Boe and Bowe
In the 1659 “Census” the Boe surname predominates numerically over Bowe 39 to 12. Twenty-two of the Boe were in Kilkenny, and all 12 Bowe were in Queens (Leix/Laois). This suggests Bowe may have been Boe first.
About 200 years later, by the 1848-1864 Griffith's Valuation, two notable patterns had emerged:
1. Boe became far more prominent in Tipperary, with 15 households there and only one remaining in Kilkenny.
2. Bowe households far outnumbered Boe throughout Ireland and the homeland region:
Ireland–262 to 20
Kilkenny–83 to 1
Laois–109 to 0
Tipperary–19 to 15
By the 1911 census there were no remaining Boe in the region and just one in Ireland (Antrim, possibly from elsewhere), while Bowe had reached its highest frequency near Abbyleix in Laois, just north of the Kilkenny border. (Early on this general region was all part of the Diocese of Ossory, which spanned Kilkenny as well.)
Were these families:
1. Related, originating with Boe in Kilkenny, but the Boe spelling and/or patrilineal lineages died out in favor of Bowe, and an early Bowe branch established itself in Laois by the 1659 “Census”?
This may be likely, because if they were unrelated, the Boe family, originally larger than Bowe, should show numerical growth approximating the Bowe growth from 1659 to 1848-64. The Boe recorded in Kilkenny in 1659 likely changed their name to Bowe before the Boe of Tipperay did, accounting for the geographic shift of Boe from Kilkenny to Tipperary between 1659 and 1848-64.
Additionally, we find both spellings used within the same families in the parish records.
2. Unrelated, the Kilkenny Boe drifting into Tipperary where they later died out?
This is possible also. Patrilineal, Y-chromosome lines do die out when there are not enough sons, and eventually none, to continue them.
Associations with Place Names
Tyrone Bowes, PhD, found a "Bowe's Cross Roads" 7 Kilometers east of Abbeyleix on the R432, which was built along an ancient pathway between Carlow and Abbeyleix. Combined with the very high frequency of the Bowe surname in this area since the 17th century, it's reasonable to conclude that this is the geographic homeland of the Bowe spelling, whether or not the family was Boe earlier in Kilkenny.
Much of the thought, folklore, genealogy, religion, daily life and work of those living on and interacting with their landscape can be appreciated through placenames study... Placenames in Ireland are at the heart of community identity in town and country, in townland and street. [1]
The earliest notation of Bowe's Cross Roads that we know of is in the Ordinance Survey maps from the early 19th century. It is not noted on several 16th-century maps, but the Bowe could have been there at the time.
(Thanks to Dr. Tyrone Bowes, who found Bowe's Cross Roads,
and has his own website, for these images.)
Additionally, there is an area just west of Bowe's Cross Roads referred to as Toberboe. Tober means “well” in Gaelic, and in Toberboe there is also a well once referred to as Toberboe. It's possible this name arose from a reference to cow, the Gaelic for which is “bo” and which were abundant in the area.
It's also possible this place name relates directly to early the presence of Boe/Bowe in the area. The significance will become more clear in the next section, but there are wells in Tipperary named Tobercarroll after the Carroll clan, so there is regional precedent for a well being named after a local clan.
Arguing against Toberboe having a name connection to the Boe/Bowe, locals in 2011 stated it doesn't, that it had to do with cows. Also, the Irish Midlands Ancestry website states that “'Tubberboe well,' from which the townland of Tubberboe takes its name ... is sometimes called Tubberig and Tubberach. On the Ordnance Map it is called 'St. Johns Well.'" [2]
These Irish Boe/Bowe in the DNA Project
We have a DNA subgroup that reveals the genetic Y chromosome signature of the Irish Bowe surname from this Laois, Kilkenny, and Tipperary region. Four Bowe participants with family history in the area have shared Y chromosome marker mutations, indicating they are related. This subgroup also has been found to match the Y chromosome genetic "modal" for the Ely Carroll region that covered parts of nearby Offaly and Tipperary. A modal is a sequence of Y-chromosome marker results that occur at the highest frequency among a group of individuals whose Y-chromosomes match each other. In the case of Ely Carroll this modal includes a number of surnames historically associated with Ely Carroll, along with others–such as Bowe–that are not traditionally associated with Ely Carroll.
The growing Ely Carroll DNA project, which this Bowe subgroup's participants have joined, includes a descendent of the O'Carrolls of Litterluna who were one of the Carroll branches that ruled Ely Carroll over many years until the 17th century. (At that time one of the Carrolls was granted land in Maryland by the King of England and established a prominent Catholic colonial family, a descendent of which was the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence.) This modern O'Carroll descendent's participation, along with matching surnames historically associated with Ely Carroll, support that the Y-chromosome markers derived from this Bowe group represents that of the people of Ely Carroll.
