The Possibility of a Connection between The Bowles of Killenaule and John Bowles of Woodhouse

Back to The Bowles of Killenaule or The Bowles of The Commons

Important note: While there are some parallels between these two lines, extensive further research has shown that any such connection would be very unlikely.  Some very early references for Catholic Bowles in Killenaule have been found which would require that they be of John Boles own generation but, thanks to the very meticulous records kept by the Quaker Meetings, John Boles of Woodhouse's line is very well documented leaving no room for these local Bowles.  Nevertheless I will leave a discussion of these parallels on this page so that their future re-discovery should not be used as 'proof' of that connection. 

John Bowles of Woodhouse

A descendant of The Richard Boles of Cork line, he was a prominent Quaker and a major landholder in the Magorban civil parish which is adjacent to the Killenaule civil parish.  His line is very well documented due to the meticulous records kept by the Friends (Quakers) which are now searchable online on findmypast.uk.com.  See John Boles of Woodhouse

The likelihood that any descendant of his could have had an unknown line of descent:

There is at least one line from the Bowles of Woodhouse tree that is undocumented.  John Bowles had two sons and several daughters but his heir was his daughter Anne as his eldest son George had left the Quaker faith and his younger son John had predeceased him.  George's line is well documented as most of his children returned to the Friends with the exception of his eldest son John.  When John Bowles of Woodhouse died in 1731 he disinherited his son George and his grandson John leaving George one English shilling and one pound sterling per year and grandson John 'one English shilling and no more'.  After this there was no further discussion of either George or his son John in the Friends records other than a motion in March 1732 to deny John Boles son of George Boles for his scandalous actions in attempting to bribe a servant at Woodhouse to let him into the house so he could make an illegal claim to it as his birthright.

Note: the above events could explain undocumented births in John Boles' line occurring after 1731 but that is just too late to explain the origin of Charles Bowles who was old enough to baptise a son at Killenaule in 1748 or Anne Bowles who baptized children there in 1748 and 1751.

I haven't found any record of what John did after that but he must have gone somewhere when he was turned away from Woodhouse.  His younger brother George had married in the Friends faith and settled in Dublin as a tallow chandler (a seller of wax candles, oils and even sometimes coal; Tallow Chandler just refers to the traditional guild name for his occupation).  There is one potential John Bowles who first appears in Dublin in 1736.  He baptized four children in the Protestant Church of Ireland between 1736 and 1742. 

His first two children were baptized together in 1736 but were unlikely to have been twins as few twins survived in that period.  If he was the right John Bowles this might be explained by his first child being born a couple of years before 1736 but had gone unbaptized while he still held out hope for acceptance by his relatives at Woodhouse which would have required his acceptance of and by the Friends.  His son's name George would be consistent with his father's name being George and Jonathan was an uncommon given name but it was common in the Bowles of Woodhouse line for the previous two generations.

Looking at both Dublin and the Woodhouse area there are no Jonathan or John Boles/Bowles who could fit as one of the above children but there was one George Bowles in Killenaule that fits very well.  His memorial stone in the Killenaule (Protestant) cemetery states that he died on Feb. 9, 1777 at age 42.  That would set his birth year as 1736, if his birth date was later than Feb. 9, the same year as the above George Bowles was baptized in Dublin.  That's not enough in itself to connect him to the Woodhouse line but he was actually just the start of a Bowles line in Killenaule that had further connections to the lands and known associates of John Bowles of Woodhouse.

George Bowles of Killenaule

baptisms at Killenaule in 1748 by Charles Bowles in 1748 and in that same year and in 1751 by a James Meagher and his wife Anna Bowls (RC) (so Charles and Anna, possibly siblings, were born ca. 1728 or earlier if there were other children before 1748 not on record)

memorial stone in Killenaule cemetery for George Bowles buried in 1777 at age 42 (C of I)  (so he was born ca. 1735)

nearby memorial stone in Killenaule cemetery for Susana Graham nee Bowles who died in 1792 at age 36 (so b. ca. 1756) (C of I)

marriage of  for an Ann Bowles of Killenaule to George Ryall of Fethard on Jan. 12, 1777 (so she was born ca. 1757 or slightly earlier) (C of I)

memorial stone in Crohane parish (east of Killenaule and includes Coolquill) cemetery for John Bowles who died in 1840 at age 78 (so b. ca. 1762) (C of I)

baptism of John Bowles son of Joseph Bowles and Ellen Mackey of Springhill in 1770 (RC) (so Joseph Bowles b. ca. 1750; likely he was C of I and she was Catholic, see discussion)

then the next is George Bowles m. Margaret Meagher in 1821 with a dispensation for '3rd degree and 3rd degree' consanguinity (RC) (Important note: that degree of consanguinity indicates that this George Bowles and Margaret Meagher had a common great-grandfather.  The scarcity of Bowles references in the two Killenaule registers makes it very likely that Margaret's grandparents were James Meagher and Anna Bowls who baptized children there in the 1740's while George's father was Anna Bowls' brother.  That would make their father the common great-grandfather of the couple marrying in 1821.)

Margaret married James but I can't find anything further on them.  They baptized three children at Killenaule between 1814 and 1819 but then there are no further entries.  The 1817 and 1819 baptismal entries give the Simples home to be at Foulkstown and at Glangoole respectively.  These two townlands are close to Cummins' home at Moyglas.  This is one of the connections which brings up the possibility of some distant link between our Bowles of Killenaule and some unidentified descendant of the very prominent Quaker, John Bowles of Woodhouse (d. 1731).

For a further discussion of the connections between the Bowles of this region and a proposed family tree see Sorting Out The Bowles of Kilcooly and Killenaule and Area