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Back to The Bowles of Dublin
See also Thomas Bowles Sr., Deputy Treasurer-at-War Under Cromwell and Thomas Bowles III and Family of Dublin for the previous and next generations of this line and also The Thomas Bowles of Dublin Family Tree
A Thomas Bowles arrived in Dublin from England in 1649-50 as Cromwell's Deputy Treasurer-at-War. He married Mary Plunkett about 1655 and had at least two children. A daughter, Hester, married a Dublin Alderman, William Stowell. Their eldest son, Plunkett Stowell, inherited his Great Uncle Walter Plunkett's estate. See Thomas Bowles Sr.'s page for more on that.
Thomas and Mary's son, Thomas Jr., also did well. He married Dorcas Bennett, the daughter of Christopher Bennett, a merchant of Dublin, and they had their eldest son, Thomas III, by 1678. There are no surviving civil or parish records to document that but we do know that when Christopher Bennett's Will was proven in 1680, at that time he was Dublin Alderman Bennett, it included bequests for his daughter Lydia Bennett alias Waring, his daughter Dorcas, the wife of Thomas Bowles of Dublin, and one grandson named Thomas Bowles. Bennett's Will had been written in 1666 when his daughters would have been too young to marry but a caveat to the Will was added in 1678 which must have been when the bequests were added, probably upon the birth of his first grandson.
It turns out that Thomas Jr's children would soon need to be provided for as their parent's would both die while they were still minors.
From the St Catharine's church register we know that their mother, Dorcas Bennet Bowles, died in 1685. Thomas Jr was probably the Mr Boulds who was buried on April 12, 1692 at St John's church, the same church where he had been baptized. That seems correct as he certainly died before 1695 as in that year the minutes of the Dublin City council state that Dorcas Bowles (age 18) had been admitted as a 'free woman of Dublin by fine and special grace'. The editor states that unusual right was typically purchased by an orphan's guardian paying a 'fine' and obtaining a special approval (a special grace) from a higher authority (possibly her Uncle William Stowell who was a Dublin Alderman) in order to improve her marriage prospects.
When Thomas Jr. died in 1692 his children Dorcas (15), Thomas III (14) and John (10) would have been given into the care of some responsible person, most often a relative, who had either been specified in Thomas Jr's Will or who had been appointed by the Court. That person would have also managed the property left to them by their father and also, in this case, the land which Alderman Bennett had left to Thomas Jr to administrate. As each child reached the age 21 they would have assumed control of their own share of the property left to them.
See Thomas Bowles III and Family of Dublin for the next part of their story including the extensive lots of land which they held in Dublin
Note: Christopher Bennet was also a Commissioner under the Usurpers who survived the restoration with his powers intact. His brother, Sir Henry Bennet, was appointed his Majesty's Principle Secretary of State in Ireland and Christopher Bennett was one of two trustees appointed in 1663 to manage the securities of the Commissioned Officers who had served his Majesty in Ireland before Cromwell landed in 1649.