This is one of the most famous of all English surnames. It is particularly associated with King Henry 1Vth who reigned 1399 - 1413, and who was known to history as Henry Bolingbroke. The surname is medieval and locational, and originates from a place called Bolingbroke in the county of Lincolnshire. The place name is believed to mean the water (broc), this probably described a lake or fen, of the Bulla people (-ing). This was an Old English tribe who probably flourished in the Dark Ages perhaps before the 6th century a.d. The place is first recorded as Bolinbroc in the famous Domesday Book of 1086, and Henry Bolingbroke, was born there in 1367. He was a grandson of King Edward 111rd who died in 1377, and the fourth son of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster. Whether any of the current Bolingbroke nameholders have a direct relationship to Henry 1V, can only be checked by generalogical research. Todays name holders almost certainly descend from former villagers who left Bolingbroke probably in the 16th century to find work, and thereafter were known by the name of their former village. Some did not move far as shown in the recording of William Bollingbook as spelt, of Coningsby, on May 18th 1634, whilst Henry Bollingbroke (1785 - 1855) was an early travel writer.

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