BOWES ONE-NAME STUDY

Introduction

The origins of the Boe/Bowe/Bowes clan (Bowe clan) in Ireland remain obsure and enigmatic. Mysteriously, in a country that preserved its clan histories with great care (although sometimes altered for political and economic reasons) until the English rent these ancient families asunder in the 17th century, there is no evidence to establish, specifically and certainly, what the Bowe clan's geographic or tribal origins are. To confuse matters further:

1. Some modern Irish Bowe are convinced the Bowe are "Irish," while others are convinced they are "English." Some will specify Norman. So far though, no one can provide evidence of any of these explanations.

2. The surname historians report, since the mid-1800s, that Bowe in the midlands is a dialectical variant of Bogue in Cork, and that the Bogue *think* they are gaelic Eoganachta Sullivans, but they really come from the ancient celtic Corca Laidhe tribe. Again there is no primary evidence to support either explanation.

3. Participants in our DNA project who are from Ireland fall into three main, but non-matching, Y chromosome subgroups. One subgroup matches the ancient Ely Carroll tribe of county Offaly, one subgroup shows a clear non-paternal event with a Pearse from Devon, England (appears to have occurred in the 16th-17th c), while the third subgroup's origins are quite unclear. We think these are all one Bowe clan with multiple Y chromosomes found within it because of "non-paternal events" over time, where a male outside the Bowe clan conceived a child that was raised with the Bowe name. Such an event would introduce the chromosome markers of another surname into the Bowe clan. These events were not unusual. But which Y chromosome, if any of the three, is the *original* Bowe clan Y chromosome?

So for now we continue to collect documentary and DNA information hoping that patterns will eventually point with certainty in one direction, or more.

Surname Frequency and Distribution

We have found in our Distribution and Frequency data for Ireland that the Bowe clan's history since the 17th century lies primarily in Kilkenny, Tipperary and Laois. In the earliest record, the 1659 "Census," the Boe variant appears as a principal surname in Kilkenny, Tipperary and Wexford, while Bowe shows up in Laois.The clan would have been present in this midlands region since before that time in order to have already been well established by then, but it's not clear whether this was the clan's geographic origins prior to modern versions of their name.

Mapping all Bowe appearing in the Griffith's Valuation, a massive, country-wide land and occupant survey conducted in the mid-late 1800s, reinforces the 1659 "Census," again showing them primarily in Kilkenny, Laois and Tipperary.

Finally, Bowe data from the 1911 census, nicely mapped by Tyrone Bowes at Irish Origenes, repeats the general pattern.

What these sources can't show is whether the Bowe had always been in the midlands, or whether, as the surname historians have recorded, they came there from Cork very early on.

Place Names Research

Place names in Ireland are richly connected to the history of the places they identify. Looking for ones in our midlands region that may relate specifically to the Bowe clan, researchers have identified three worth noting.

In Laois, there is a Bowe's Cross Roads. The earliest mention seen of it is on an early 1800s map. That was clearly named after the Bowe family known to have lived exactly there, but it's not clear whether Bowe's Cross Roads was named centuries earlier after the clan as a whole to mark its ancient origins, or just named later after a particular Bowe family branch became established there.

Also in Laois we find Aghaboe Abbey and town. It was hypothesized that they may have some historical association with the Bowe clan. But in early Irish "agha" meant field, while "bo/bho" meant cow or ox and was not uncommon in place names. Field of the cow, or field of the Bowe? The answer lies in early references before the use of surnames in Ireland, such as the 7th century Vita Columbae (Life of St. Colum Cille), where Adomnan translated Achadh Bó as "campulus bovis." This place name appears to be more certainly associated with cows than with the Bowe clan.

