| Notes |
- ConstituencyDates
CARLISLE
c. Jan. 1587
LAUNCESTON (DUNHEVED)
1597
APPLEBY
1604
Family and Education
b. 14 Sept. 1558,1 1st s. of Francis Bowyer, alderman and Grocer, of Old Jewry, London, and Elizabeth, da. and coh. of William Tyllesworth, Goldsmith, of London.2 educ. Oxf. MA 1605; G. Inn 1609.3 m. by 1589,4 Mary (d.1618), da. and coh. of Thomas Pierson of Westminster, usher of Star Chamber, 2s. (1 d.v.p.) 3da. d.v.p.5 suc. fa. 1581;6 kntd. 11 May 1603.7 d. 3 Aug. 1616.8
Offices Held
Member, Grocers’ Co. by 1581;9 j.p. Bucks. by 1593-d., Mdx. by 1601-d.;10 commr. sewers, Mdx. 1604, London 1606, Coln valley 1609, 1615, Mdx. and Westminster 1611;11 collector, Privy Seal loans, Mdx. 1605;12 commr. subsidy, Bucks. and Mdx. 1608,13 aid, Bucks. 1609,14 swans, Kent, Mdx. and Berks. 1609, Northants. and Oxon. 1610,15 oyer and terminer, Mdx. 1612-d., London 1613-d.,16 musters, Mdx. 1614;17 collector, aid for Princess Eliz., Mdx. 1614.18
Teller of Exch. 1602-d.19
Biography
Originally from Sussex, Bowyer’s father, a younger son, made his fortune as a successful London merchant.20 Bowyer himself was admitted into the Grocers’ Company by patrimony, but does not appear to have pursued a mercantile career. He instead became a landowner by acquiring an estate on the borders of Buckinghamshire and Middlesex in 1590.21 He must be distinguished from another Londoner a few years his senior, who was knighted in Scotland in 1605 after 30 years’ soldiering on the Borders and died at Berwick-upon-Tweed in 1627.22
Bowyer’s wife was the sister-in-law of (Sir) Henry Maynard†, a client of Sir Robert Cecil†, and it may have been via this connection that in 1602 Bowyer obtained a lucrative post in the Exchequer; he later acknowledged his gratitude to Cecil, declaring that ‘I have ever depended upon his honourable house’.23 It was probably Cecil who recommended Bowyer to the 3rd earl of Cumberland for a seat at Appleby in the first Stuart Parliament; Bowyer may also have been helped by his Westminster neighbour and distant kinsman, Sir Thomas Knyvett*, a former knight of the shire for Westmorland. In the opening session Bowyer was among those appointed to consider the grievances propounded by Sir Edward Montagu (23 Mar. 1604), and to confer with the judges about the controversial Buckinghamshire election (5 April).24 He took part in the debate of 15 June 1604 on the recovery of debts due to the Crown, but it is not stated whether he supported or opposed the repeal of the Elizabethan statute under which the lands and goods of public accountants could be seized.25
During the recess Bowyer was involved in a dispute with the governors of St. Thomas’s hospital in London, concerning a parcel of common land to which he claimed title.26 He accompanied the royal progress to Oxford in the summer of 1605, and was among the numerous courtiers and attendants who received honorary degrees.27 His standing in official circles was sufficient to obtain the reversion of his office for his eldest son, and he wrote to his friend (Sir) Michael Hicks* on 3 Dec. 1605 that with the consent of the customs farmers he wished to add the handling of their surplus receipts to his responsibilities.28 In the second session Bowyer was named to consider John Hare’s radical purveyance bill (30 Jan.), and to help manage a conference with the Lords on the recusancy laws (3 February).29 He was appointed to seven other legislative committees, including those for the repeal of a clause in the Wherries Act (28 Jan.), the recovery of small debts in London (28 Jan.), the supply of water to the capital from the Uxbridge area (31 Jan.), abuses in the Marshalsea Court (13 Mar.), and the foundation of a grammar school at St. Bees, Cumberland (17 March).30 In the third session his only appointments were to committees for a private debtor’s bill (26 Nov. 1606) and the revived wherries bill (13 Mar. 1607).31 In 1609, when John Bingley* succeeded Sir Vincent Skinner* as auditor of the receipt in the Exchequer, Bowyer, who had already experienced Bingley’s ‘unkindness’ at first hand, confided in Hicks that he feared his new colleague would damage his reputation with Cecil, now lord treasurer and 1st earl of Salisbury.32 In the fourth session, he was granted privilege over a Chancery subpoena on 19 Feb. 1610.33 He was named to committees for two private bills and three others, concerning suits against magistrates (28 Mar.), highways (30 Mar.), and prisons (10 May).34 He is not mentioned in the records of the brief fifth session.
