BOLEBEC 203 BOLEBEC BOLEBEC Barony of 1 Though this never was a Peerage Ba- „ Viscountcy of j rony,(^) the Earls of Oxford, from 1 245 to 1 703, assumed (among divers other assump- tions) the style of ^^Baron de Bolebec, which, during part of that time (1462 to 1625) they appear to have magnified into the style of " Viscount BolebecrQ') Isabel, da. and coh., of Walter de Bolebec, of Whitchurch, Bucks, ;«., istly, Robert (de Veer), 3rd Earl of Oxford (who d. 1221), and 2ndly, Henry de Nonant, and d. 3 Feb. 1 245, when her s. and h., Hugh, 4th Earl, appears to have adopted the style of " Baron de Bolebec," which was con- tinued (as above-mentioned) by his successors. () BOLEBROOKE i.e. "BoLEBROoKE, Sussex," Barony (Sackvi//e-Germain), see "Sackville, OF Drayton," Viscountcy, cr. 1782; extinct iB 4.2. BOLINGBROKE(<^) EARLDOM. I. Oliver St. John, s. and h. of Oliver, 3rd Baron y ^ St. John of Bletso, by Dorothy, da. and h. of Sir John ■■ Rede, of Odington, co. Gloucester, was b. about 1584; K.B., 3 June 1 6 10, at the creation of Henry, Prince of Wales; sue. his (^) The resolution, 5 Apr. 1626, of the House of Lords (to whom the claim of Robert, 19th Earl of Oxford, h. male, but not h. gfn., of the preceding Earls, to this and other dignities had been referred), was "that the Baronies of Bolebec, Sandford and Badlesmere were in abeyance between the heWsgen. of John, 7th Earl of Oxford," but it must be noted that this resolution was made " without having inquired into the origin or nature of those Baronies, or even their existence in the person of the said Earl." See Courthope, sub ^^ Bolebec." See also vol. i, p. 373, Ncte, sub "Badles- mere," and ante p. 88, note "b," sub " Bedford." For a list of peerage titles assumed by peers see vol. v. Appendix F. C') "John Vere, Lord Badlesmere, Viscount Bulbeck, i3c." presented in 1560 to the Rectory of Aston Sandford, Bucks. See Lipscomb's Bucks, vol. i. It is of course just possible that there may have been an Anglo-French Viscountcy of Bolebec bestowed on this family. (^) The manor of Bolebec appears to have been alienated in 1548 by Edward, 17th Earl of Oxford, to the Duke of Somerset. See pedigree of Bolebec and an account of the manor in Lipscomb's Buch, vol. iii, p. 508, sub "Whitchurch." {^) The Lordship of Bolingbroke was the demesne of the old Earls of Lincoln, whose heiress, Alice de Lacy, m. Thomas, Earl of Lancaster. Though she d. s.p., 1 348, the inheritance continued in her husband's family, and it was here that " Henry of BoUngbroke" (immortalised under that name by Shakespere), afterwards Henry IV, was born. It was long the prime seat of the Duchy of Lancaster. The family of St. John appears to have had no connection with the place of Bolingbroke, but to have assumed that high sounding name to indicate their connection with the family of Beaufort, descendants of the Dukes of Lancaster, its owners.