Finally, also in Laois, there is Toberboe, "tober" meaning well and "boe" again meaning either cow (bho/bo), or referring to the possible early presence there of the Bowe clan. There is no clear historical connection between Toberboe well or townland and the Bowe clan, but the presence of a Tobercarroll to the west, apparently a well named after the prominent Carroll clan who ruled that area, suggests at least the possibility that Toberboe could have been named after the Bowe clan. The earliest reference we have to it is the 1838 Ordnance Survey where Tobar Bó is translated "cow-well," leading us to conclude for now that there is no connection between Toberboe and the Bowe clan. In addition, "boe" appears in many place names in Ireland, so no matter where you find the Bowe clan concentrated, there'd be a fair chance of finding a place name with "boe" in it, leading this association to be quite unreliable.

Early Sept Origins in Cork?

The Irish surname historians attributed the Irish Boe, Bowe and Bowes surnames to the Corca Laidhe tribe of Cork, where they are said to have derived from Buaidhaigh/O'Buoey, having become Bogue in the south and Bowe in the midlands, presumably due to differences in local accents. Unfortunately the surname historians did not provide any evidence for their claim. Other than noting O'Buoey as a principal surname in the Corca Laoidhe region in the 1659 Census, there is so far no documentary or DNA evidence tracing Boe, Bowe or Bowes to this noted origin.

It can't be ruled out though. Even though most clans remained on their ancestral homelands until the breakup of the Gaelic order by the English in the 17th century, members of the Corca Laoidhe tribe did emigrate around the 5th century into the Barony of Ossory, which included Kilkenny and parts of Laois, where the clan later predominates. This migration of members of the Corca Laoidhe tribe into Ossory could have established the Bowe clan there well in advance of the adoption of surnames (they would have still been using their sept name from Cork), and long before their documented presence in the 17th century. Did the surname historians rely on hard evidence, now gone, that the Bowe clan came up from Cork? Or did they surmise it, in the absence of any available evidence of pre-17th century origins of this clan, by noting phonetic similarities between some established Cork names and the Boe, Bowe and Bowes names in the midlands?

There is reference in the 1466 Papal Registers to Dean of Ossory Thomas Omobuygy, James Ybuoy, Patrick Obuoey and Charles (Keruali) Ybuey in northern Ossory, names strongly corresponding phonetically with O'Buoey of Cork and the purported Bowe clan origin there. While there were rich ecclesiastical ties between the Corca Laoidhe and Ossory, nothing indicates whether in fact these religious figures belonged to the Corca Laoidhe and came up from Cork, or whether they were early members of the Bowe clan. If they were early Bowe clan and from Cork, it would help substantiate the surname historians' claimes. The religious figures could also have been early members of the Bowe clan but not be from Cork. Or, maybe they are not early members of the clan at all.

Early Sept Origins in Laois?

Tyrone Bowes consulted an Irish language expert about the likely origins of the Bowe clan and received this reply:

So it's possible the clan's origins lie with the Ui Bhuidhe of Laois. Using Gaelic pronunciation, it's not hard to imagine the Gaelic Buide becoming Bowe. But it's not likely to have evolved from OBoy, which the Normans used to name their new barony in Ui Buide territory, but for which there's no evidence a local family by that name. Instead, if this theory is true, the Ui Buide would have anglicized their name to something similar sounding in the 17th century when the English required the Irish to abandon their language and make their names more English-like. Without any documentation so far of another surname derived from Ui Buide, it's possible they become Bui/Boe/Bowe. This would coincide nicely with the census frequency data.

What Does the DNA Say?

Our DNA Project primarily studies the Y chromosome, identifying subgroups of the Irish Bowe surname whose participants' Y chromosomes all match one another. The Y chromosome is just a small part of ones genetics, but it's stable and generally follows a surname through time. It's important to remember that it can only reveal one's patrilineal ancestors--father to son to grandson to great-grandson and so on--apart from one's other many ancestral lineages. Also, it tags one's patrilineal history whether that patrilineal history was stable since the beginning of the Bowe clan's origins, or whether a male from another tribe fathered a son that was raised by the Bowe clan and took the Bowe surname. We call that a non-paternal event (NPE). If an NPE occurred you get a Y chromosome among the Bowe that does not match the original clan Y chromosome. You have to look for clan origins somewhere other than the origins of the NPE Y chromosome matches, and you have to look for another Y chromosome that can be identified with the clan origins.

