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Disclaimer & Bowles DNA Project |
Bowles in the African Trade to the Americas
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The Bowles of Great Britain,
The Bolles of Deal, Kent,
Merchants with the surname Bowles
were active in the African trade since its first inception in the early
1600’s. While it seems to be
generally termed ‘the African Trade’, which did include other trade items, the principle commodity of this trade was people.
People who had been taken forcibly from their homes to be sold into
slavery mostly in the Americas.
I don’t intend to comment on the horror of the slave trade, that is well
documented. My goal is to document the role that the Bowles played in it.
I do condemn the trade but not the
descendants of these people or even the people themselves who, in their
time, were following a legal trade protected by the navies of their
respective countries: England, Spain, France, Holland, Portugal, I believe
every colonial power was involved in it.
Humanity and human rights just had a long way
yet
to develop
as we
still do today.
England’s involvement in the slave
trade began with the Company of Adventurers of London Trading to the Ports
of Africa, more commonly known as "The Guinea Company" which was the first
private joint stock company to trade in Africa for profit.
The controlling stock holder in 1628 was Nicholas Crispe.
In his book ‘The Forgotten Trade’,
as background to his section on the Bowles of Deal, Kent, Nigel Tattersfield
writes that (p. 205) “As a result of the family’s connections with the
Crispes, one of the Bowles was employed in the Guinea Company, coming to an
untimely but spectacular end on the Guinea Coast in 1652:
Mr Bowles, one of your factors going up with a cargo to Baracunda
(the English trade port on the Gambia River),
was killed by an explosion of a powder chest on which he was sitting smoking
a negro’s pipe of tobacco under the impression it was a gold chest.”
I have not found exactly what the
Bowles connection to the Crispes was but in the 1625 Will of Ellis Crispe,
sheriff and alderman of London, he left bequests to his ‘cousin Mary Bowles
ten pounds and to her husband thirty shillings’ as well as to other cousins
named Boxe, Crispe, Gattaker, Burt and Juxson.
The 1637 Will of Elizabeth Juxon, widow of Thomas Juxon, citizen and
merchant of London mentions ‘my cousin Bowles, Samuel Crispe, Tobyas Crispe,
Anthony Boxe, John Boxe and Martha Burt’.
However, I don’t yet know which Bowles this connection is through.
Not much African trade would have been carried on during the turbulent times under the Commonwealth (1653-1660) while Royalist ships, no longer British Navy ships-of-the-line but now operating as Royalist privateers preyed off Commonwealth trade ships, apparently with a base in Alicante, Spain (see Bowles in the Royalist Navy During the Commonwealth). After Charles II restoration a monopoly on English trade with West Africa was awarded to the newly formed Royal African Company in 1660. Little happened until this company was dissolved and a new Royal African Company was founded in 1672 with a Board of Trustees and a membership of English merchants including Sir Nicholas Crispe, Sir Charles Littleton and a John Bowles. That would probably be John Bowles of Eltham, one of the most prominent merchants of the time, and is an indication that the Crispe connection to Bowles may be through the ancestors of that line.
I haven’t confirmed the death
in 1652
of
the above mentioned Mr Bowles yet but about 1672 another Bowles was killed while
delivering a human cargo to Barbados.
Note: there was also a John Bowles, citizen and skinner of London in 1664, who is mentioned in their mother Alice Bowles’ Will. There is a Carpentry apprenticeship document for his son Francis dated March 1664 in Book 1 of Records of the Worshipful Company of Carpenters: Volume I: Apprentices' Entry Books 1654-1694 at the Centre for Metropolitan History, 'London: Franciscus Bowles filius Johannis Bowles Civis et Skinner London po: se appren Johanni Jones de livery de Poultry London pro 8 ann a 25° Marcij ult preterit'.
