The Bonds de Earth (Erth) have been my research passion for the past 14 years, and after so much time spent reading articles and journals on the subject of Earth and the Bond family who once lived there, I have finally completed the journey. I have confirmed my direct bloodline connection to the Bonds de Earth.
The Bonds are an intriguingly fascinating family line to study and research, because yes I'm one of them. But most importantly, if you have the Sir name Bond it is very likely that if you dig deep into your ancestral history you will have a connection to the Bonds de Earth; if not a direct bloodline connection.
Unfortunately, not many people will ever come to realise this, as deep ancestral research is time-consuming and requires dogged persistence in following the trail.
As an analogy of comparison in this form of deep research, I liken it to trusting a compass when lost in the wilderness, if you trust and follow your compass it will lead you to your destination as will following the historical paper trail of facts.
Sir Henry de Earth was the father of Geoffrey de Earth who had a daughter Elizabeth, who married Robert Bond who became the 1st Bond de Earth as his wife Elizabeth had inherited her father's estate Earth. Robert Bond was the son of Richard Bond the 3rd, grandson of Richard Bond the 2nd and great-grandson of Richard Bond the 1st.
Now Sir Henry de Earth is my 17th Great Grandfather through his son Geoffrey and his daughter Elizabeth is my 15th Great Grandmother, by marriage to Robert Bond. Henry also happened to be a very good friend of John of Eltham youngest son of King Edward II of England.
John of Eltham is my 21st great-grand-uncle through King Henry II my 22nd great-grandfather, by way of my Acton family bloodline.
This brings us to the intriguing fact in the marriage of William Bond and Sarah Acton, my 3rd Great Grand-parents; and that their bloodlines meet up many years and generations before them.
As we dig deep into our family history we often come across such things that require us to keep a clear head and focused attention on the facts as they unfold.
Sarah Acton's line takes a long journey through Baronets, Noblemen, Kings and Queens to arrive at Earth.
William Bond's line takes a far more direct route through Merchants, Aldermen and Baronets to also arrive at Earth ( direct blood Line )
The Bond de Earth bloodline is further complicated by the fact that given names were duplicated over generations. In this situation, I found it imperative that I take small steps and pay attention to detail, or risk researching the wrong John, James, William or Thomas and having to re-assign my findings to another person in the family or at worst starting over.
As I study this family line further, there is always more to learn; I will learn about each individual's life in more depth, detail and appreciation, that I descend from the Bonds de Earth.
Facts reveal themselves in strange ways at times, I have now discovered the actual point of family connection for William Bond and Sarah Acton. It is through the marriage of Anne Churchill Countess of Sunderland 1683 - 1716, and Charles 3rd Earl of Sunderland Spencer Sir 1675 - 1722.
Charles's first marriage was to Arabella Cavendish lady 1673 - 1698 Arabella was the daughter of Henry Cavendish 2nd Duke of Newcastle, Charles and Arabella had a daughter:
Frances Spencer Lady 1696 - 1742, m Henry 4th Earl of Carlisle Howard Sir.
Anne was the daughter of John 1st Duke of Marlborough Churchill Sir, Charles and Anne had 5 children:
Robert 4th Earl of Sunderland Spencer Sir 1701 - 1729.
Anne Spencer Lady 1702 - 1769, m William 1st Viscount Bateman.
Charles 3rd Earl of Sunderland Spencer 1706 - 1758.
John Spencer Hon 1708 - 1746.
Diana Spencer Lady 1710 - 1735, m John 1st Duke of Bedford Russel.
At the risk of confusing readers more, I will now discuss my relationship with Anne, Charles and Arabella.
Anne Churchill is my 9th cousin 7x removed through my Bond family bloodline her 2nd Great-grandmother was Dionese Bond Lady, daughter of Sir George Bond Lord Mayor of London and 3rd Great-grandfather to Anne and descendent from the Bond de Earth bloodline. Dionese Bond was the wife of Henry lord of the manor Standish Winston Sir. William Bond of West Buckland Somerset was Anne's 4th Great Grandfather and Grandfather to Dionese.
Anne Churchill Countess 1683-1716
John 1st Duke of Marlborough Churchill 1650-1722 Father of Anne Churchill Countess
Winston Churchill Sir 1620-1688 Father of John 1st Duke of Marlborough Churchill
Sarah Winston Lady 1598-1678 Mother of Winston Churchill Sir
Dionese Bond Lady 1564-1609 Mother of Sarah Winston Lady
Charles Spenser is my 7th cousin 8x removed through my Vernon, Corbet, Mytton and Acton family lines. He is the son of Robert 2nd Earl of Sunderland Spenser.
Arabella Cavendish is also a cousin, she is my 8th cousin 10x removed through my Acton, Cressett, Wrottesley, Sutton, Clifford, Dacre, Talbot and Pierrepont family lines.
