The Bond families of Wales

For clarity, let me first say we are talking here of families having the surname Bond living in Wales, and not families in Bond, Bondage or being Bonded in Wales.

The native inhabitants of Wales are generally accepted as belonging to an ancient Celtic tribe, and to the best of knowledge they have no genetic link with the Vikings.

It is generally said that the surname name Bond is taken from the BONDE which descends from the Vikings, and therefore of a Norwegian origin, so if there were no Bond families of long standing in Wales.

Question - Where did they come from?

The answer is quite simple, - there were no original Bond families in Wales, they all came across the border from England.

I have checked through the Vital Records Index for the British Isles, and regrettably there are no Bond births or christenings in Wales indexed, and only two marriages recorded, namely a Hannah Bond to Thomas James in 1797 at Itton, Monmouth, and a James Bond married to Mary Davies in 1825 at Bedwelty, Monmouth.

Listed on the IGI of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, there are only about 80 entries covering the christenings and marriages. Concentrating on the ‘male’ lineage, there were 33 christenings, all 19^th century, and only 9 marriages between the end of the 18^th to early 19^th century.

From the above records, it can be seen that there is even little evidence of any large contingent of Bond families in Wales.

Looking at later records, namely the 1881 U.K. census, there were only 407 persons [male & female] having the surname Bond living in Wales. The great majority were obviously born in Wales, and they were from about 1830 onwards. Up to 1830, there were just 15 male ‘head’ of families, and of these only 2 were actually born in Wales, all the others were born out of Wales.

My initial thoughts, when considering the Bond’s of Wales, was that they were probably coal-miners who worked down in the Valley’s, and perhaps those who came to Wales from Cornwall had once worked in the tin mines. I was wrong, on the 1881 census only two men came from Cornwall, and the largest number actually came from Devon, from places like Sidbury, Barnstable, Bideford, Parkhurst, Teignmouth, Okehampton, Sheepwash and Plymouth, they were not colliers, they were blacksmiths, gardeners, labourers and seamen, anything but coal-miners.

To conclude, it could be said there are no Bond origins for Wales, but those who did live there came originally from the South West region of England, and probably having a lineage more associated with the Bond’s of Purbeck, West Buckland, or even the Knight of Erth. The Bond’s from Wales who emigrated abroad to Australasia or North America could likewise be included in this reasoning.

The BOND surname DNA. Project may help to provide the answer.

Rev. 15.04.04 Peter.W.Bond