The surname BONE is traced by etymologists, those who study origins of words, to an area in the Contentin Peninsula of Normandy. This area, known as the DeBohon Fief in the Middle Ages, is located in the district of Saint Lo. The two villages of Saint Andre-de-Bohon and Saint Georges-de-Bohon, which were founded in the tenth century, are still in existence.
It is said that the first of the family who owned and lived on the de Bohon fief was a Henry de Bohon who was living there in the year 975. Henry's forefathers were Vikings who settled in that area. Some of his descendants went with William the Conqueror to England in 1066. (1)
The ancient Cornishmen were most excellent archers; they would shoot an arrow twenty-four score yards; their arrow was a cloth yard long.
wherewith they would pierce any ordinary armour. A person named ARUNDEL would shoot twelve score with his right hand, with his left hand, and
behind his head; and one Robert BONE shot at a little bird upon a cow's back, and killed the bird without touching the cow. (2)
(1) - "History of the Bone Family of America: Descendants of William Bone I to the Mid-Nineteenth Century and Some of His Ancestors", Volume 1, 1692 - 1950, by Robert
Gehlman Bone, Normal IL, 1972, Section 3, page 165 (2) - "New Monthly Magazine", 1 March 1827, Provincial Occurrences, Cornwall, page 130
