Sir Thomas Bond, 1st Baronet

Sir Thomas Bond (ca. 1620–1685) was an English landowner and Baronet, Comptroller of the household of Queen Henrietta Maria.

Life

The son of Doctor Thomas Bond (1580–1662), by his marriage to Catherine, daughter of John Osbaldeston, Bond was born about 1620 at Peckham. The exact dates of his birth, death and marriage are unknown. He is not to be confused with Thomas Bond, a 19th century artist and the author of a book on Cornwall.^[1]

On 9 October 1658, before the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Bond was created by King Charles II a Baronet in the Baronetage of England. He also became Comptroller of the household of Queen Henrietta Maria, the mother of Charles II, an appointment which it was suggested he had obtained by the payment of one thousand pistoles, a very large sum, to Henry Jermyn, a favourite of the Queen who had recently been created Earl of St Albans.

After the Restoration, Bond had a house in Pall Mall, assessed for Hearth Tax in 1674 as having twenty hearths, and a country estate in Peckham and Camberwell. He also owned land in Yorkshire, at Kirkby Malham, Malham Dale, and Fountains Fell. He bought a large estate from his brother-in-law Sir Thomas Crymes (or Grimes), Baronet, and Westminster's Bond Street is named after one of his developments. He is reported to have built a new manor house at Peckham, long since demolished and now the site of Peckham Hill Street.

Sir Thomas Bond was buried on 8 June 1685, in Saint Giles Church, Camberwell.

Marriage

Bond married a French wife, Marie da la Garde (died 1696), a daughter of Charles Peliot, Sieur de la Garde, of Paris, one of the maids of the Queen Mother's privy chamber. They had two sons, Henry (died 1721) and Thomas (died 1732), and a daughter, Mary Charlotte (c1656-1708), who married Sir William Gage 2nd Baronet of Hengrave Hall in Suffolk.

Mention in Pepys

Bond is mentioned in the diary of Samuel Pepys, in the entry for 26 December, Boxing Day, 1660, some months after the Restoration.

Arms and motto

The arms of the Bond family (argent, on a chevron sable three bezants) and their crest (a winged demi-horse ensigned with six stars) were emblazoned in a window of the church of St Giles, Camberwell, destroyed by a fire in the 19th century. His motto was "The World is not enough".

Legacy

Bond Street, Westminster, is named after Bond. However, he may be best known today as the supposed ancestor of the fictional spy James Bond. His family motto "Orbis non sufficit", became the title for a Bond movie, The World Is Not Enough. This motto was used previously by Philip II of Spain. A medal struck in 1583 bore the inscriptions "PHILIPP II HISP ET NOVI ORBIS REX" ("Philip II, King of Spain and the New World") and "NON SUFFICIT ORBIS" ("The world is not enough").^[2]

Sources

• B. H. Johnson, From Berkeley Square to Bond Street - the Early History of the Neighbourhood (London: John Murray & London Topographical Society, 1952)
• Philip Crymes, C(h)rimes C(h)rymes (London: 1985)

References