There is no shortage of family complexity when we dig deep into our family past, we need to use credible reference records to satisfy our research needs. In the case of William Bond and Sarah Acton's deep family connection to the Bonds de Earth, I can confidently confirm now that I have unravelled the complexities of their ancestral connection.
Sir Henry Winston and Lady Dionese (Denise) Bond are Great Grandparents to Sir Winston Churchill and Lady Diana Spencer. Dionese (Denise) Bond is descended from the Bonds of Buckland Summerset who are descended from the Bonds de Erth (Earth). I am descended from the Bonds of Buckland Summerset and consequently the Bonds Of Erth (Earth).
There are Four lines of Bonds from Earth, they being the Bonds at Holewood and Fulham, the Bonds at Luton and Grange and the Bonds at London as described by:
Allen J Bond, The Story of the Bonds of Earth.
Between the coming of Robert Bond to Earth, about 1400 A.D., and the end of Queen Elizabeth's rain in 1603 A.D., there developed in England four important Lines of Bonds sprung from the same ancient stock, the " Stirps Antiquissima Bondorum. " Two of these were the families of country squires, - two were of prosperous merchants in London, - all of them men of virility who played no mean part in the drama of English history if by this term we indicate the growth of the nation in civilisation and commerce.
These four Bond decedents preserved their ancient emblem of Earth descent the three golden bezants (coins) on a black chevron, a suggestion is that this badge goes back before Earth to maybe a forgotten knight of the crusades. There is also the explanation that the three golden bezants represent the three Stag Heads of Earth.
Each member of the four Lines of Bond added their embellishment to the badge through their life achievements. As stated earlier there is always opportunity for discoveries in our family history.
The line at Holewood and Fulham.
Thomas Bond of Holewood / Fulham London, 1532 - 1600, son of Richard Bond de Earth and Elizabeth Coriton. Younger brother to William Bond who remained at Earth, m Catherine Fitz had an issue.
The death of William is mentioned in his brother Thomas's will in 1600 and refers to land deeded to Thomas on 8 December 1553. This could be the inheritance of Erth Barton to Thomas. The exact dates for the family are from Family Search.org Ancestral File v4.19.
Thomas relocated from Earth to Holewood an estate further along the river Lyner and a tributary that passes by Earth. Thomas married Jane Tome and they had an issue, "Bonds of Earth / Holewood." Thomas relinquished Holewood to his son William and relocated to Fulham of London, acquiring a property formerly of the Bishop of London.
Thomas must have been a man of some prominence. His will was dated 20 March 1599/1600 and proved 18 April 1600. He left Margaret Meredith a widow a piece of farmland and arranged for 20 shillings to be paid yearly forever to the officers of the poor unless the field was given for the use of the poor. A very remarkable memorial tablet to Thomas Bonde, dated 1600, is described in Fulham, Old and New. The Bonde family coat of arms is above the tablet which reads:
At Earth in Cornwell was my firste begininge From Bondes and Corringtons as it may apere, Now to earth in Fulham, God dysposd my endinge, In March the thousand & six hundred year, Of Christ in whome my body here doth rest, Till both in body & soule I shall be fully blest,
Thomas Bond
The Bonds of Halewood, Lutton and Grange flourished in farming and escaped a good deal of the repercussions of civil war and religious reform, as did the Bonds remaining at Earth.
The line at Lutton and Grange
For more than five hundred years this line of Bonds has held the estate of Grange, literally described as the most beautiful estate in Purdeck Dorset.
Lutton
Robert 2nd Bond of Hache Beaucham was a son of Robert 1st Bond de Earth and Elizabeth Heiress of Earth. According to "Burke" Robert 2nd was seated at Hache Beaucham in 1431 A.D. As with the other Bond Line, this line also enjoyed the isolation of living in an area of England that greatly missed out on the repercussions of the upheavals of the times. The Bonds of Lutton have survived through the centuries to this day.
Grange
In the year 1691 A.D the estate Creech Grange (Grange) was purchased by Nathaniel Bond of Lutton M.P . Nathaniel was the son of Dennis Bond M.P
At this point, I wish to mention that there are no less than six Nathaniel Bonds who have lived at Creech Grange at some time in history, and proceed with care when attempting to document this line of Bonds.
