shortly after the Conquest by William Peveril, but the existing building, a fine castellated residence, was erected on its site in 1613. The town itself was fortified, and traces of early works remain. The church of St Mary is of Norman and later date; it contains some interesting early stone-carving, and monuments to the family of Cavendish, who acquired the castle in the 16th century. Coal-mining and quarrying are carried on in the neighbourhood of Bolsover.
BOLSWARD, a town in the province of Friesland, Holland,
612 m. W.N.W. of Sneek. A steam-tramway connects it with
Sneek, Makkum, Harlingen and Franeker. Pop. (1900) 6517.
The Great church, or St Martin’s (1446–1466) is a large building
containing some good carving, a fine organ and the tombs of
many Frisian nobles. The so-called Small church, dating from
about 1280, also contains fine carving and tombstones; and
is the remnant of a Franciscan convent which once existed
here. Bolsward also possesses a beautiful renaissance town-hall
(1614–1618) and various educational and charitable institutions,
including a music and a drawing school. It has an active trade
in agricultural produce, and some spinning-mills and tile and
pottery works. The town is mentioned in 725, when it was
situated on the Middle Sea. When this receded, a canal was cut
to the Zuider Zee, and in 1422 it was made a Hansa town.
The medieval constitution of Bolsward, though in its government by eight scabini, with judicial, and four councillors with administrative functions, it followed the ordinary type of Dutch cities, was in some ways peculiar. The family of Jongema had certain hereditary rights in the administration, which, though not mentioned in the town charter of 1455, were defined in that of 1464. According to this the head of the family sat for two years with the scabini and the third year with the councillors, and had the right to administer an oath to one of each body. More singular was the influential position assigned, in civic legislation and administration, to the clergy, to whom in conjunction with the councillors, there was even, in certain cases, an appeal from the judgment of the scabini.
See C. Hegel, Stadte u. Gilden der germanischen Völker im Mittelalter (Leipzig, 1891).
BOLT, an O. Eng. word (compare Ger. Bolz, an arrow), for a
“quarrel” or cross-bow shaft, or the pin which fastened a door.
From the swift flight of an arrow comes the verb “to bolt,” as
applied to a horse, &c., and such expressions as “bolt upright,”
meaning straight upright; also the American use of “bolt” for
refusing to support a candidate nominated by one’s own party.
In the sense of a straight pin for a fastening, the word has come
to mean various sorts of appliances. From the sense of “fastening
together” is derived the use of the word “bolt” as a definite
length (in a roll) of a fabric (40 ft. of canvas, &c.).
From another “bolt” or “boult,” to sift (through O. Fr. buleter, from the Med. Lat. buretare or buletare), come such expressions as in Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale, “The fann’d snow, That’s bolted by the northern blasts twice o’er,” or such a figurative use as in Burke’s “The report of the committee was examined and sifted and bolted to the bran.” From this sense comes that of to moot, or discuss, as in Milton’s Comus, “I hate when vice can bolt her arguments.”
BOLTON, DUKES OF. The title of duke of Bolton was held in
the family of Powlett or Paulet from 1689 to 1794. Charles
Powlett, the 1st duke (c. 1625–1699), who became 6th marquess
of Winchester on his father’s death in 1675, had been member
of parliament for Winchester and then for Hampshire from 1660
to 1675. Having supported the claim of William and Mary to
the English throne in 1688, he was restored to the privy council
and to the office of lord-lieutenant of Hampshire, and was
created duke of Bolton in April 1689. An eccentric man, hostile
to Halifax and afterwards to Marlborough, he is said to have
travelled during 1687 with four coaches and 100 horsemen,
sleeping during the day and giving entertainments at night.
He died in February 1699, and was succeeded by his elder son,
Charles, 2nd duke of Bolton (1661–1722), who had also been a
member of parliament for Hampshire and a supporter of William
of Orange. He was lord-lieutenant of Hampshire and of Dorset,
a commissioner to arrange the union of England and Scotland;
and was twice a lord justice of the kingdom. He was also lord
chamberlain of the royal household; governor of the Isle of
Wight; and for two short periods was lord-lieutenant of Ireland.
