Bolsover

This interesting name is of locational origin from the village "Bolsoner" approximately six miles due east of Chesterfield in the county of Derby. This place derives its name from the old English "bulan-laes", bullock pasture, and "ofer", meaning edge, slope. The earliest recording of the placename is as "Belesovre" in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name is also entered as "Bolesoura", "Bulesoures" and "Bolesor" in the respective Poll Tax Records of Derbyshire for the years 1167, 1197 and 1230. Variations of the name found in records include "Boalsover", "Bowlsover", "Boolsover", "Boulsover" and "Bolsaver". The surname first appears in records towards the end of the 16th Century. Thomas Bolesover was christened at Norton on February 8th 1665. At Ashover, Elizabeth Bolsoner married Francis Allyn on September 25th 1672. On June 13th 1677, Anne Boulsover married John Booer at Ashouer. In 1755 William Weaver and Elizabeth Bolsover were married in St. George's, Hanover Square, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Edith Bolsover, marriage to Peter Dowker, which was dated 1591, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, "Good Queen Bess", 1558 - 1603. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.