Help Deciphering Two Lines of 17th Century English

[TalesOfTheSevenSeas]

Ahoy mates,

I understand there are some of you here with experience in deciphering handwritten 17th century documents. I recently acquired my family bible, (another interesting story there!) which had a couple of lines written in it that I cannot decipher, even after reading a tutorial on 17th century manuscripts. I am hoping someone here can help.

Here is some helpful background information:

This is a Geneva bible, published in England in 1615.

It definitely belonged to my ancestor Thomas Bolles (1644-1727) and he signed it clearly, "Tho Bolles his Book 1696".

The line of descent runs like this:

Thomas (1576-1635) English baron, born in Osberton Nottinghamshire England
Joseph (1607-1678) born in Nottinghamshire England, died in Maine USA
Thomas Bolles (1644-1727) Clear signature dated 1696, born in Winter Harbor, Hancock, Maine, died New London CT.
John (1677-1767) born in New London CT, survived an axe murder in which his mother, brother and sister were killed, died in New London CT.

I see two Thomas's, a John and maybe a Joseph in there, but can you help decipher the two lines of text? Here it is:

Here is the Bible of Thomas Bolles:

And if you're curious about how I got this family treasure I'll be happy to share the story.

Thanks very much for your help!

[Mission]

Your problem is more one of penmanship than 17th century writing style IMO. The lines you're asking about do appear to have been written by someone other than Thomas - the writing style is different.

That first word in the second line starts either with 'The' or 'Che' The next word is probably 'som' The f's and s's look very similar, although the f has a cross-stroke where the s does not. You can see that most clearly in the word 'of' in that line. He also seems to make t's with a curve on the top that makes them look a bit like the f's and s's. (In that same line, the word that starts with The or Che seems to end with a 't' for example.)

I suspect the third line under the graphic starts with the word 'God.' From that, I'd guess the next word to be 'gives', except it doesn't appear to end with an 's', it appears to end with a 'd'. Then again, it's difficult to make out accurately. I'd guess the word after that is 'loving' or possibly 'living'. The word after that could be 'gras' (possibly meaning 'grace'). Then I really can't tell.

Or I could be all wrong. That's some really bad penmanship.

[Fox]

This is a lot better than some handwriting I've seen from the period, but normally there's a lot more context to give clues to the tricky words.

First off, Thomas Bolles of 1696 appears to have acquired the book from someone else, because his date is written over the name beneath, which isn't Bolles. I think the first "John" is crossed out because he made a mistake writing the surname, and the second "John" is actually the second attempt to write "John Br??ford [bradford? Brentford?] his book". the next line begins "God give him grase [grace]" but I can't figure out the rest.

The top bit is no easier. The first word is "That" without a doubt, and I'm 90% sure the last word is "be". The second word could looks like "som[e]", and "of" is obvious in the middle.

And yes please, let's hear the story

[TalesOfTheSevenSeas]

Sorry for the delay, for some reason I never got notifications that there had been responses to this topic. I got some help from the rare book curator at West Michigan University. deciphering these inscriptions and a couple of others that are on other pages has been very helpful in tracking the course that this Bible has followed over the last 400 years. Here is a synopsis:

Lets take the upper portion first. Remember that spelling had not been standardized and that in the 17th century spellings were phonetic and there were letters and abbreviations that are no longer used today.

At the top we have clearly, "Tho Bolles His Bokk". The line below it says "That som (or Son) Sayest givves of s---igence Ld." What you need to know here is that "Ld." is the old abbreviation for "Lord" used in the 17th century. So loosely translated, this appears to say "Tho Bolles that son sayest (or some sayest) given of significant lord."

This would make sense since Thomas Bolles 1576-1635 was "landed gentry" owner of a large estate in Osberton, Nottingham England.

On several other pages we see "Mary Bolles, her Book". This is Mary Wytham Bolles, Thomas Bolles second wife. She later became a barontess (only woman ever given this title independent of her husband) and heir to her father's estate. She is rumored to still haunt the estate she inherited from her father at Wakefield. Upon Thomas' death, his lands and Osberton Hall passed to his son John.

John Bolles died and unexpectedly his younger brother Joseph Bolles inherited the Osberton estate. However Joseph had immigrated to America years earlier, and his family was established there. So he returned to England to settle affairs, sold the estate at Osberton, and upon his return to America, it appears that he brought the Bolles Bible with him.

One of John's American children was Thomas Bolles (1644 - 1727). Thomas was living in New London CT when his wife Zipporah Wheeler Bolles and his two eldest children were the victims of an axe murder while Thomas was away from home. The murder went unsolved for several months, until another child was axed by his elder brother, survived the attempted killing and implicated his older teenage stepbrother in the crime. Under questioning by New London Commissioner Daniel Wetherell, The deeply disturbed teen admitted to having killed Zipporah Bolles and two of her children. He spared her baby John because he was too little to identify him as the killer. The bible was then apparently gifted in thanks to Daniel Wetherell. On a different page it says "D Wetherell his Book" and then there is a line "Living in ---?"

Going back to the first page we have "Tho Bolles his Book, 1696" This appears to be when Daniel Wetherell gifted the bible back into the Bolles family.

Below that we have

"John (B?) (stricken out)"

"John (or Folow?) ----- good his ----
God gives him grase -----
fond so loke"

This is the baby John who survived the axe murder and was found clinging to his mother's body, but otherwise unharmed. He grew up to be intensely religious and believed that he had been spared for some greater purpose. He joined a religious group known as the Rogerenes, known for shunning the requirement to attend church services on Sundays, so they would interrupt the services and make arguments throughout the service. Consequently they spent a fair amount of time incarcerated for these activities. In the inscription above, John is talking about God giving him grace, apparently in reference to being spared from death.

So there we have it. Not precise transcriptions I'm afraid, but I think we can understand the gist of what our these ancestors were saying. Fortunately there was a lot of written history on the Bolles family and once I got some help deciphering the text, it fit right in with the known history. Thanks VERY much for the additional input and I hope you enjoyed the story!

[TalesOfTheSevenSeas]

Correction, the line above that says "One of John's American children..." should have been "One of Joseph's American children"

[Dread Pyrate Greyhound]

As near as I can tell it LOOKS like: God gives loiric graces o forcas. Knowing it's faded, I would assume it once said 'God gives loving graces of Forgiveness' which easily fits with Christian Philosphy I'm not sure of the second line.