Bowyer does not appear to have stood for Parliament again. His eldest son did not live to take up the reversion to the tellership, dying of smallpox in 1613, but Bowyer himself was still ‘in perfect health’ and ‘owing not one penny to the office’ when he drew up his will on 20 July 1614.35 He desired ‘to be interred in Denham church in decent manner, without any great pomp, yet seemly for my calling’, and left bequests to the poor of Denham, Uxbridge, and Westminster, and to the prisoners in Newgate and Aylesbury gaols. As overseers he nominated his nephew Sir William Maynard* and his cousin Robert Bowyer*, ‘clerk of the Upper House of Parliament’.36 At his death on 3 Aug. 1616, the antiquary and herald William Camden described him as ‘Bowyer the rational’.37 He was buried at Denham, in accordance with his wishes. His widow married Sir James Ley* in 1618, a few months before her death.38 Bowyer’s estate was inherited by his ‘sweet grandchild’ William, who was returned for Buckinghamshire at three successive elections between 1659 and 1661.
Ref Volumes: 1604-1629
Authors: John. P. Ferris / Rosemary Sgroi
Notes
1.C142/193/38.
2.Lipscomb, Bucks. iv. 446.
3.Al. Ox.; GI Admiss.
4.PROB 11/75, f. 87.
5.Lipscomb, iv. 446; PROB 11/110, f. 133.
6.C142/193/38.
7.Shaw, Knights of Eng. ii. 107.
8.WARD 7/55/90.
9.C142/193/38.
10.Hatfield House, ms 278; C66/1549; SP14/33, ff. 4, 27.
11.C181/1, ff. 88, 100v; Lansd. 168, f. 151v; C181/2, ff. 19v, 90, 140v, 229v.
12.E401/2585, f. 2.
13.SP14/31/1.
14.CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 511; SP14/43/107; E179/283/12.
15.C181/2, ff. 89v, 117v.
16.Ibid. ff. 178, 196v, 251, 263.
17.APC, 1613-14, p. 566.
18.E403/2733, f. 83v.
19.Exchequer Officeholders comp. J.C. Sainty (L. and I. Soc. spec. ser. xviii), 233.
20.Suss. Arch. Colls. xlii. 31-33; lxiv. 106-7.
21.C142/193/38; VCH Bucks. iii. 258.
22.HMC 10th Rep. IV, 244; CBP, ii. 540; HMC Hatfield, xxiii. 122; Hist. of King’s Works ed. H. Colvin, iv. 777.
23.Lansd. 89, f. 144.
24.CJ, i. 151b, 943a.
25.Ibid. 240a.
26.LMA, H01/ST/A/1/4, ff. 184, 188.
27.J. Nichols, Progs. of Jas. I, i. 556.
28.CSP Dom. Addenda, 1580-1625, p. 446; Lansd. 89, f. 144.
29.CJ, i. 262a, 263a.
30.Ibid. 260b, 262b, 284a, 285b.
31.Ibid. 325a, 352b.
32.Lansd. 91, f. 76.
33.CJ, i. 396a; ‘Paulet 1610’, f. 2.
34.CJ, i. 415b, 416b, 426b.
35.Chamberlain Letters ed. N.E. McClure, i. 497.
36.PROB 11/128, f. 78.
37.W. Camden, Epistolae (1691), p. 30.
38.Lipscomb, iv. 446.
========================================================================
145. BOWYER, of Denham-Court, Bucking
hamshire.
Created BARONET, June 25, 1660,
THIS family is a younger branch of the Bowyers, anciently
seated at Knipersly in Staffordshire. Thomas Bowyer, a cadet of that house, settled in Sussex, in the reign of Henry IV. and left a son Richard Bowyer, who was of Petworth in that county, and married Joan, daughter of
Gunter, of Racton, and was father of William, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Frederost, of Billinghurst in Sussex, and had several fons and daughters. From Thomas, his eldest son, the Bowyers, of Leighthorne in Suffex, were descended. Robert, his second son, was of Chichester, and father of Francis Bowyer, Esq; who being a merchant in London, raised a considerable estate ; and was sheriff of that city, anno 1577, 19 Eliz. and afterwards elected alderman thereof: he married Elizabeth, daughter and heir of William Tillesworth, of London, by whom he left four fons; '1. Sir William ; 2. Robert, a merchant, who was buried at St. Olave Jury: 3. Francis, who settled in Hertfordshire, and left iflue; and 4. John, who left issue ; and three daughters, Joan, Margaret, and Elizabeth, and dying June 14, 1581, was intersed in thę church of St. Nicholas Acon in Lombard-street.
