BOLSOVER, an urban district in the north-eastern parliamentary division of Derbyshire, England, 5½ m. E. of Chesterfield, on branch lines of the Midland and the Great Central railways. Pop. (1901) 6844. It lies at a considerable height on a sharp slope above a stream tributary to the river Rother. The castle round which the town grew up was founded shortly after the Conquest by William Peveril, but the existing building, a fine castellated residence, was erected on its site in 1613. The town itself was fortified, and traces of early works remain. The church of St Mary is of Norman and later date; it contains some interesting early stone-carving, and monuments to the family of Cavendish, who acquired the castle in the 16th century. Coal-mining and quarrying are carried on in the neighbourhood of Bolsover.
BOLSWARD, a town in the province of Friesland, Holland, 6½ m. W.N.W. of Sneek. A steam-tramway connects it with Sneek, Makkum, Harlingen and Franeker. Pop. (1900) 6517. The Great church, or St Martin’s (1446-1466) is a large building containing some good carving, a fine organ and the tombs of many Frisian nobles. The so-called Small church, dating from about 1280, also contains fine carving and tombstones; and is the remnant of a Franciscan convent which once existed here. Bolsward also possesses a beautiful renaissance town-hall (1614-1618) and various educational and charitable institutions, including a music and a drawing school. It has an active trade in agricultural produce, and some spinning-mills and tile and pottery works. The town is mentioned in 725, when it was situated on the Middle Sea. When this receded, a canal was cut to the Zuider Zee, and in 1422 it was made a Hansa town.
The medieval constitution of Bolsward, though in its government by eight scabini, with judicial, and four councillors with administrative functions, it followed the ordinary type of Dutch cities, was in some ways peculiar. The family of Jongema had certain hereditary rights in the administration, which, though not mentioned in the town charter of 1455, were defined in that of 1464. According to this the head of the family sat for two years with the scabini and the third year with the councillors, and had the right to administer an oath to one of each body. More singular was the influential position assigned, in civic legislation and administration, to the clergy, to whom in conjunction with the councillors, there was even, in certain cases, an appeal from the judgment of the scabini.
See C. Hegel, Stadte u. Gilden der germanischen Völker im Mittelalter (Leipzig, 1891).
BOLT, an O. Eng. word (compare Ger. Bolz, an arrow), for a “quarrel” or cross-bow shaft, or the pin which fastened a door. From the swift flight of an arrow comes the verb “to bolt,” as applied to a horse, &c., and such expressions as “bolt upright,” meaning straight upright; also the American use of “bolt” for refusing to support a candidate nominated by one’s own party. In the sense of a straight pin for a fastening, the word has come to mean various sorts of appliances. From the sense of “fastening together” is derived the use of the word “bolt” as a definite length (in a roll) of a fabric (40 ft. of canvas, &c.).
From another “bolt” or “boult,” to sift (through O. Fr. buleter, from the Med. Lat. buretare or buletare), come such expressions as in Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale, “The fann’d snow, That’s bolted by the northern blasts twice o’er,” or such a figurative use as in Burke’s “The report of the committee was examined and sifted and bolted to the bran.” From this sense comes that of to moot, or discuss, as in Milton’s Comus, “I hate when vice can bolt her arguments.”
BOLTON, DUKES OF. The title of duke of Bolton was held in the family of Powlett or Paulet from 1689 to 1794. Charles Powlett, the 1st duke (c. 1625-1699), who became 6th marquess of Winchester on his father’s death in 1675, had been member of parliament for Winchester and then for Hampshire from 1660 to 1675. Having supported the claim of William and Mary to the English throne in 1688, he was restored to the privy council and to the office of lord-lieutenant of Hampshire, and was created duke of Bolton in April 1689. An eccentric man, hostile to Halifax and afterwards to Marlborough, he is said to have travelled during 1687 with four coaches and 100 horsemen, sleeping during the day and giving entertainments at night. He died in February 1699, and was succeeded by his elder son, Charles, 2nd duke of Bolton (1661-1722), who had also been a member of parliament for Hampshire and a supporter of William of Orange. He was lord-lieutenant of Hampshire and of Dorset, a commissioner to arrange the union of England and Scotland; and was twice a lord justice of the kingdom. He was also lord chamberlain of the royal household; governor of the Isle of Wight; and for two short periods was lord-lieutenant of Ireland. His third wife was Henrietta (d. 1730), a natural daughter of James, duke of Monmouth. According to Swift this duke was “a great booby.” His eldest son, Charles, 3rd duke of Bolton (1685-1754), was a member of parliament from 1705 to 1717, when he was made a peer as Baron Pawlet of Basing. He filled many of the public offices which had been held by his father, and also attained high rank in the British army. Having displeased Sir Robert Walpole he was deprived of several of his offices in 1733; but some of them were afterwards restored to him, and he raised a regiment for service against the Jacobites in 1745. He was a famous gallant, and married for his second wife the singer, Lavinia Fenton (d. 1760), a lady who had previously been his mistress. He died in August 1754, and was succeeded as 4th duke by his brother Harry (c. 1690-1759), who had been a member of parliament for forty years, and who followed the late duke as lord-lieutenant of Hampshire. The 4th duke’s son, Charles (c. 1718-1765), who became 5th duke in October 1759, committed suicide in London in July 1765, and was succeeded by his brother Harry (c. 1719-1794), an admiral in the navy, on whose death without sons, in December 1794, the dukedom became extinct. The other family titles descended to a kinsman, George Paulet (1722-1800), who thus became 12th marquess of Winchester. In 1778 Thomas Orde (1746-1807) married Jean Mary (d. 1814), a natural daughter of the 5th duke of Bolton, and this lady inherited Bolton Castle and other properties on the death of the 6th duke. Having taken the additional name of Powlett, Orde was created Baron Bolton in 1797, and the barony has descended to his heirs.