The name Bond was not at first the name of a family. It was the name of a class of people living in Norway, the Bonder (singular, Bonde). They were freeholders, coming next after the Earls, and were sometimes called the "sons of kings", as many of them came from younger sons of the petty rulers of the time. They owned their allegiance and taxes solely to their sovereign, with no smaller overlord between them.

But in course of time, Norway was united under one King, and Harald Fairhair decided to adopt the feudal system. The Bonder would not consent to be under any small overlords, and they emigrated, some to Iceland, some to Europe, and some to England. Our ancestors would have come in with these, forming part of the Danish invasions of the time. They would have come in their beautifully made long ships; sixty to eighty feet long, with one mast, and about sixteen feet wide, wonderfully designed fast ships, the first to discover America in the hands of the Iceland Bonder five hundred years before Columbus. Their love of liberty was also shown in that those Iceland Bonder remained completely free for three hundred years, setting up the first Parliament in the world, which in 1930 celebrated its first thousand years of government. Ours would have come here at about the same time.

Whilst I am mentioning ships, I must just say here, that as well the Bonders from Iceland being the first to discover America, it was a Bond ship, The Golden Hind, that first sailed round the world.

I will also mention here, that there are at least seven flourishing families of Bonds, of this family, in the United States of America and in Canada, where they have held all sorts of responsible positions in law and medicine, and government and industry.

The first records of the family are disconnected. In the first year of the reign of Edward I 1327, a John le Bonnd was assessed as an inhabitant of the parish of Hache Beauchamp, in Somerset, and again by the name of John Bonde in 1332. That is all that is known about him. Then there is a gap.

In Cornwall there was a family named de Earth, living on their estate, also called Earth. It is still there. I have seen it. It lies beside the Lynher River, which empties itself into the estuary of the Tamar, there called the Hamooze, almost opposite Devonport, near Plymouth. It is a peninsular, surrounded on two sides by the river, and on the north side by a stream, the homestead sheltered from the southwest gales by Earth Hill, which runs up behind it. "Earth", in the old Cornish Language, means "high" or "lofty", and this hill is in fact the highest of the little hills running between Saltash and Earth. Or the name may have come from the pagan goddess Earth, or from St. Urghi, or Ergan, an Irish Lady who brought Christianity to Cornwall. There is said to be some prehistoric ruins in stone nearby. The place is now a large farm, belonging to the Carew Poles who own Antony on the other side of the river. The private chapel still exists, though now used as part of the farm buildings. The place looks prosperous. It is called Earth Barton. It is sheltered by trees and an orchard, and must have been a delightful home, though rather isolated.

The first de Earth we know about is Henry de Earth. He was standard bearer to John of Eltham, younger brother of Edward III, at the Battle of Berwick 1333. He seems to have been a personal friend of the prince, who was Duke of Cornwall at the time, and who no doubt would have often been at Trematon Castle near Earth, when he visited his Duchy. Well, Henry de Earth seems to have been so excellent a standard bearer, (John of Eltham commanded the right wing), that by the wish of John, he was made Constable of Trematon Castle, and in the Patent Rolls for 1337 A.D., there is a long list of fees and lands which the patent gave to Henry. He died, and the next possessor of Earth was Geoffrey de Earth, under the feudal system. Carew, in his History of Cornwall says that Geoffrey held by the tenure of knight's service, a knight's fee of land at Earth. In those days a knight's fee was four Cornish acres, 1080 acres in modern measures. He would probably have to have kept part of the castle in repair, provided armed men to defend it if attacked, and ransomed his lord if he were taken prisoner, sharing with the other 59 knights fees. (It is just possible that this particular fee was not one of the fees attached to the castle.)

This is where the Bonds become connected with Earth. Geoffrey died, and he, (or perhaps his son if he had one), left no male heir. But there was a daughter, Elizabeth. One of the Bonds, Robert, who was already living in Cornwall, married her. He added her shield with three stags heads on it, to his shield with the black chevron with the three bezants on it, and they settled down as THE BONDS OF EARTH.

There are no Bonds at Earth now, but a Mr. Bond, I believe of a Cornish family, recently bought a piece of the adjoining estate to the north, Trevollard, and built a house on it called Court Vollard. A Frederick Bond is commemorated on the war memorial at St. Stephen's Church, on the Earth side of Saltash, and there is a beautiful black stone floor slab over the grave of Joan, one of the Bond wives. I suspect she died young. There were no children of the marriage, and Earth passed to a brother. It gives the chevron with bezants, and for crest, the winged horse. The grave is at the east end of the church, at the far right hand corner of the north aisle. Mr. Bond died in 1955, but I think his son has continued at Court Vollard.

Robert and Elizabeth Bond of Earth had two sons, Richard and Robert, and there was someone else, either another son or a very near relation, if a son, a younger one. More of him later.

Richard married Elizabeth Maynard, of Ulster Irish descent, and from them came the elder line of the Bonds of Earth. They continued there at least until the reign of Charles II. In the sixteenth century, one of them, Thomas, a younger brother of a William Bond of Earth, moved to Fulham, in Middlesex, and died there (wall slab in Fulham Church), but his son William, who had two wives and nine children, settled at Holwood, and started the line of the Holwood Bonds. Holwood is near Landrake north-west of Earth, and not many miles off. It is another well sheltered homestead, with Lynher not far away. This branch of the family later moved to Calstock, and later to Looe, where four Thomas Bonds were Mayor, the last seven times, and recorder of both East & West Looe for many years. He also wrote books, one on the customs etc. of Looe being a work of great historical value. He died without children in 1837, his house in East Looe now having been turned into the Midland Bank. He was a barrister. There is a wall slab in St. Martin's Church just outside Looe.

The Bonds of Earth and Holwood were so far away from everywhere that they seem not to have lost any members in religious etc. persecutions. (A few of these notes, about the Bonder and details of the de Earths, are taken from Dr. A. K. Bond's book, called " The Story of the Bonds of Earth". See bibliography at end. It is a most interesting book, and should be read if possible, but it cannot be obtained in England.) My notes must not be printed as it would infringe his copyright.

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