Nation Heritage List of England, Creech Grange:
During the medieval period, Creech was a grange attached to Bindon Abbey. At the Dissolution, the property was granted to Sir John Horsey of Clifton Maybank, Dorset, who sold it to Sir Oliver Lawrence, Collector of the Customs in the Port of Poole and brother-in-law to the Lord Chancellor, Thomas Wriothesley. Between 1540 and his death in 1559, Sir Oliver Lawrence built a new house on the site of the monastic grange. It is likely that his son, Edward, continued this work (Oswald 1959). The Lawrence family owned Creech until 1691 when John Lawrence sold it to a lawyer, Nathaniel Bond, whose father, Denis Bond, owned property nearby at Lutton. Nathaniel Bond bought out his brothers' interest in their father's estate and also acquired the manor of Tyneham which he settled on his younger son. Creech passed to his elder son, Denis, who between 1738 and 1741 employed the Blandford architect Francis Cartwright to rebuild the south wing of the house. Account books show that some £1300 was expended on this work, and new gardens and parkland were laid out to form a setting for the remodelled house. This landscape scheme included a formal garden and canal to the west of the house and informal pleasure grounds around a series of pools in Little Wood. To the south of the house, symmetrical plantations framed a vista towards a gothic eyecatcher set on the skyline above the house, which was completed before 1746. To the north of the pleasure grounds, Denis Bond constructed a chapel in 1746. This chapel, which served as a landscape feature, was rebuilt in 1849-68 for the Rev Nathaniel Bond, while the east facade of the house was also remodelled at the same period. Denis Bond's landscape improvements are recorded on a mid-C18 plan (private collection). During the C19 an extensive programme of re-planting both in the gardens and the parkland, and the addition of conifer planting, both in large parcels and in numerous clumps, was carried out.
The Bond family continued to own Creech Grange throughout the C18 and C19. In 1942 the Grange Arch was passed to the National Trust, while the remainder of the estate was sold out of the family in the late C20.
The London Bonds
Finally, the Third and Fourth lines of Bonds sprang from Earth through William Bond of West Buckland Somerset according to Allen K Bond.
William Bond of West Buckland Somerset was the son of William Bond and Lady Jane of Dorset Gibbs, he was husband to Lady Dionise Bourman. His grandparents are Sir Thomas Bond of Buckland and Lady Elizabeth of Duloe Cornwall Kendall, 1st great grandparents are Richard de Earth Bond and Agent Maynard and 2nd great grandparents are Robert 1st de Earth Elizabeth heiress of Earth.
It is suggested that William Bond's eldest son whose name was also William and was an alderman of London who had become a shipbuilder may have been the great shipwright of London who built the warship Henry Grace Dieu (Great Harry) in the year 1512 - 1514 on the banks of the Thames for King Henry VIII.
William Bond Alderman of London and shipbuilder has a younger brother George Bond Haberdasher of London who also became Alderman of London and then Lord Mayor of London. Lord Mayor of London was a position of honour and distinction given to those of the highest credibility and success in their trade in the city, with the approval of the King. It is this George Bond who is the father of Dionise Bond wife of Henry lord of the manor Standish Winston Sir as mentioned previously. Discovering and understanding the complexities of my family history is something that I enjoy and embrace with enthusiasm.
George Lord Mayor of London Bond Sir 1534-1592
4th cousin 12x removed
William (of West Buckland Somerset) Bond Sir 1493-1549 Father of George Lord Mayor of London Bond Sir
William de Earth Bond Sir Lord 1467-1529 Father of William (of West Buckland Somerset) Bond Sir
Sir Thomas Bond 1430-1480 Father of William de Earth Bond Sir Lord
Richard de Earth Bond 1412-1462 Father of Sir Thomas Bond
Robert I Bond De Earth 1378-1432 Father of Richard de Earth Bond
Robert II of Hache Beauchamp Bond 1393-1431 Son of Robert I Bond De Earth
Robert III de Earth Bond 1428-1459 Son of Robert II of Hache Beauchamp Bond
John Bond Sir 1444-1525 Son of Robert III de Earth Bond
Walter Bond 1500-1572 Son of John Bond Sir
John Bond 1530-1583 Son of Walter Bond
Thomas Bond 1546-1607 Son of John Bond
James Bond I 1586-1664 Son of Thomas Bond
James Bond II 1612-1681 Son of James Bond I
James Bond III 1646-1705 Son of James Bond II
Benjarmin Bond 1689-1763 Son of James Bond III
John Bond 1730-1801 Son of Benjarmin Bond
WILLIAM BOND can 1763-1841 Son of John Bond
WILLIAM ROBERT BOND 1801-1876 Son of WILLIAM BOND
JAMES ROBERT BOND 1831-1884 Son of WILLIAM ROBERT BOND
HARRY BOND 1864-1950 Son of JAMES ROBERT BOND
CYRIL LEONARD BOND 1904-1983 Son of HARRY BOND
Below I invite you to read the book, The Story of the Bonds of Earth, by Allen K Bond, a good source of information regarding the Bonds de Earth. A publication that assisted me in my research, along with many publications by other authors.
Further Reading:
Burke's Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland, and Scotland, Bond of Peckham.
Copyright © Noel Bond. Researched and written by Noel Bond, No written part of this Blog may be reproduced in any form, by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author.
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