The Doubtful arms of Staffordshire - Bowes

 Sir John Bowes, of Elford.

Arms: Ermine, three bows strung in pale Gules, in the dexter chief a fleur-de-lis (for difference).

In the 1583 Visitation of Staffordshire (conducted by Robert Glover as deputy to Norroy King of Arms), the entry specifically records the family line and arms of Sir John Bowes, of Elford: Ermine, three bows strung in pale Gules, in the dexter chief a fleur-de-lis(for cadency). These arms are recorded amongst the "Doubtful arms of Staffordshire".

The three bows are "punning" or canting arms (a visual play on the surname Bowes). The fleur-de-lis in the upper-left (dexter chief) corner is a heraldic mark of cadency. Because the Staffordshire branch descended from a younger son of the northern Bowes family (specifically a sixth son, according to heraldic tradition), the fleur-de-lis was used as a cadency mark to distinguish the Elford line from the senior branch at Streatlam Castle in County Durham.

Although recorded in the earlier Visitations under the "Doubtful arms of Staffordshire, the later Visitations of Staffordshire (1614 & 1663–64), compiled by Sir Richard St. George and William Dugdale, document Sir John's descendants (his son Richard and grandson John) and verify the family's quartered arms, showing the Bowes coat quartered with the arms of Huddleston (Argent, on a chevron Sable three escallops Or), acquired through Sir John's first marriage to the Elford heiress Anne Huddleston.

The Bowes family originally migrated from Northern England (Durham/Northumberland). Local Staffordshire histories record that the manor of Elford passed via the female lines of the Stanley, Staunton, Huddlestone, and Smythe families until it finally came into the possession of Sir John Bowes. Sir John married Anne Hodleston, daughter of Sir Richard Huddlestone, bringing the Elford property firmly into the Bowes family line, where it remained for generations.

Sir John Bowes of Elford was the father (or closely related elder brother, depending on the generation recorded in the pedigree charts) of the prominent Elizabethan diplomat Sir Jerome Bowes (d. 1616), who served as Queen Elizabeth I's ambassador to Tsar Ivan the Terrible of Russia. The Elford branch eventually connected back to the main aristocratic tree of the Bowes family. By the 18th century, the manor passed through marriage to Henry Bowes Howard, who became the Earl of Berkshire and Suffolk, and rebuilt Elford Hall.

Elford Parish Registers, held by the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Archive Service, record the burial of Sir John Bowes on 1 February 1607/8 (following his death on 29 January). They also contain the baptismal records of his children and the burial of his daughter Elizabeth (buried 18 December 1580).

St. Peter’s Church in Elford houses significant tombs and effigies of the Stanley, Smythe, Huddleston, and Bowes families who successively held the Manor of Elford.

According to historical surveys (including The History of Parliament biography of his younger brother, the courtier and ambassador Sir Jerome Bowes), numerous records of the family's property transactions were preserved at Elford Hall. These deeds detail how Sir John acquired the manor through his marriage to Anne Huddleston and consolidated lands across Staffordshire, Leicestershire, and County Durham.

Records of Sir John's will, Inquisitions Post Mortem (IPMs), and land disputes are catalogued at The National Archives (Kew) and the Staffordshire Record Office (within the Paget/Howard of Elford estate collections, as the estate passed via marriage from the Bowes family to the Howards, Earls of Suffolk and Berkshire, in 1683).

The Manor of Elford is a historic pre-conquest estate in the Lichfield district of Staffordshire, situated on the banks of the River Tame about 5 miles north of Tamworth. The manor originally belonged to Ælfgar, Earl of Mercia, before the Norman Conquest. In the 1086 Domesday Book, it was recorded as Elleford (or Eleford), consisting of villagers, smallholders, and working watermills.

Over the centuries, the manor passed through several prominent families, including the Ardernes (12th–15th centuries), the Stanleys, Stauntons, Huddlestones, Smythes, and later the Bowes and Bowes-Howard families through to 1877.

The main manorial seat, Elford Hall, dated largely from the late 18th century and stood adjacent to the historic St. Peter’s Church. In 1936, the estate was handed over to Birmingham Corporation by Francis Paget. After falling into disrepair, the hall was demolished in 1964. An earlier medieval iteration of the manor is recorded at a wet moated site in Elford Park (referenced in the Staffordshire Historic Environment Record). A major surviving remnant of the estate is the 12-foot-high walled garden. It was restored by local volunteers starting in 2009 and now features a rose garden, orchards, a riverside walk, and community spaces managed via the Elford Hall Garden Project.

The Church of St. Peter’s remains a focal point of the village, housing notable medieval and Tudor tombs of the Arderne and Stanley families.

Historical layouts of the estate can be explored via archived records such as the Map of the Manor of Elford in 1719 on Staffordshire Past Track.