The family was Non-Conformist as both Mordechai's Will of 1663 and Alice's Will of Jan. 1664/65 include bequests of '20 pounds to the most needy and late ejected Ministers'. The Act of Uniformity in 1662 had required the use of The Book of Common Prayer for all religious services which resulted in the forced resignation of over 2000 Non-Conformist Ministers, the Great Ejection of 1662. The Non-Conformists included Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Calvinist sects, Baptists and Methodists. These bequests are very significant as they came at the very height of King Charles II's war against non-conformism when such practices were performed only in secret and indicate a family whose non-conformist beliefs must already have been openly proclaimed. In 1663/64 that was a very small community of just a few dozen committed non-conformists who were able to defy the King, for one more year at least, due to their popular support. One of those ejected in 1662 was Edward Bowles who, weakened by this defeat and the loss of his wife Elizabeth that same year, died that same year. Edward was the most well known of Oliver Bowles of Sutton, Bedfordshire's 6 sons. The Executor of Alice's Will was Samuel Bedford of Henlow, another prominent nonconformist, who was the eldest brother of Isaac Bedford, the Nonconformist Rector of Clifton who was the executor of Oliver Bowles’ Will.
From Isaac’s Will
ref. and other records
such as his mother Alice’s
ref. and brother Mordechai’s
ref. Wills we are able to outline a part of his family tree:
? Bowles m. Alice
1.
Thomas Bowles b. ca. (skinner of London)
1.1
Henry Bowles d. at sea 1691
Thomas possibly ‘Thomas Boll of Limehouse bur. Sept. 15, 1684 St Dunstan and
All Saints, Stepney’
2.
Isaac Bowles b. ca. 1630 (of Limehouse 1650’s, mariner in the ship John and
Sarah)
m. Jane Southerne June 9, 1652 St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney
2.1
Isaac Bowles bp. Sept. 18, 1654 St
Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney (under 21 in 1668)
(this could be the Isaac
Bowles (1654-1709) of Kent Co., Maryland; m. Mary and children Anne b. 1675
and Isaac b. 1678)
2.2
Alice Boles bp. June 10, 1656 St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney bur. July
25, 1657 St Botolph, Aldersgate
2.3
Mordecay Bolle b. June 2, bp. June 3, 1658 St Dunstan and All Saints,
Stepney, Middlesex
Isaac d. Barbados betw.
1668 and 1672 (Will written 1668, proved 1672; the Nov. 1672 date on
familysearch for his burial in Stepney is probably just based on the probate
date, it does not refer to any church register)
Jane Bowles bur. Nov. 29, 1669 St Botolph, Aldersgate (fever)
3.
John Bowles (skinner of London 1664)
3.1 Francis Bowles (carpenter
apprentice in 1664)
4.
Francis Bowles (had children in 1664)
5.
Alice Bolles bur. July 25, 1657 St Botolph, Aldersgate
6.
Katharine Bowles
7.
daughter m. Pearson
7.1 Hannah Pearson
8.
daughter m. Samuel Pullon
9.
Mordechai Bowles (skinner)
m. Mary Arnold (or Austin or possibly the Mary Ashton mentioned in Alice’s
Will)
Mordechai d. 1663 bur. July 6,
1663 St Botolph’s (Will dated July 5, 1663; proved July 30, 1663)
10.
Susan Bowles (dau. of Alice Bowles, widow) bp. Jan. 3, 1646/47 St Botolph,
Aldersgate
Other
nearby Bowles that might fit into the above tree
Also a Samuel Bowles of Limehouse, mariner b. ca. 1662
m. Mary Holle May 29,
1684 St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney
1.
an infant son bur. Aug. 3, 1686 St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney
2.
Samuel Bowles bp. July 1, bur. Aug. 6, 1693 St Dunstan and All Saints,
Stepney
3.
Samuel Bowles b. Nov. 30, bp. Dec. 2, 1696 & bur. Oct. 29, 1699 St Dunstan
and All Saints, Stepney
Samuel d. bef. 1699
Thomas Bole of Limehouse, mariner
1.
Robert Bole bur. Aug. 14, 1693 St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney
Joseph Bowles of Limehouse, Caulker m. Mary
1.
Joseph Bowles b. July 1, bp. July 9, 1718 St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney
Richard Bowell (Capt.) of Limehouse, Mariner m. Elizabeth
1.