His third wife was Henrietta (d. 1730), a natural daughter of
James, duke of Monmouth. According to Swift this duke was
“a great booby.” His eldest son, Charles, 3rd duke of Bolton
(1685–1754), was a member of parliament from 1705 to 1717,
when he was made a peer as Baron Pawlet of Basing. He filled
many of the public offices which had been held by his father,
and also attained high rank in the British army. Having
displeased Sir Robert Walpole he was deprived of several of his
offices in 1733; but some of them were afterwards restored to
him, and he raised a regiment for service against the Jacobites
in 1745. He was a famous gallant, and married for his second
wife the singer, Lavinia Fenton (d. 1760), a lady who had
previously been his mistress. He died in August 1754, and was
succeeded as 4th duke by his brother Harry (c. 1690–1759),
who had been a member of parliament for forty years, and who
followed the late duke as lord-lieutenant of Hampshire. The
4th duke’s son, Charles (c. 1718–1765), who became 5th duke
in October 1759, committed suicide in London in July 1765,
and was succeeded by his brother Harry (c. 1719–1794), an
admiral in the navy, on whose death without sons, in December
1794, the dukedom became extinct. The other family titles
descended to a kinsman, George Paulet (1722–1800), who thus
became 12th marquess of Winchester. In 1778 Thomas Orde
(1746–1807) married Jean Mary (d. 1814), a natural daughter
of the 5th duke of Bolton, and this lady inherited Bolton Castle
and other properties on the death of the 6th duke. Having
taken the additional name of Powlett, Orde was created Baron
Bolton in 1797, and the barony has descended to his heirs.
BOLTON (or Boulton), EDMUND (1575?–1633?), English
historian and poet, was born by his own account in 1575. He
was brought up a Roman Catholic, and was educated at Trinity
Hall, Cambridge, afterwards residing in London at the Inner
Temple. In 1600 he contributed to England’s Helicon. He was a
retainer of the duke of Buckingham, and through his influence he
secured a small place at the court of James I. Bolton formulated
a scheme for the establishment of an English academy, but the
project fell through after the death of the king, who had regarded
it favourably. He wrote a Life of King Henry II. for Speed’s
Chronicle, but his Catholic sympathies betrayed themselves in
his treatment of Thomas Becket, and a life by Dr John Barcham
was substituted (Wood, Ath. Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 36). The most
important of his numerous works are Hypercritica (1618?), a
short critical treatise valuable for its notices of contemporary
authors, reprinted in Joseph Haslewood’s Ancient Critical Essays
(vol. ii., 1815); Nero Caesar, or Monarchic Depraved (1624),
with special note of British affairs. Bolton was still living in
1633, but the date of his death is unknown.
BOLTON (Bolton-le-Moors), a municipal, county and parliamentary borough of Lancashire, England, 196 m. N.W. by N. from London and 11 m. N.W. from Manchester. Pop. (1891) 146,487; (1901) 168,215. Area, 15,279 acres. It has stations on the London & North-Western and the Lancashire & Yorkshire railways, with running powers for the Midland railway. It is divided by the Croal, a small tributary of the Irwell, into Great and Little Bolton, and as the full name implies, is surrounded by high moorland. Although of early origin, its appearance, like that of other great manufacturing towns of the vicinity, is wholly modern. It owes not a little to the attractions of its site. The only remnants of antiquity are two houses of the 16th century in Little Bolton, of which one is a specially good example of Tudor work. The site of the church of St Peter has long been occupied by a parish church (there was one in the 12th century, if not earlier), but the existing building dates only from 1870.
There may also be mentioned a large number of other places of worship, a town hall with fine classical façade and tower, market hall, museums of natural history and of art and industry, an exchange, assembly rooms, and various benevolent institutions. Several free libraries are maintained. Lever’s grammar school,
