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Bowes Surname Origin


  This surname, according to Grose, originated as follows: about the time of the Conqueror, there was a town (on the site of the Castle of Bowes), which the tradition of the family states, was burned. It then belonged to the Earls of Brittany and Richmond. The castle was built, as Mr. Horseley thinks, out of the ruins of the Roman Fortress, by Alan Niger, the second earl of that title, who, it is said, placed therein William, his relation, with five hundred archers to defend it against some insurgents in Cambridge and Westmorland confederated with the Scots, giving him for the device of his standard the arms of Brittany, with three bows and a bundle of arrows, whence both the castle and the commander derived their names; the former being called Bowes Castle, and the latter, William de Arcubus, or William Bowes.

Source: An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names With an Essay on their Derivation and Import; Arthur, William, M.A.; New York, NY: Sheldon, Blake, Bleeker & CO., 1857.


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Bowes Last Name Meaning   



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Bowes at the Mormon LDS Database
Trace your Bowes family in the vast resources of the Mormon LDS genealogy online databases which includes the Ancestral File, transcribed census records, extracted church records from around the world, family trees, and the International Genealogical Index.


Bowes at RootsWeb databases
Search for your Bowes ancestors in multiple RootsWeb genealogy databases including the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), RootsWeb Surname List, World Connect, vital records, cemetery listings, census records, church records. The oldest and largest free genealogy site on the internet.





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