Richard Bowell b. Oct. 9, bp. Nov. 27, 1718 St Dunstan and All Saints,
Stepney
The fact that Isaac Bowles was
master of the ship John and Sarah is interesting as while there may have
been other ships than that one named the John and Sarah, there is only one
referred to in the database of ships of the slave trade and that one was
owned by the Royal African Company.
Isaac was a Royalist who continued
to hold out against Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth (1653-1660).
In 1656 his conduct since 1653 was reviewed by the Court of the
Admiralty.
ref.
In 1658 he is recorded as standing
parole for a Royalist privateer, Captain James Smith, who was captured by
the Commonwealth and held prisoner at Plymouth.
ref.
That loyalty would have been
handsomely rewarded upon Charles II’s return in 1660.
This was almost certainly the same
Captain Isaac Bowles, commander of one of the Royal (African) Company’s
ships, the Blackamoor, who testified at an inquiry in Jamaica in 1664 into a
trade ship’s destination.
ref.
According to the extract Isaac’s
Will was witnessed by a William Clutterbanck and a William Darrison.
These were likely William Clutterbuck and William Harrison, both
merchants of Bristol whose families were involved in the African trade.
William Clutterbuck was later Mayor of Bristol and was knighted by
Charles II in 1683 for his loyalty.
ref.
The next Bowles involved in the
African trade are two Thomas Bowles of London and Bristol, merchants, who
were both connected to the South Seas Company which was formed in 1713 with
a monopoly on all trade with the Americas and the Caribbean.
These two were active in the same period which has resulted in
details of their lives being intermixed in books and in family trees on the
Internet. However, one of them
died when the other was still raising his young family and their lives can
be sorted out. The older Thomas
(x-1721) had a very senior post as the South Seas Company’s representative
to Spain from 1713 to 1718. This
Thomas Bowles was the son of William Bowles of Hagley, Worcestershire.
See
Thomas Bowles of Hagley,
Worcestershire
The younger Thomas (1692-1774), who had apprenticed as a merchant in
Bristol but soon after moved to London, was the son of Phineas Bowles of
Loughborough House, Brixton. Please
see
Two Thomas Bowles, Merchants of London
and Bristol
There appears to have been no family
connection between them or between them and Isaac Bowles’ line in London
although all were involved in the African trade during the 17th/early
18th centuries.
Except there is one possibly very
important point. The younger Thomas Bowles above, who was from the
Bowles of Eltham, Kent line, can be closely connected to the Sir William
Clutterbuck who signed as a witness to Isaac Bowles’ Will in 1668.
The
1716 Will
of Sir William’s widow, Dame Susannah Clutterbuck, shows that her
niece, namesake and heir, Susannah (Sukey) Hickman was the younger Thomas
Bowles’ wife. He had married her
that same year during his apprenticeship in Bristol.
So Isaac Bowles, a Captain and merchant of London, could have been
connected to the Bowles of Eltham line but if so it was in the generation
just previous to the known family
tree that we have for The Bowles of Eltham.
It’s a potential well worth further research though.
A second point of confusion are the
two Bowles who were Directors of the South Seas Company and have been
assumed to be brothers.
In his book,
'The Forgotten Trade', Nigel
Tattersfield describes the role that the South Seas Company played in the
African slave trade.
The
Bowles of Deal were significantly
involved in this trade as he outlines in his
book.
While
discussing their involvement with the trade he states that
"amongst others of the Bowles family engaged in the slave trade of the time
were Tobias and Valentine's (note: of the
Bowles of Deal line) first
cousins, Thomas and William, who both held senior positions in the South Sea
Company."
However, Thomas was the elder Thomas
discussed above who was from the Bowles of Hagley line while William,
another son of Phineas Bowles of Loughborough House, was a brother of the
younger Thomas from above. The
fact that William Bowles of the Eltham line was appointed to the Board of
the South Seas Company shortly after the passing of Thomas Bowles of the
Hagley line leads to another potential connection.
We know that the John Bowles of Eltham was the son of
Charles Bowles of Chatham
but we don’t know where Charles came from before arriving in Chatham
in 1632 as clerk to the shipwright
Phineas
Pett who was then
Commissioner of Chatham Dockyard.
Perhaps he was from the
Hagley line.
If so that connection has not been found yet but is another potential
well worth further research.