Nicholas Bodrugan (abt. 1320)

Ancestors

Descendants

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Nicolas Bodrugan was a member of the aristocracy in British Isles.

Uncertain Daughter

It appears that Nicholas Bodrugan was inserted by Sir William Segar in a 1630 pedigree of the Cole family, to avoid showing that the father of Ann Bodrugan, wife of Sir John Cole, was William Bodrugan, bastard son of Nicholas's brother Otto.

The extended Cole pedigree in Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldrica, starting on page 234 shows Nicholas and elder brothers William and Otto to be the sons of Henry Bodrugan. This error appears to stem from the fact that Henry (who died childless just after his father's death) was the eldest son, and the heiresses of younger brothers William and Otto eventually inherited the considerable lands of their father, Sir Otto Bodrugan. For William as Henry's younger brother and Sir Otto's heir, see Sir Otto Bodrigan's Inquisition post mortem at Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem: Volume 7, Edward III. British History Online. pp. pp. 274-287.

The old [Genealogy of the Family of Cole, in Devon (1867), p. 4 Cole genealogy, pp. 4-5], in an extended footnote on the Bodrugan family, states that Nicholas "married and left a daughter and heir, who became the wife of Sir John Cole of Nythway. Segar remarks that 'This match of Sir John Cole, knt., with the daughter and heiress of Nicholas Bodrugan and the descents following and proved by divers auncient Rolls, Bookes, and Pedigrees, remaining in the Office of Arms, London, 1630.'"

It appears that the wife of John Cole was at least a heraldric heiress, if we suppose that the following refers to Ann being the daughter of (bastard) William Bodrugan and his otherwise unknown wife:

"The quarterings brought to Cole by this match were, according to Segar, 1 Bodrugan, Arg. 3 bends Gu. ; 2 Scott, Arg. an eagle displayed Sa., armed Gu. ; 3 Stapleton, Arg. a lion rampant Sa., armed Gu; 4 Trevaner, Arg. a cross flory Sa. ; but it appears the Bodrugans were also entitled to quarter the coat of Maundeville, viz., Quarterly Or and Gu."

This suggests that William (or Nicholas?) married a Scott, descended from Stapleton and Travaner heiresses.

Sources

• James Edwin-Cole, Genealogy of the Family of Cole, in Devon (1867), p. 4.

• The extended Cole pedigree in Joseph Jackson Howard's Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldrica, vol. 2 (1876), starting on page 234.