Helias and Robert Juels are mentioned in the Norman Exchequer Rolls of 1180-95. Galfrid, William, and Richard Juel or Joel occur in Huntingdonshire, about 1272. (Rot Hundred.) “This family derived probably from Juel or Judael de Mayenne, Baron of Totness and Barnstaple, temp. William I.: a Breton noble (see Maine). He held lands from the Earl of Mortaine, besides his own barony; and a portion of the former, as well as a fief created in the Barony of Totness, seems to have passed to the younger branch named Fitz Juel. Warin Fitz Juel, in 1242, held a knight’s fee, which had been granted by the Earl of Mortaine at the Conquest (Testa de Neville, 184). Thomas Fitz Juel, at the same time, held lands from the Barony of Totness (Ibid. 176). A Juel occurs c. 1450 (Pole, Devon, 375). John Jewell, Bishop of Salisbury, the famous divine, was born at Bowdon in Devonshire, where the family of Juel or Fitz Joel had been long resident”—The Norman People. Froissart mentions a Sir John Joel, who, with Sir Jacques Planchyn, “went to serve the captall of Buch with two hundred spears,” and were both slain when he was taken prisoner.

But the chief illustration of the family was the Bishop, “a perfect rich gem and true jewel indeed, whose life is written in fair sunshine.” - Westcote. “So devout,” says Fuller, “in the pew where he prayed, diligent in the pulpit where he preached, grave on the bench where he assisted, mild in the consistory where he judged, pleasant at the table where he fed, patient in the bed where he died, that well it were if, in relation to him, 'secundum usum Sarum,’ were made precedential to all posterity.” By Queen Elizabeth’s special command, his 'Apology for the Church of England’ was read in every church throughout the realm; and “his ‘Sermons,’ in black letter, may yet be seen chained up, as of yore, in some of the churches of the West.” - Worth's Devon. Bowden Farm, the little house among the hills where he was born - a small, poor place where his ancestors had lived for many generations - is still standing.

Polwhele tells us that “John Jewell of Northcot (in right of his wife, Agnes Cutcliff) left five co-heiresses.” The Bowden family had been extinct previous to 1600. They bore Or, on a chevron Azure between three July flowers, a demi-maiden Gules crined Or: on a chief Sable a lure between two falcons Argent, legged and beaked Or: a most remarkable coat, that probably refers to some now forgotten legend.