There are two vague traditions which have come down in this family, which though incorrect are founded on fact. One, that there is an old pedigree in the family that takes us back to the "Kings of England and the Kings of France". This is in the family, but has nothing to do with us. The second is, that we can trace our descent back to the time of William the Conqueror. My father told me the first, but thought our rather eccentric great grandfather might have made it up! This was not so. The truth of this is, that John Bond of Tyneham, son of Nathaniel Bond of Lutton, and grandson of Denis Bond, (1588-1658), of Lutton and Dorchester, married a lady named Margaret Williams, who actually was descended in twelve descents from Edward III., and through his mother, Isabella, daughter of Philip the Fair, (she was known as the "she-wolf of France"), from the French kings. They were not ancestors of ours. (See "Pedigree of Bond", in British Museum for full details.)

I quote this about the second tradition; ---"The M.S.S. of Me. Denis Bond, (1588 - 1658),contain a pedigree deducing the descent of this Robert Bond '(the second Robert Bond)", in the 20th degree from "Bond, a Norman", who is said to have come into England with the Conqueror, and settled at Penryn in Cornwall, having married the daughter and heir of Bond at that place." Robert Bond is there stated to have been a younger brother of Richard Bond of Earth, in the same county, whose posterity continued at Earth. ---- This pedigree was probably invented". Denis Bond, when in Spain, met a man who said his name was Sanque, and that he had been one of the Heralds, and been obliged to leave England as he was said to be implicated in the Gunpowder Plot. It was Sanque who drew up the early pedigree, and later, meeting Denis' brother in France, gave him the pedigree for Denis, saying it was correct. It is now doubted. Denis himself on receiving it said; "I do not believe it". It, Sanque's pedigree, could be true. The Heralds used to have books in which they drew and painted all the shields, and noted the owners. But could he have had particulars going so far back? And was he really a Herald? (Me. Denis Bond considered that the Bonds of London, (the Merchant Adventurers ones), were descended from a younger brother of the first Robert Bond.)

Hache Beauchamp, now spelt Hatch, is in West Somerset, 5 miles S.E. of Taunton.

West Buckland in Somerset is 2 miles east of Wellington.

Buckland in Dorset, where Denis Bond's uncle John lived, whose shield was used by Denis as well as the on, was, it seems, either Buckland Newton, a village, in mid-Dorset, 10 miles N. of Dorchester, or Buckland Ripers, a village 3 miles N. of Weymouth.

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