Coat of Arms & Family Crests Store
Boltwood Coat of Arms / Boltwood Family CrestDuring the Middle Ages surnames were first used in order to distinguish between numbers of people bearing the same christian name. As taxation, under William The Conqueror, who invaded England in 1066, became the law, documentation became essential, and names were chosen from a man's trade, his father's name, some personal physical characteristic, or from his place of residence. In the case of the name BOLTWOOD it was a locational name from the Old English 'BOLT' meaning arrow, and the name possibly denoted the wood from which arrows were made or where archery was practised. Variant place names include BOLD, a small town in the parish of Prescot and BOLT HEAD in Devonshire. The earliest of the name on record appears to be Johan de la BOLDE, who was documented in 1273 in County Lancashire, and Edwin BOLTE of Yorkshire, was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. A notable member of the name was the American radiochemist, Bertram Borden BOLDWOOD (1870-1927), who greatly furthered knowledge of the uranium decay series. He was professor at Yale, and from 1904 concentrated on radiochemistry and discovered the radioactive element ionium, and introduced Pb:U ratios as a method of dating rocks. Surnames derived from placenames are divided into two broad categories; topographic names and habitation names. Topographic names are derived from general descriptive references to someone who lived near a physical feature such as an oak tree, a hill, a stream or a church. Habitation names are derived from pre-existing names denoting towns, villages and farmsteads. Other classes of local names include those derived from the names of rivers, individual houses with signs on them, regions and whole countries.A later instance of the name mentions Margaret Bolte of Upton, Lancashire, who was listed in the Wills at Chester in 1545. The name was in Scotland at an early date and Hugone BOLTE, was a witness at Inchcolm in the year 1178. Before the 1066 Conquest names were rare in England, the few examples found were mainly adopted by those of the clergy or one who had taken holy orders. In 1086 the conquering Duke William of Normandy commanded the Domesday Book. He wanted to know what he had and who held it, and the Book describes Old English society under its new management in minute detail. |
