Myfather was born in Herkimer County, this State, in 1 8 0 0 . Helived in O rleans County in 1 825 . We are all, no doubt, fromthe same ancestors . There are a few Bosses in New York City ;one or two in Buffalo . W e — my brothers and sisters — areall there are in this part of the country . There is a fam ily inProvidence, R . I . , one of whom has been here ; they manufac
ture the Boss Axle Washer .”
Yours very truly, HOME R B . Boss .
Your fotog raf came duly to hand, and I have had
it reproduced in halftone for publication in this work .
It has a decided Boss look about it ; indeed , when
I handed it to my wife for her inspection , she at once
said, Why, that looks like the Bosses .
” There is
something about your face , especially the upper part
Of it , which calls up a mental composit picture of our
family ; that is, a curve here reminds Of one member,while another curve there recalls a vision of another
member . N ot that all the Bosses we know look alike ;quite the contrary. Some have had full , round faces ;some have been square-j awed , while others have been
very spare in feature . But there is an undefinab le
something about a number of the members Of the
family which marks them as belong ing to the same
race . Possibly,if we had accurate fotog rafs of repre
sentatives Of the various g enerations existing from
1 76
lie s . As an illustration of the differences in Christian
names , see the lists Of children of my g randfather
and my g reat-uncle and those g iven by Mr . Georg eR . Boss , Of Milton, Wis. , and Mrp Homer B. Boss , Of
Bing hamton , N . Y .
Miss Jennie H . Boss , of Forestville , N . Y. , writes
me concerning the children Of her g reat-g randfather,Peter Boss , and g ives m e the following list of them .
I do not think this list is as reliable as that g iven on
pag es 33 and 34, for it makes no mention of Maria
(Boss) Willoug hby, whom I knew when I was a very
young boy . The addition of the name of William
Boss is undoubtedly correct
Elijah [Eliza Boss , b . March 28 , 1 791 .
Polly Boss, b . June 1 1 , 1 794 .
Isaac Boss, b . September 4, 1 797.
Ebenezer Boss, b. November 7, 1 799.
Amy Boss, b . January 20 , 1 8 0 2.
Peter F . Boss, b . July 4, 1 8 0 4.
Georg e W. Boss, b . July 4, 1 8 0 6 ; m . Maryette Green, b.
June 31 , 1 8 1 3.
Alvin Boss, b . May 20 , 1 8 0 8 .
William Boss, b . January 4, 1 8 1 1 ; (1 . when young .
Children of Georg e W. and Maryette Boss
Marjorie Boss, b. February 22, 1 8 34 ; now Mrs . MerrittStillson, Irving , Mich .
Ann Boss, b . June 5 , 1 8 36.
Edg ar Boss, b. Aug ust 5 , 1 8 39 ; m. Hester Snow, b . Au
g us t 1 7, 1 8 39.
Marg aret Boss, b. December 3, 1 842.
Hattie Boss, b . April 12, 1 845 ; now Mrs . Hattie Town,Hamlet, N. Y.
177
Mariah Boss, b . July 23, 1 847.
Elizabeth Boss, b. May 7, 1 849.
G. Emery Boss, b . June 23, 1 8 5 6 ; (1 . when he was aboufive years Old .
Children of Edg ar and Hester BossArthur S . Boss, b. April 1 7, 1 8 61 .
Georg e S . Boss, b . June 1 5 , 1 8 63 .
Carrie Boss Dennison, b . Aug ust 24, 1 8 66.
Samuel Boss, b . November 1 6, 1 8 69.
Mary Boss Tenny, b. April 1 6, 1 8 74.
Jennie H. Boss, b . December 1 0 , 1 8 78 .
In sending me a fotog raf Of the late Samuel M .
Boss , reproduced in this book , Mr . T . W. McArtor
writes from Stephens City, Va. , as follows :
I will g ive you an account of how I came to have hisfoto . The family had often tried to g et him to have it taken,but he never had time or patience to sit still that long , so Iwent to a fotog rafer (who was a new be g inner at the business ) , and told him to have everything ready and I would g etMr. Boss to come in. After a g ood deal of persuasion I g othim there, and when the artist saw the picture he said it wasnot very g ood and he would take another. Af t er Mr. B . had
g one home I told the artist not to destroy this one until we
g ot another ; but I never could g e t him to g o ag ain, and thisis the only picture Of him that was ever taken. DO not takethe dark spot on the chin for a g oatee ; he never were a beardor a mustache .
