Tobias Bowles of Charleston, South Carolina
Back to The Bowles of Great Gaddesden, Hertfordshire This page was developed entirely from family history research sent to me by Carl Peter Carroll of Abaco, The Bahamas whose wife is a direct descendant of Tobias Bowles' father, Leonard Bowles of Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.
Tobias Bowles was born in 1771 in Nassau,
Bahamas to parents Leonard and Elizabeth Bowles.
ref Leonard Bowles was a London Merchant, from
The Bowles of Great Gaddesden,
Hertfordshire line, who had decided to
settle in The Bahamas where he married, raised a family and continued in
the merchant trade between America, The Bahamas and England. See
also Leonard Bowles, a
London Merchant in The Bahamas
By 1790 Tobias was apprenticed to a lawyer in
Charleston, South Carolina, Thomas Winstanley. In 1791 Tobias
and Thomas Winstanley were the witnesses on a lease of almost 100 acres of land
known as the Old Quarter House
tract on Charleston's 'broad road' and the adjacent New Quarter House
tract.
ref He is listed in the Charleston Register of Attorneys
for 1792. On Mar. 10, 1795 Tobias was married to
Susannah Drayton, daughter of
John Drayton of Drayton Hall, Charleston.
ref He built their home at 143 Tradd Street in
Charleston in 1797 or shortly after. It still stands today as the
historic
Bowles-Legare House. However, Susannah passed away in 1801
ref and there is no record of there being any children.
Tobias was elected Second Lieutenant in the
Charleston
Cadet Artillery Company on July 4th, 1794.
By 1798 he was a Captain in the Cadet Artillery Company
ref By 1805 he was Major of the
Artillery Regiment in Charleston.
ref Tobias died on Oct. 8, 1808. ref
obituary His obituary is particularly useful as it
firmly identifies this Major Tobias Bowles of Charleston as the same
person as the Tobias Bowles of the Bahamas line.
In his
Will (dated Oct. 13, 1807, probate date
Nov. 4, 1808)
he left most of his estate to his mother-in-law Rebeccah Perry “on condition that
she, her Executors or Administrators do & shall within three months
after my decease, in due form of Law, emancipate & set free my slaves
named Harriett, Thursa, Bunfy, Auba & Kit & the issue of the females to
be born after the date of this my will.”) See more on that story at
Drayton Research Update: Efforts to Emancipate Abigail, Mahala, Rebecca
and Abba