Bodwell Beginnings in Wales
By Geoffrey
L. Bodwell The Bodwell line has been traced back to Beli
Mawr who was the British King who opposed Ceaser about 100 BC. From there the line can be traced down for 47 generations to Henry Bodvel who died in 1656. His son, Henry was born in April
1651 at Bodvel, Carnarvon, Wales.
For more on the Bodwells
(and Bodvels) of Carnarvon, a prominent family of
the area until the early 1600s – when the story shifts to America, see here. After the
death of Henry's father, his mother remarried. Her new husband, who was of
rather high station - one source says he was a brother of Lord Newbury - may
have adopted the name Bodvel. While Henry was still
a schoolboy - the same source says he was 13 - and presumably after the death
of his mother, his stepfather shipped him to America with the intention of
gaining possession of the estate to which Henry was heir. According to the
same source the ship was owned by Lord Newbury. The sea-captain to who Henry
was entrusted - possibly Alexander Bodvel - robbed
him of what money he had with him and on their arrival at Newburyport,
Massachusetts, indentured him to a farmer until he came of age.
Bodvel Hall Bodvel is located on the Lleyn peninsula in
the former county of Carnarvonshire, now part of
the new county of Gwynedd. Bodvel Hall is shown on
sheet 123, Lleyn of the British Ordnance Survey
map. Nearby is Bovel Bridge. Bod which means
dwelling place, occurs in many Welsh names. Bovel may originally have been Bodvael.
In its
heyday the Bodvel estate comprised many parcels of
land scattered across Carnarvonshire and Anglesey
in addition to the home farm around Bodvel itself.
This part of Wales is less mountainous and has a lower rainfall than most of
the rest of the country and so lent itself to a comparatively rich and
productive agriculture. In the Middle Ages and early modern times, Bodvel even produced wine from its own grapes. Surplus
wine, cattle and farm produce found a ready and profitable market in Chester,
where they were conveyed in coastal vessels. Bardsey (Bards' Island), which had been a place of pilgrimage until the
dissolution of the monasteries, together with Cwrtwith,
the former demesne house of the Abbott of Bardsy,
had been awarded to Sir John Wynn of Bodvel in
recognition of his services in the battle against the rebels of Norfolk and
Suffolk in Jul 1549, and formed part of the Bodvel
estate. Cwrtwith was where the Abbott used to hold
his leet court where tithes and rents were
collected from tenants. No doubt the estate continued to collect rents if not
tithes. Sir John
was later accused of using Bardsey as the
headquarters of a well-organized band of pirates. Though he was never brought
to trail the charge may well have been true. Although the gentry of Carnarvonshire in general were not much given to active
piracy, there were exceptions, and certainly they were not above trading with
the pirates that infested the coast, both buying the cargos they had looted
and selling them supplies. The Bodvel estate even developed a small port near Cwrtwith for the shipment of produce to Chester. Later
the port was also used to import rum, sugar and other tropical products from
the West Indies where the family had acquired land. Bodvel was on the road from Pwllheli on
Cardigan Bay to Nefyn on Carnarvon Bay. This route
was much used by merchants to convey goods overland by pack animal, thereby
avoiding the dangerous sea voyage through the treacherous and pirate-infested
waters around Bardsey at the tip of the Lleyn peninsula. The Bodvel
estate controlled part of the route and doubtless extracted tolls for the use
of road and bridges. All in all,
Bodvel was a very rich estate by the standards of
its time and place and Bodvels were a wealthy and
influential family. Sir John Bodvel (1582-1631)
planned to replace the existing mansion at Bodvel
(no trace of which now remains) by a stately home more in keeping with his
rank and wealth, but had completed only the gate house (now Bodvel Hall) when he died at the comparatively young age
of 48. His heirs did not proceed with the project and the upheavals connected
with the Civil War, the Protectorate, and the Restoration finally put an end
to any such grandiose idea. Even so, Bodvel and its
associated estates were a prize well worth having.
It is not surprising that the emigrant Henry's step-father went to such
nefarious lengths to get rid of an unwanted heir, and gain possession of his
inheritance for himself. And this, By
Charlie Bodwell… The Bodfel (later Bodvel) family
first came to prominence with John Wyn ap Hugh who as Northumberland's standard bearer at the
crushing of the Ket's rebellion was rewarded with
land and offices. Given the lands of Bardsey Abbey,
he used the island to run a major piracy and smuggling operation while
holding the office of county commissioner for the suppression of piracy and
smuggling. In the reign of Elizabeth, the family's loyalty to the Old Faith
led to an eclipse in its fortunes. In the
1660s Col John Bodvel, a Royalist, who had been was
a member of both the Long and Short Parliaments, died and the estate passed
to Charles Bodvel Robartes
(2nd Earl of Radnor). The house, once the centre of Catholic recusance in this part of Llyn
was then licensed for Dissenting worship and the house occupied by the
controversial Presbyterian divine James Owen. His congregation was not
particularly numerous - three genuine worshippers and two government spies. In the
18thC Bodfel passed to the Salusburys
of Bachygraig in Flintshire and was the birthplace
and, later, marital home of the precocious Hester Lynch Salusbury,
(later Mrs Thrale and later still Mrs Piozzi), a friend of Samuel Johnson. In
the 19thC, the house, by then occupied by tenant farmers, was much
modernised. [Return to The Bodwell Family Home
Page] Contact: charlie@bodwellfamily.org
November 11, 2024. |