Samuel M. Boss was the quickest man, in al l his movements, you ever saw, and his children inherit this trait. Mywife, who will be seventy-two next 1 0 th of March, walks Off asbriskly as a young g irl.
A few years ag o I was in Mechanicsburg , Pa. I saw thename Boss over a foto g allery . I went in and talked with theartist . I knew from his quick movements that he was a Boss.
178
He had a relative named Peter ; it seems to be a family name .
In appearance this Mechanicsburg man favors you, to the bestOf my recollection of him ; it has been about thirteen yearssince I saw him .
Tho I have strenuously endeavored to keep this
book free from typog rafical errors , I find that two
have crept in. On pag e 46, first line of last parag raf,Poeoe ” appears for “ Boece .
” On pag e 66, under
South King stown, R . the first date g iven should
b e 1 745 instead Of 1 8 45 . Possibly there are other
errors ; but I have not been able to find them .
As I am concluding this letter I am learning Of
several sources from which I hope , sometime , to g et
information Of much value and interest . If my pecu
niary circumstance s would permit I would extend
this volume considerably beyond its present limits . I
am compelled , however, to close up with this letter,hoping that what is here printed may awaken a wider
and deeper intere st in the matter, so that, in the near
future , I may b e enabled to extend the work to two or
more volumes,and thus pre serve an authentic and
nearly complete record of the Boss Family.
The portraits g iven herewith will g ive Opportunity
for comparison and study . I tried to Obtain more Of
them , but was unable to do so .
Trusting that our labors are not yet completed ,and that life and health may b e spared for us to do
much more in this direction,I am
Yours very truly, HE N RY R . Boss .
1 8 0
Boies Orr Bois, Hect or 45 , 46, 71 , 81 , 82,
Boies’, Hector, C hronicles
Bods
Bois AcreBo is , E x tinction of
Bois Glani
Bois, the Sire d e
Bois , WalterBois , W illiaml de— C lerk, B ishop , Lord C hancellor
Boises ocf Dryf sdale
Boiss
B oist
Boosie
Boost
13 , 14, 1 6, 38 , 39, 45 , 56, 70 , 80 97, 1 0 9, 1 10 ,
Bos (Bosch ) , C orne lis T eunise
Bos (Bos ch ) , Gysb ert
Bos , Jan Willemsen .
Bos, Jerom e , Lewis Jansen and GasperBos, John , in C ounty of FifeBos, Lambert Van d en
Bos , Pie t er Jause .
Bosch
BosevilleBoseuill, or Bosuile
Boss , Bossburg and Rossdale Postoflices
Boss and Bass
Boss , a Good DutchBoss, an E ng lish t ermBoss , Andrew JBoss, Abraham ,
Military Record of
Boss, A . W . , Let t erBos s , C harles F .
Boss , C harles F . , Let ter fromBoss , C harles F. , Le tt ers t o .
Boss’C orner
Boss, C . S. , of Bossburg , Le tter fromBos s, Danie l W .
Boss , Definit ions of
B oss , E arlies t Mention of in C ount y Of FifeBoss, DavidBoss, E dward
1 51
129
46, 83
1 67
1 51
1 1
1 8
31 , 41
1 66
170
159
161
170
120
1 59, 160
19
1 55 , 1 56
13
23, 24, 25 , 32
21 39, 66, 70 , 157
Boss ,
Boss ,
Boss ,
Boss ,
Boss ,
Boss ,
Boss ,
Boss ,
Boss ,
Boss,
Boss
Bos s ,
Bos s,
Boss ,
Boss ,
Boss ,
Boss,
Bos s,
Boss,
Boss ,
Boss ,
Boss ,
Boss ,
Bos s,
Boss,
B oss,
Boss ,
Boss ,
Boss,
Boss,
Boss ,
Bos s ,
B oss,
B oss,
Boss ,
Bo ss,
B oss ,
Boss ,
Boss ,
Bos s,
Boss ,
Boss ,
Boss,
B oss,
Boss,
Boss ,
Boss ,
Boss ,
Boss ,
1 8 1
E dward , American Descendants of .
