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Archiver > BOWHAY > 2004-07 > 1089183263


From: "Joan Gaskin" <>
Subject: Origin of BOWHAY Name
Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2004 07:54:23 +0100


Hi,

Someone recently asked me (off-List) to compile a summary of my findings on the origin of the BOWHAY name. You may like to see it, so here it is:

In "Memories of Dunchideock", A N Winckworth (1917-1997) gives a date of 1238 for the name BOGHEWEYE and mentions its evolution to BOWAYE by 1528.
(I've found BOWAYEs in Parish Registers in the 1500s, but don't have the 1238 BOGHEWEYEs, although I know of BOGHEWEYs paying lay subsidies in Yealmpton and Plymstock in 1332.)

Compare this with the following Dunkeswell very early find (the two villages are 20 miles apart):
"Notes to the Domesday Book" (1086) contains:
"Dunkeswell, a parish in Hemyock Hundred. It passed to William Briwere and was given to him in 1201. It included Bourehays, Burhei and Steintewock".
(Dunchideock and Dunkeswell are 20 miles apart.)

From a book on surnames, but I haven't been sent the title and author:
"The English surname BOWHAY along with the variant forms including BOWGHEN, BOWHEN, BOWHEYN and BOWHEY is of locative origin,
referring to the name of the place where the initial bearer once lived or held Land, thus affording him a suitable means of
identity in his local community. In this instance the place called Bourehays in the County of Devonshire, appears to be the home of this surname and is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 when detailing the Lands held by Ralph de Pomery."

There are two old Devon Manors of interest:
BOWHAY: in Exminster Parish (this is 3.3 miles South of Exeter)
BOOHAY: in Brixham St Mary's Parish
(Regarding Exminster, there are mentions of Bowhay Farm and Bowhay Cottage from the 1700s, and they still exist today, although the farmhouse has been rebuilt. I can let you have a digital photograph if you wish. There's also a bridleway named Bowhay Lane. Interestingly, in the 1850 White Directory of Devon, under Exminster, we find "Sir L V Palk is lord of the manor of Shillingford, and owner of the estates called Little Bowhay, Breynton, and Lower and North Shillingford, or Shillingford Abbots.")
(Regarding Brixham, there is a small hamlet named Boohay, and I've been told that BOWHAYs once had a pew in St Mary's Parish Church.)

There are also BOWHAYs in Cornwall who appear relatively early too. They were prominent in Stoke Climsland from the late 1500s to the 1800s, and many of them left wills. The earliest named property is Whiteford (near Stoke Climsland), which appears in a 1605 will. It's possible this family's roots were in Devon as BOWHAY isn't known as an ancient Cornish surname and it doesn't have a proven Cornish meaning. The Cornish words bowjy, which means cow house, and buhas, which is a female cow, sound similar, but may have no connection.

Joan


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