We charitably presume that parents bearing the surname Body would have the common sense not to name any daughter of theirs Annie! Body is an English surname of the nickname category deriving from "body", perhaps for striking physique. None of the Irish sources on surnames list this, perhaps because telephone directories of the island contain only five entries north of the Border, and six to its south, four of which are in Co Limerick. Boddy and Boddie are each listed twice in the North's phone book; the first being an anglicisation of Co Leitrim's O Maolagain, with Boddie usually being a Scottish name. Is this the same as our Body?
Among "the estreats of fines and amercements" imposed at the assizes held in Clonmel in January, 1384 was a fine of three shillings on John Body and two others (Ormond Deeds II). In 1599 the town of Athlone received its charter "incorporating its inhabitants by name of the Portgrave and burgesses". Among the latter were Fallons, Dillons, Johnsons and Nolans, and one John Body.
A single Body family was listed in the Co Tipperary parish of Clonbullogue, noted in both the Tithe Applotment Books and in Griffith's Primary Valuation (18241860). The latter source also noted a single Bodly family in the parish of Ballingarry in the same county.
That casual proximity, together with a shared rarity, and a certain similarity in spelling, is the sole reason why we now choose to look at the surname Bodl(e)y. De Bhulbh Sloinnte na hEireann - Irish Surnames says that this name is rare in England, and gives Bodlai as the Irish. O'Hart's Irish Pedigrees numbers Bodeley among "the families in Ireland in the 17th century". Exeter-born Sir Josias Bodley (c. 1550-1617), soldier and military engineer, who had served the English crown in Ireland almost continuously since 1598, was regarded as a sort of an overseer of the Londonderry Plantation. He was made constable of Duncannon fort in 1603, and knighted in 1604. He surveyed the lands in 1609, again in 1613, and in 1616. In his first survey he noted that Irish acres had been put down as English acres, whereby 2,000 acres meant more than 3,000.
In 1612 he reported that some undertakers had spread their estates by absorbing those of their less energetic companions, and further he "confidentlie" stated that some £20,000 had "gone some other waies than directlie towards the building and plantinges in Ulster". Clearly there was a leak in the bucket somewhere, and private interests had been financed by "moneys that rightfully belonged to the City" (The Londonderry Plantation 1609-1914). He was a brother of Sir Thomas Bodley, founder of the Bodeian library, Oxford. He died, unmarried, and is buried in Christ Church Cathedral.
A Census of Ireland 1659 lists Philip Bodley among the tituladoes of "Timuleague Town" in Co Cork, and Thomas Bodley and his son, Weldon, among those of Muckaris in the parish of Kilkenawnemore (Kilkerranmore) in the same county. Apart from being a 1660 and a 1661 Commissioner for the Poll-Money Ordinance for Co Carlow, Walter Bodeley was a titulado for "the Borrough of Ballincrogue". The 370-acre parish of Ballycrogue - containing a single townland also named Ballycrogue - had a population of 72 in 1837, according to Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland of that year.
Amazing then, that it had once been a borough when one considers that a borough was a town possessing a municipal corporation and special privileges conferred by royal charter, and also a town which sends representatives to parliament.
The Fishmongers' Company had been approached with offers of land in 1661, receiving 24,100 acres of the best land in Co Derry. The first step in the development of the estate during the 19th century was to organise an expedition to inspect their proportion. One of the members of the expedition was Thomas Bodley. "Thus a member of the Fishmongers' Deputation was related to the Bodley who had been involved in the affairs of the Londonderry Plantation since its very beginnings" (The Londonderry Plantation 1609-1914).
Ballycrogue was variously spelled: Balehycaroth in the Papal Letters of 1445; Ballycroge in 1552 and so on. O'Donovan says it was Baile Corrog, town of the rocks; the Ordnance Survey, begun in 1830, noted the meaning of the name was "veiled in obscurity". P. W. Joyce's Irish Names of Places Vol. 1 (1869) opined that "the word (cruach or round hill) is somewhat disguised in Ballycrogue".