Ely Carroll Y Chromosome Match

One of our Irish Bowe Y chromosome subgroup in the DNA Project carries a Y chromosome matching the Ely Carroll tribe whose known roots are in Offaly and northern Tipperary. Their territory itself was also referred to as Ely Carroll after the ruling O'Carroll chiefs. We don't know whether the Ely Carroll Y chromosome was passed onto the Bowe by a Carroll male from the O'Carrolls of Ely Carroll, or from a male belonging to another sept associated with Ely Carroll. It's also possible there was more than one non-paternal event between an Ely Carroll male and a Bowe female, that some Bowe acquired the Ely Carroll Y chromosome in one place, while others did so in another location. This would not be too surprising if the clans overlapped geographically over a long period.

This Bowe subgroup may have always been a part of Ely Carroll, but it's unlikely. If it was, knowledge of it was lost long ago. There is no documentary mention of it, and an Ely Carroll historian, Paddy Heaney, when interviewed by Jeane Bowes Robinson, says Bowe has never been an Offaly name. (Interestingly though, he indicated the Bowe had been hereditary musicians/entertainers, but apparently did not have additional details we can use to verify this.) More likely, in an NPE an Ely Carroll male's Y chromosome was passed through a Bowe woman to her son who took the Bowe clan's name.

An NPE with Ely Carroll could have happened in Laois (where the Bowe population has a strong concentration and theoretical ties to the Ui Buide tribe there. It's a bit perplexing how an Ely Carroll male may have ended up in Laois country, when Ely Carroll territory lay primarily west and north over the challenging Slievebloom mountains. But Jeane Bowes Robinson noted the presence of McCarroll on the east side of the Slievebloom in Laois on a 1563 map of Leix (Laois) and Offaly, so apparently some were established there fairly early on. 

Elsewhere, a collection of "Irish Chiefs and Clans of Ossory, Offaly, and Leix" doesn't list anything like Bowe. But here we find O'Cearbhaill, or O'Carroll, as chief of the Barony of Sliogh Liag, or Shillelogher, in Kilkenny. [2] Another website elaborates:

Gowran is one of three baronies in Kilkenny where the Boe variant was a principal name in the 1659 "Census." At that time Boe in Kilkenny outnumbered Bowe in Laois 22 to 12. Add in the Boe at that time in Wexford and Tipperary and there were 39 Boe to 12 Bowe in Laois. If the Carrolls of Gowran and Sliogh Liag were Ely Carrolls as Hart relayed, it's possible that the Ely Carroll Y chromosome came into the Boe/Bowe clan in Kilkenny.

This becomes particularly interesting in light of the following sidenote: "The Gaelic O'Shees and O'Clerys, immigrants from Munster, were noted around Shillelogher, at least by the 16th century, although their arrival has also been stated to be earlier than this." [4] If the Bowe came from Munster  as Corca Laoidhe from Cork, as the surname historians recorded, and settled with others from Munster where the Carrolls ruled in Ossory, and if O'Hart is correct that these Carrolls were Ely Carrolls, we have a possible convergence of the Corca Laoidhe origin story, the Ely Carroll Y chromosome in one of our Bowe subgroups, and the strong numbers of Boe in Kilkenny in 1659.

If this is true, what is the original Corca Laoidhe Bowe Y chromosome signature? Others of our DNA Project's Irish subgroups are possibilities, but our sample size is still too small to draw conclusions at this time. If you know any male Irish Boe/Bowe/Bowes who can help by donating a sample of their Y chromosome, please have them contact me.

No doubt there are numerous other possibilities for when and where an NPE could have occurred between an Ely Carroll male and a Bowe woman.

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1. Pádraig Ó Cearbhaill, referencing Edmund Hogan’s Onomasticon Goedelicum, Alfred P. Smyth's Celtic Leinster and also various essays in Padraig Lane and William Nolan's Laois History and Society: Interdisciplinary Essays on the History of an Irish County.

2. http://generation13.net/Ancientsurname/pages/Ossory-Leix.html

3. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlkik/history/shillelogher.htm

4. Ibid.