E dward , Some‘
Particulars C oncerningE dg ar and H est er, C h ildren of
E tymolog y of
Georg e R . , Dutch Ance stors of
Georg e R . , Let t er fromGeorg e R . , Portrait of
Georg e W . , and Maryet te, C hi ldren of . .
Henry, of H unt erdon, N . J .
Fam ily N um erous and Widely SpreadH enry BallHenry R . , Ances tryHenry R . , Port rai tHenry R . , t o William Graham Boss 0 5 ,
Homer B . , Le tter fromn o o p o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 O 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
HonasJames , of Scot land
Jane t , O sweg o, N . Y
Miss Jennie H . , Le tter fromC aptain John Georg e , R . N
John L Jr. , M.
Joseph , from N ewport , R . I
Joseph, RoyalistLeah (Storm s) , PortraitLewis, Albany, N . Y
Mat thew, a Jew , in London
Meaning of
Robert P . 39, 40 , 49, 66, 69
P et er, Book by 1 66, 168
Pe t er and C ath erine , C hildren . 33, 176
P et er, of Forestville 20 , 32, 33, 34, 156, 157, 176
P e t er, C ommand er “Three Broth ers 1 6, 20 , 27
Phi lip, C hildren of . . 1 73
Sally, Wife of M . S. Wilkinson . 1 16
S. M. , Leesburg , Va. , Le tter from 19
Samue l MSamue l M. , P ortrait .
1
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Facin g pag e 56
WilliamWilliam , Autog raf of
William , N ewport , C hildren of
William, fat her of William Garner BossWilliam , son of William GWilliam G . , Autog raf ofWilliam G . and Leah , C h ildren of
William Garner 11 , 32, 36,
William Graham, Ances try
159
55
177
173
156
157
157
Facing pag e 72
176
1 0 6, 1 0 8
178
32
11
Facing pag e 24
1 0 , 1 8 , 31, 49 1 0 5 153
172
32, 36, 40
44
15 1 6
176
25 1 51 , 1 52
66
1 58
38
Facing pag e 40
21
1 5
1 82
Boss, William Graham , N at ivity 1 0Boss, William Graham , Portrait Facing pag e 8Boss , William Graham , Postal-C ard from 9
Boss , William Graham , to Henry R . Boss 12, 1 6, 22, 41 , 69, 11 9
Bossch , Jan 11 1
Bosse 1 19
Bosse , Dr. Julius Robert 1 60
Bosses W ho Were Sailors 24, 25
Bossall 152
Bossw e ll 123
Bosseuy ll 143
Bosseuilla, Pag ani d e 127
Boswe ll ’s Lands 145 , 146
Bosw e l or B ossw el l 121
Bosw el, Robin, in South of Scotland 149
Boswe lls of Balmuto 125
Boswe ll 45 , 96, 125 , 126, 127, 130 , 146, 147, 150 , 15 1 , 152
Bosse Island 151
Bosswe ll , David , The LairdBos tBonsie
B ovillBowes
Boy is
Boyle
BoysBoys , AlexanderBoys’ C roftBoys , DavidBoys , John and Thomas
Boyse and Boyes in N orf olk and W esf ord
Boy sfi e ld , Boysf e ld , Boysf eild , Boyisf e ld , Bosfe ld,Boysis, lez
B oyss
Boyuil
Boyuills or Bos seuylls
Boyvil
47
28 , 45
1 37
137, 139
137
1 6, 47, 70 , 79, 1 19, 120
16
1 8 4
de Boyviled e Boyvill , William,
d e Boyvillede B ruis , Sire .
De eds, E arly , in N ew
Definit ions of t he T ermd e l Bois , Walterd e l Boys , HumfreyDerivat ion of
“Bos s
Difficulties in Get tingDu Bois
du; Bois
Duboisdu Boy .