Human genes, however, contain a yDNA (males), mtDNA (mitochondrial: males and females) and atDNA (autosomal: males and females). At this time we do not know whether the Y-chromosome match between this Bowe subgroup and others historically connected to Ely Carroll means that these Bowe had a long history and origin among the Ely Carroll, since before surnames came into use, and adopted the Bowe surname later. They could have simply adopted the name when surnames came into use, or they could have been a later "breakaway" faction that took a new name while forming new alliances. Significantly for now, when interviewed by Jeane Bowes Robinson in 2011, the historian Paddy Heany, described by author Ronald Hoffman (winner of several awards for Princes of Ireland, Planters of Maryland about the O'Carrolls) as having "spellbinding" knowledge of Ely Carroll, knew of no connection between Ely Carroll and Bowe.
Alternatively, early on someone from Ely Carroll may have conceived a son with a Bowe woman who belonged to another historic group--such as a yet to be identified Bowe group representing the name's traditional association with the Corca Laoidhe of Cork--that was raised among those Bowe and took their name. See William Carrigan Sheds Light. Further DNA study using both the Y chromosome and autosomal DNA may help clarify these questions.
Bowes Is a Variant of Bowe
The Irish Bowe surname commonly became Bowes, both in Ireland and among emigrant families. In this case Bowes is a variant of Bowe, whereas in England there are Bowes that are not a variant of Bowe and represent the Bowes surname “in its own right,” so to speak.
Surname Origin of Irish Bowe Is Paradoxical
In the 1600s the English forced the Irish to anglicize their names, which meant that Irish names were replaced with English names that sounded exactly or almost like the Irish name being replaced. So the Bowe surname itself originated in northern England, but in Ireland it corrupted an earlier Irish name with its own origin in Ireland. So those who belong to the early Irish Bowe clan have Irish genetic roots, and had once had an Irish name with its own origin in Ireland, but that Irish name was corrupted to the English name Bowe.
While on one level it's fair to say that Bowe is now an Irish surname, it's important not to oversimplify these surname origins by saying that Irish Bowe have an Irish surname because they have genetic roots in Ireland. Doing so obscures the political history where–as part of a widespread, violent and oppressive erasure of Irish culture and society–the English corrupted Irish surnames so they would conform to what the English wanted. Irish people who want to take a stand on the English corruption of Irish place and surnames revert to the earlier Irish forms. Unfortunately, in this case we're not certain exactly what Irish form Bowe snuffed out, just that it sounded something like "Bowe."
Meaning Origin of the Surname
Absent evidence supporting the Cork origins theory attributing the Boe/Bowe/Bowes surname to an ancestor's personal name O'Buadhaigh, it's possible that the surname's Gaelic precursor may have been more simply something like "Bo" meaning "cow" in Irish Gaelic. It was common for early Irish to take their name after something personally or locally important. Supporting this is the fact that in the 1911 census the name has its highest concentration in Laois near Aghaboe, meaning "field of the cow," and where an old monastery was situated. We also know that “Bo” was used as an epithet for the early Irish king Diarmait mac Maíl na mBó. [4]
To complicate this more simple explanation, "bo" in Irish also means "bow" as in bow and arrows or rainbow. Taking that a step further, an Ely Carroll historian, Paddy Heany, and a Castlecomer Plateau historian John Headan, told our researcher Jeane Bowes Robinson that the Bowe were hereditary musicians and entertainers. Might the Gaelic "bo" also have referred to the bow of a fiddle?
While evidence shows that the surname itself originated in Leix/Laois/Queens, it is still unclear why that surname was used.
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1. “Cork & Kerry Place Names Survey,” Cork Place Names Survey/Logainmneacha Chorcaí (http://www.placenames.ie Accessed 30 January 2011).
2. “Parish of Durrow,” article, Irish Midlands Ancestry (http://www.irishmidlandsancestry.com/content/laois/community/parishhistories/durrow_parish.htm: Accessed 31 March 2011).
3. Phair, P.B. "Guide to the Registry of Deeds," Analecta Hibernica, No. 23 (1966), pp. 257, 259-276. The Irish Manuscripts Commision, Ltd.
4. “Diarmait mac Maíl na mBó,” entry, Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias (http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/712594: Accessed 3 October 2010), citing the Annals of the Four Masters (http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100005B/index.html).