Interesting theory, MegC, one that I agree with. I am doing research on Clonony and George's legacy actually, so feel free to ask any questions you might have, though I only promise to listen and try to answer, as there is a lot of mystery surrounding the entire thing.

Hi, TeamAnne. You have been missed.  I think about these girls, too.  It is fascinating to think they were Anne's great nieces.  (That's right, right?)  I hope someone gets to Ireland and will be able to fill all in the missing pieces.

I agree Milady Duchess. Jane would have pushed for the rights of her child by George. She appears to have had no problems with using Cromwell to get her jointure from Thomas Boleyn.

The fact that this George was not mentioned in any  records as George's son is 99% proof he wasn't a legitmate child.

HollyDolly said

So, has anyone found out anything more about Anne’s Irish Boleyn cousins? Just curious.

Hey there … to everyone … it again has been a while as school and my daughter beacon my attention! But as far as I can tell there has been no other insight into this. I still check on it from time to time and unless I get to Ireland to see what Becca at the castle has and go through archives of the Clere family (as they last had the picture of the girls) I can’t gain anymore knowledge it looks like. I was hoping ipaud would be able to tell us of any more meetings he had with Becca and of course we were all interested in the will that states the girls’ mother’s name but?! I really feel this can be solved but with time and money, both of which I don’t have. I have a lot of goals in school but man would I love to eventually get to the point where I can do my thesis on these girls … that would give me time and major reason to spend the money to research this like it needs to be. I really can’t believe that no major researcher hasn’t tackled this, to my knowledge. It is so enticing!!

Here is what was on the marker where these girls were buried:

Hereunder leys Elizabeth and Mary Bullyn daughter of
Thomas Bullyn Son of George Bullyn the son of George
Bullyn Viscount Rochford son of Thomas Bullyn Erle
of Ormond and Wilisheer.

This is what TeamAnne has been investigating.

TeamAnne said

Yes Sharon that is correct and I am back once again lol. There may be some connection to these girls with one Anne Newcomen – nee Boleyn who married a Sir Robert Newcomen. It is said they all could be sisters but I have no proof just something I stumbled across. I did find that Anne Newcomen has been listed as both a “great niece” and “near relation” to Queen Elizabeth I… .

I have referenced a number of links referring to the kinship of Anna or Anne Newcomen nee Bullein or Boleyn in a new topic at:
http://www.theanneboleynfiles……yn/#p21245

Kind regards,
Jeff Angus

The Geoffrey Boleyn who married Alice Bracton had one recorded son, also called Geoffrey (our Thomas’s grandfather). Geoffrey gained wealth and importance and became Lord Mayor of London, but could well have had siblings who went on to have children of their own, but who didn’t warrant anyone taking much notice of!
Geoffrey had seven children, including three son’s, one of whom was William (our Thomas’s father), another called Simon who joined the priesthood, and Thomas (little is known about uncle Thomas).
William went on to have ten children (including a Jane Boleyn) and six son’s, one of whom was our Thomas. Again, there is little known about three of the son’s, all of whom may have gone on to have little Thomas’s and George’s of their own, but weren’t important enough to matter much.
So our Thomas had an uncle Thomas Boleyn and a sister Jane Boleyn. It’s easy to see how names could have been confused over time and how myths could form. In addition to which the Boleyns were a large extended family of which a number of members are extremely obscure.
I would love to discover a child of our George’s, but I think the inscription on the stone at Clonony Castle is barking up the wrong tree. According to the inscription our George had a son called George who had a son called Thomas who had daughters Elizabeth and Mary, making them our George’s great great granddaughters.
So who was this George that our George was supposed to have fathered? It certainly wasn’t the Dean of Lichfield, whose will mentions no offspring and who left all his assets to his servants. So we have to assume it was another George Boleyn, of whom there is no record whatsoever.
George and Jane Boleyn had no surviving children. As beloved brother to the Queen, if George had been a father to a legitimate child then we would have known about it. Likewise there is no evidence that George fathered an illegitimate child. It would have been difficult to keep such a child secret from the court, and if it were a secret then that had to mean that the child wasn’t accepted by George as his. Cavendish was falling over himself to blacken George’s name. I can’t believe that he wouldn’t have refered gleefully to a Boleyn bastard if one had existed. Did nobody know about the child? If so then how is the inscription explained? It just makes no sense.
There is nowhere near enough evidence to speculate that George Boleyn had an illegitimate child, or that the descendants of that child are buried at Clonony Castle.
The grave was discovered in 1803. The inscription on the stone is now completely illegible from the photos I’ve seen. Maybe if it is seen in the flesh it can be read. There’s certainly an indication that it can be deciphered from rubbings, and I’d love to see a rubbing of the inscription if there is one. I just think the inscription is incorrect on the basis that there is no corroborative evidence to suggest the girls are direct descendants of our George.
What is interesting is that Thomas, late Earl of Ormond who died in 1515 had a daughter, Anne who had a son George (St Leger). There’s no date on the grave, and no clue as to when the inscription was added. I can’t help wondering whether history, names, myth and inscriptions have got muddled over time.