Genealogy & Family History

Bosvile of Warmsworth

The Bosville family trace their ancestry to a Martin de Bosville who came from Normandy in the eleventh century and is supposed to have died in Buckinghamshire in 1092. His descendants had interests in Yorkshire and Kent. In the thirteenth century John de Bosville of Ardsley married Agnes, daughter of John, Lord Folyot, and inherited a house at Holme on Spalding Moor through the marriage. One of their grandsons, William, was sheriff of Yorkshire and built a house called Bosville, now Bossal in the North Riding. John and Agnes's eldest son, John de Bosville, married Alice, daughter of Hugh and Clarice de Darfield, and they had five sons and four daughters. Alice was an heiress and this generation firmly established the family in Yorkshire

The male line of John and Alice's eldest son expired with their grandson and the estates were given by him to a younger cousin, Robert Bosville (d.1363), constable of Pontefract. He and his older brother, Adam Bosville, were the sons of Peter Bosville (John and Alice's third son) and Beatrix, daughter of Lord Furnival. Adam Bosville's wife also brought lands into the marriage so that his own son, Thomas Bosville of Ardsley, was quite wealthy.

Thomas Bosville of Ardsley and his wife Alice, in 1367, were granted 'All lands in the village of Cawthorne' ... which was previously in the hands of Le Hunts or Le Hunter family. John Boswell in 21 Henry VI., who was found to die seized of Cannon Hall in Cawthorne.

In 1600, Philip Adams of Owston married Gertrude Bosvile, of Warmsworth at Warmsworth.

10 Jan 1556 - Godfrey Bosvyle of Gunthwaite, granted to Richard Wheatley, gent., of 3 messuages and 5 cottages, with all appurtenances in Ardsley, Darfield, Barnsley. For £66, and 17 years.(The Wheatleys had connections with The Hewitts) Source:Sheffield Archives,Reference: SpSt/11

30 Sep 1587, Jervas Bosseville of Newehall, Yorkshire, esq., bound himself to William Hewett, citizen and clothmaker of London, and Thomas Hewett, his son, in £3,000.

28 Oct 1587. Thomas Bossevyle of Newhall, Yorks., gent., is bound to William Hewett citizen and clothworker of London, in £3,000.

Gunthwaite

Thomas Bosville married Alice, another heiress. Alice was the daughter of John of Gunthwaite and his wife Christiana and she brought into the Bosville family the Gunthwaite Hall, which was demolished in the nineteenth century. Thomas Bosville was succeeded by his son, Roger Bosville, who was succeeded in turn by his second son, John Bosville, of Ardsley who married Isabel Dronsfield, another heiress. Their only son, John Bosville, made two very successful marriages; the first to Mary, co-heiress of John Drax and the second to Isabel, daughter of Percival Cresacre of Barnbrough. By his first wife he had William Bosville who went on to inherit Ardsley and the New Hall in Darfield and these properties were passed down through his descendants. By his second wife he had six children and Isabel became executrix of his will when he died in 1441. She gifted Gunthwaite to their eldest son, Richard, so starting the Gunthwaite branch of the family, and took the veil after the death of her second husband.

Richard Bosville married Jane Neville and had seven children. He died in 1501. Despite owning Gunthwaite he and his heir, John Bosville, lived much of the time at Beighton where they farmed the estate of Lord Dacre. John Bosville married Ann Clapham and they had three sons and several daughters, many of whom married outside Yorkshire. However, their eldest son, another John Bosville, married Muriel Barnby, whose parents were both from established East Riding families and their eldest son, Godfrey, re-established ties with Yorkshire.

Godfrey Bosvile, who was born about 1519, married Jane Hardwick. sister of 'Bess', of county Derby and settled at Gunthwaite. His sisters married outside Yorkshire; his brother, Henry, was a cloth-worker and his other brother, Ralph Bosville, became clerk of the court of wards and started the branch of the family living at Bradborne in Kent. He became very wealthy and bought the rectory manor of Penistone which he bestowed on Godfrey. Godfrey and Ralph Bosville died only two weeks apart in 1580. Ralph Bosville had married twice having a total of thirteen children. The eldest son, Henry Bosville of Bradborne, married Elizabeth Morgan who was the sole heiress of Bodiam Castle in Sussex through her mother. The second son, Robert Bosville, settled at Eynsford in Kent and this property passed down through his descendants. The third son Ralph Bosville, was a captain in the army in Ireland and when the male line of the Gunthwaite branch of the family died out with the death of Francis Bosville (son of Godfrey Bosville and Jane Hardwick), his heir inherited the Yorkshire estates.

Ralph Bosville married Mary Copley in 1592 and their son, Godfrey, was baptised at Sprotborough on 12 April 1596. He married Margaret Greville and they had one son, William, and two daughters one of whom went on to marry a parliamentary army officer during the civil wars.

Godfrey Bosville of Gunthwaite married Diana Wentworth, daughter of Sir William Wentworth (1686-1783), 4th Bt. and Diana Blackett. Children: William Bosville (d. at 1814) and Elizabeth Diana Bosville (1748-1789)

News extract re death of Col. Bosville died 1813:

The late Colonel Bosville. - This excellent man, who died at his home in Welbeck Street, was interred yesterday in the Chancel Vault of St. Gile's Church, near to his late father, Godfrey Bosville, Esq. who died in January, 1784. Colonel Bosville never married, and has named as heir his nephew, the Honourable Godfrey Macdonald, Colonel in the 1st Guards, (brother of Lord Macdonald, and presumptive heir to the title), now serving with the army under Marquis Wellington, in France. Mr. Bosville requested that his funeral might be conducted in the most private manner, and, therefore, his numerous and respectable relations and friends did not accompany his remains to the vault, which otherwise they were anxious to do. The hearse was drawn by six horses, and there were three coaches with four horses. Mr. Bosville's carriage did not join in the procession, and the offers of several Noblemen and Gentlemen, desirous to attend and send their carriages, could not, in conformity with Mr. Bosville's request, be accepted: particularly in the absence of Colonel Macdonald, who is the sole executor. Mr. Burgoyne, the Solicitor of Colonel Macdonald, attended on his behalf, to see the last offices performed, and was followed by the Rev. Mr. Este, Major James, and four other Gentlemen. Mr. Bosville's servants also followed. The coffin was handsome, and bore an inscription, - "William Bosville, Esq. of Gunthwait and Thorpe Hall, in the county of York, died the 16th of December, 1813, in the 69th year of his age." By Mr. Bosville's death, one large estate devolves to Mrs. Beaumont; and after giving legacies, which do not exceed £30,000., he has bequeathed all the residue of his immense property to Colonel Macdonald, and his children, who are to take the name of Bosville. The family came originally from Normandy with William the Conqueror. Mr. Chippindall, who had long been the upholsterer of the deceased, conducted the funeral with great propriety.