Bolton in Dorset

Introduction
Origins of the name
Variants of the name
Sarah Bolton (abt 1791-?)
James Bolton
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Introduction

This page is devoted to the BOLTON ancestors of my mother - the origins of the name, who they were and where and when they lived.

The genealogical data in these pages is accurate to the best of my current (at the time of writing) knowledge. This means it is of very variable reliability, since sources at one extreme are 100% certain (e.g. I know who I married, where and when, and the identity of my parents) to the mere rumour level, such as LDS data extracted from the IGI and Ancestral File, and reminiscences of elderly relatives, some now deceased. Anyone wishing to make any use whatever of this information is therefore strongly advised to contact me for source details.

Origins of the name

The surname Bolton comes from the place name, which occurs in four counties in northern England, and is especially common in Yorkshire. It is derived from the Old English bodl meaning dwelling or house plus tun meaning settlement, hence a place with houses, a settlement or a village centre.

Variants of the name

BOULTON is a variant of the name, the only one mentioned in Hanks & Hodges "A Dictionary of Surnames", and is itself a place name in Derbyshire. However, I have also seen the form BOLTEN in the Winterborne Zelston, Dorset parish register, applied to a probable ancestor of mine.

Sarah Bolton

Sarah Bolton was my great great great grandmother. She was born in Wimborne, and baptised in Wimborne Minster, together with her brother George, on 13th March 1791. The record does not say if they were twins or not, and their mother is not named. Their sister Anne was baptised at the same place on 9th October 1796. Sarah married Benjamin ADAMS in Winterborne Zelston parish church on 22nd October 1812, and produced at least seven children.

James Bolton

Sarah Bolton's father was James Bolton, as recorded in the Wimborne Minster parish register. His own baptism may also be recorded in the difficult-to-read early pages of that same parish register, or elsewhere, but I have not yet had the opportunity to complete my examination of them. The Chalbury parish register shows James Bolton marrying Anne West on 7th April 1765, and I strongly suspect this is the same man. The same register shows the baptism of their son Thomas on 5th April 1773. I am not at present at all sure if Ann is the mother of the children mentioned above, or if she perhaps died and James married again. Ann would have been in her late 40s at least by the time of James's daughter Anne's baptism in 1796, which is a little unlikely but not impossible. More research on both burials and marriages is needed, especially in Chalbury, Wimborne and Winterborne Zelston!

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