Sir William Bowyer, his eldest son, who was knighted by King James I. purchased the estate at Denham in Bucks, and was one of the tellers of the Exchequer to the said King; he married Mary, daughter and coheir of Thomas Peirson, of Westminster, Esq; usher of the court of star-chamber, and had issue two sons, Henry and Robert; and departing this life, was buried at Denham, Aug; 14, 1616, (his lady surviving him,
was
was re-married to James Ley, earl of Marlborough.) Sir Henry Bowyer, Knt. eldest son and heir, married Anne, daughter and solé heir of Sir Nicholas Salter, of London, (she afterwards married Sir Arthur Harris, of Crixey in Eflex, Knt.) He died in his father's life-time, ætat. 23, and was buried at Denham, Dec. 27, 1613, and left two sons; 1, William
1. William ; 2. Henry, killed in the civil wars in the royal cause.
Sir William Bowyer, the eldest son, succeeded his father, and was first knighted, and afterwards advanced to the dignity of a Baronet, by letters patent, 12, Car. II. He was a generous hospitable man, and true loyalist, and forwarded the restoration all that lay in his power, and was elected a representative for the county of Bucks, in the two first parliaments after the restoration. He left issue by Margaret, his wife, daughter of Sir John Weld, of Arnolds, in the parish of Edmonton in MiddleTex, Knt. (son and heir of Sir Humphry Weld, Knt. LordMayor of London) Sir William, his successor ; Thomas, rector of Denham, and Henry; and several daughters, of which, Alice married, first, William Buggins, of North-Cray in Kent, Efq; and, fecondly, Sir John Clayton, of Parsons-Green in Middlesex, Knt. 'Sir William died Oct. 2, 1679, and was buried at Denham. He was succeeded in the title and estate by his eldest son,
Sir William Bowyer, of Denham-Court, Bart, who married Frances, daughter of Charles, Lord Viscount Cranbourn (son and heir of William, Earl of Salisbury) and by her had two fons and one daughter; Cecil, the eldest son, married Juliana, daughter of Richard Parker, of Hedsor in Buckinghamshire, Esq; (second son of Sir George Parker, of Ratton in Sussex, Bart.) he died Dec. 5, 1720, in his father's life-time, leaving issue four fons and two daughters; Sir William, fucceffor to his grandfather; Richard, Thomas, Orlando; Frances and Charlotte ; William, the second son, married Elizabeth, daughter of the above Richard Parker, Esq; and had two sons and one daughter; Richard, William, and Juliana ; Diana, the only daughter of Sir William, married Philip Jennings, of Dudlefton in Salop, Esq; Sir William died Feb. 13, 1721-2.
Sir William Bowyer, Bart. succeeded his grandfather, Sir William, in title and estate, and married Anne, daughter of Sir John Stonhouse, of Radley in Berkshire, Bart. by whom he had issue, Sir William, his fucceffor ; George, a captain in the navy; Henry, an enfign, now at Antigua ; Richard, a lieutenant in Ireland ; and Penelope, married to George Cooke, Efq; eldest son of George Cooke, Esq; late knight of the shire for Middlesex. Also a daughter, Anne, who died young. Sir
[merged small][ocr errors]
in the army:
William dying in 1768, aged 57, was succeeded by his eldest fon,
Sir William Bowyer, the present Baronet, who is a captain
Arms. Quarterly, First and Fourth, Or ; Second and Third, Sable, three Spades, of the first. Over all, a Bend, Vaire, between two Cottices, Gules.
Crest. On a Wreath, a Falcon (or Eagle) rising, Or.
Motto. Contentement passe Richesse.
Seat. At Denham-Court, near Uxbridge in Buckinghamshire.
[Source: The Baronetage of England: Containing a Genealogical and ..., Volume 2
By Thomas Wotton, Richard Johnson, Edward Kimber]
|
- 1616