Donat ions to Ke lso AbbeyDoug las, Sir R obert , Baronag e of Scot landDryb urg h Abbey, Donat ions to
Dryf sdale , Barons of
Dryf sdale House , Th e
Dut ch or German O rig in of t he N ame
Dutch Se t t lement in N ew Jersey .
Dutch th e Lang uag e of t he N ew Jersey BossesDut ch Words in AmericaE arly Scot ch C h roniclesE ast Kilbrid e , HistoryE rrataE rror C orrect edE ss ex, C ounty of , E ng landE tymolog y of
“Boss
E xchequer R ollsFamily Arm-s
Family C haract eristicsFam ily Records
Family R esemblancesFict ion, the N ame in“ Foreig ners” in C olo-nia l T imesForeig ners Imported
Freemasons, Saint John’s Lodg e , Dum fermline 26, 49
French Orig in of the
Garner, W as it a part of William G . Boss’N ame ?
Germanyvs . Holland .
Good O ld Sco t ch C ustom
Hamilton, Dr. A . , LetterHanover Lodg e , F . A . MHerald ic B earing sHervey, Sydenham H a , Letter fromHome or Hume , Town of .
140 , 142
133
130 , 131 , 135 , 136, 137, 1 38
73
1 0 7, 1 0 8
155
30
72
155
153
64
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Influence s on t he N ame
Jackson, Amy B oss
1 69
Ke lso Abbey 127, 128 , 132, 1 45 , 146
King DavidKing R ich ard the FirstKing William th e Lion
Knox, JohnLairds of Balmuto
Land s B oug ht of the Indians
Larg e FamiliesLarison, Dr .Larison, Dr. C . W . , Let t ers fromLeslies , The
Leving t on FamilyLind say, Sir DavidLinscom or Liscom
‘
?
Lord s o f Annand aleMarriag e Licenses in th e Province of N ew YorkMaryland , Must er Rolls and other R ecords .
Masonic C onne ct ions
Massachuset ts Sold ie rs and Sailors in t he R evolut ionMcA rtor, T . W . , Le t ters fromMechanicsburg ,
Pa
Misce llane ous It em s
Mohawk DutchMohawk Vall ey , Set t lers in
Mouat , Andrew JN ame , Th e , C harles F. Boss on
N arrag anse t t Hist orica l R eg ist erN at ivity, Proud of T heirN ewell, Mrs . Annie (Boss )N ew Amst erdam , R e co rds of .
N ew Jersey, O ffi ce rs and Men in. the R evolut ionN ew N e therland s , E arly Imm ig rant s to
N ew York , Colonial Hi st ory of
N ew York in th e
N icol, JeanN is bet, th e Herald .
N orman Adventurers, Descendant s of
N orman C onques t
N orman FrenchN orman French Bearers of the N ame
N ormans in
N ormandy, the Bois Fam ily in .
1 86
N ormandy, the. Bruce FiefO ld Smithfi e ld (C onn ) Records .
O rig in of this C orresponde nce“O rig inal Lists of P ersons of Qua lity, et c
O rig in of the N ame in ScotlandO ld Dutch C hurch at KingMon, Reg isterO ld Dutch C hurch in N ew York . .
Painters , Sculptors , e t c .
Panbride Fam ily, The
Pennsylvania ArchivesPennsylvania , Bosses in
Pensione rs , C ensus of
Pensioners , R evolutionaryP eter th eP ious C us toms
Posta l Facilities in Early DaysPrisoners of W ar.
P ronunciat ion of the N ameProphecy of Sybilla and E ltrain
Provost Pawk ie
Ra g man RollRe lig ious C onnectionsRhod e Island , C ivil and Military ListRichmond FamilyRichmond (R . I. ) Town RecordsRoman R oad s
Rose’s B iog raphical Dict ionary
Saint Boise l
Scot ch in Holland and other E uropeanScot ch N ames of
Scots ArmorialSig nifi cations of the
Smi th , SidneySpelling of t he N ameSpread of the N ame in Scotland
Storms , Leah , C atherine, et c
Surnames , One of t he O ld es t on R ecordSW
-
it t . Mrs . Be tsey (Jack son) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Taxes f or the C rusadesT er Bos
T er Bosch
