The Bowles of Dublin

The Bowles of Dublin

Dublin, as the capital and largest city in Ireland, has many, many connections to Bowles families of different origins. It's a huge puzzle with many missing pieces so I will only record what I've found and feature a couple of lines which I have worked out fairly well.

Philip Bowles from Norfolk, a Dublin merchant in the 1630's

The earliest reference I've found so far for a Bowles in Dublin goes back to the early 1600's when a Philip Bowles of Earsham, Norfolk was a merchant on Lyme Street in Dublin. He was mentioned in letters written between 1639 and 1640 by his brother-in-law William Bedell, the Bishop of Kilmore, in which Bedell notes that he can best be reached in Ireland through his 'brother' "Mr Philip Bowles merchant at his house in Lyme-Street." His choice of a Dublin address for his mail reflects the atmosphere in Ireland leading up to the rebellion in 1641/42. While the English had a strong hold on Dublin, Bishop Bedell was in a diocese far north which included parts of Meath, Leitrim, Fermanagh, Cavan where the vast majority of people, from tenants to large landholders, were Catholics and where he was made quite unwelcome. If he hadn't used Philip Bowles as his contact I wouldn't have found him at all. I haven't found any further references for Philip. See The Bowles of Earsham, Norfolk.

Three Generations of the Thomas Bowles Family in Dublin

Shortly after that, a Captain Thomas Bowles arrived here from England with Cromwell's occupation of Ireland in 1649. See Thomas Bowles, Deputy Treasurer in Ireland for Cromwell's Army

His son Thomas Bowles Jr. married in Dublin in the 1670's. He was a merchant and owned quite an extensive area of Dublin around St. Bride's and St. Patrick's Churches. See Thomas Bowles Jr and Family of Dublin

Thomas Jr's son, Thomas III, married Jane Rainsford, the daughter of Alderman and later Mayor of Dublin, Sir Mark Rainsford. Rainsford operated a brewery in St. James Gate, Dublin which was later left to his son who had no interest in the business and who disposed of it to Arthur Guinness. The rest is Irish brewing history but, with a slight twist of fate, you might have been able to go into a pub or bar almost anywhere in the world today to enjoy a pint of a creamy stout named Bowles, sorry .... Guinness it is. The Bowles do not seem to have benefitted from this connection though as Thomas and Jane both died young in 1704 and prior to Sir Mark's death. They left an only daughter, Isabella, who did inherit some land in the St. James Gate area but that was disposed of by the executors of Thomas and Jane's estate. See Thomas Bowles III and Family of Dublin for the full story of this line. Other Bowles of this line remained in Dublin and may have been the origin of the Bowles of Wexford.

See also The Thomas Bowles of Dublin Family Tree to see how the three generations fit together.

My Own Bowles Line

Much later a Robert Bowles, a shoemaker from my own Bowles of Ballickmoyler, co. Laois settled in Dublin sometime in the 1820's and started a Quaker branch of the family. One son of this family founded the Robert Bowles Agricultural Implements Company. See Robert Bowles of Ballickmoyler and Dublin for more on this family.

There was another Robert Bowles, also a shoemaker, and wife Alicia Bowles who lived on Clarendon Street in Dublin. This was a Catholic couple who baptized sons Robert in 1844 at St. Andrew's Church and John (Oct. 24, 1854) at Sts. Michael and John Church, both in Dublin. Robert Sr. died Feb. 5, 1880 and Robert Jr. continued to operate their shoe maker business on Clarendon St. This family has not yet been fully researched.

Another shoemaker, George Bowles, of unknown connection to any of the others, operated an umbrella manufacturing business and a shoemaker shop in Dublin from the 1820's to 1850's. See George Bowles, Umbrella Maker

There was a William Bowles, coalfactor, in Dublin in the late 1700's/early 1800's who may have been connected to my Bowles line in Carlow. See William Bowles, Coalfactor of Dublin

See Walter Bowles, gardener, of Tipperary, Carlow and Dublin for the story of Walter Bowles from Tipperary who worked as a gardener at Great Houses in Pentre Ucha, Wales; at Spring House near Bansha, Tipperary; at Johnstown House in county Carlow and finally settled in Dublin by 1870 where there are still descendants today.

There was another Bowles gardener in Dublin at the same time but I don't know if they were related. In December 1868 William Bowles, a gardener of 15 Wexford Street Dublin and the son of another William Bowles, also a gardener, was married at St Peters Dublin. However by the time his first child was born in September 1869 he was a gardener at the Seapark estate in Wicklow. See William Bowles, Gardener at Seapark Note: possibly William Sr was also a gardener at Seapark and/or William Jr worked at Seapark prior to his marriage but I haven't found any further references for them.

There are several references to the Ambrose Bole of Longford line in Dublin

Henry Bowles of Limerick settled in Dublin about 1830. (add brief summary of the family in Dublin)

Charles Proby Bowles of Dublin (need to add a summary here)

and more to come .......

For some miscellaneous other Bowles references from the 1600's and the 1700's which don't fit into the known Bowles trees see Other Early Bowles References in Dublin