Clarke-Frederick County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Biographies.....Bowles, Wilson Wesley ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00001.html#0000031 March 2, 2008, 5:34 pm Author: Leonard Wilson (1916) WILSON WESLEY BOWLES A MOST interesting history of the widely scattered Bowles family, compiled by Thomas M. Farquhar, was published in Philadelphia in 1907. Contained in this volume is an authentic pedigree of the Bowles family in Great Britain from data gathered after years of research by Mr. George Bowles, of London, who is credited with being one of the best of English genealogists. To this a few additions have been made by Mr. Spotswood Bowles, of County Cork, Ireland, with reference to the North Aston family. According to Mr. Farquhar, the name is of both Saxon and Norman origin. Bolla was a Saxon Chief under Offa the Terrible, King of Mercia, about 757, who conquered Oxfordshire, and also the Welsh kingdom of Powys, and this is the first mention of the name that we find. Bolla was the Saxon word for "bowl," also a name for the head, or brain-pan. Ingulf, a monk who lived in the time of Edward the Confessor, 1041 A. D., tells that Edith, the Queen, would often stop him on his way from school and make him go over his lessons, which, if he knew, she would send him to Bolla, who seems to have been a sort of steward, and would evidently give him some choice tidbit as a reward for his knowing his lessons. This steward was called a boll-man. This would give us the origin of the Saxon name in an occupation, which was a favorite derivation of names. In 1066 we come upon the Norman name in England, where one of the Knights who followed Williams to Hastings appears simply as Bole. In the making up of this history of the Bowles family, George Bowles, the genealogist, gets on solid ground in the person of William Bole, of Lincolnshire, in the reign of Richard I in 1189. The name has gone through the usual evolution in spelling: the Saxon, Bolla; the Norman, Boel and Bole, then Boles, de Bolle, Bolles, Bowie, Bowl and Bowles, this last being the present accepted spelling, though the name of Bolles is still used both in Great Britain and America by some of the families. In 1272 appears the name of Alane Bowles, Lord of Swynesheads, and of the several manors within the same, including Bole Hall, Lincolnshire. From that time on the record appears unbroken, though the spelling of the name varies much, sometimes father and son spelling it differently, which recalls the statement of Thomas Jefferson that he wanted every man to have enough education to know how to spell his name more than one way. It is sufficient for our purpose in this sketch to state that very many of the Bowles family have won distinction in Great Britain. A large number of them have held rank as baronets, many have been able soldiers, and several have been eminent divines, among whom were Rev. Edward Bowles, and John Bowles, Bishop of Rochester. Major-General Phineas Bowles and his son, Lieutenant-General Phineas Bowles, were distinguished soldiers. Admiral Sir William Bowles was a famous naval officer. William Bowles, educated for a lawyer, became an eminent naturalist. John Bowles, a literary man of high character, made a reputation for his work on Spanish literature. Caroline Anne Bowles married Robert Southey, the poet. William Lisle Bowles was a poet and a critic of great merit. General Sir George Bowles, one of those English soldiers who fought through the Napoleonic wars, lived until 1876, being one of the last survivors of Wellington's officers. Lieutenant-General Vere Hunt Bowles was a distinguished member of that branch of the family which settled at County Cork, Ireland. In our own country, Samuel Bowles, editor of the "Springfield Republican," was one of the greatest editors America has produced. In Virginia there are two distinguished lines of this family. The first was founded by John Bowles, who came to Virginia with Lord Delaware in May, 1610. He was then not a man grown, though his age is not given. In 1612 he returned to England and came back to Virginia with Sir Francis Wyatt in 1621. As Sir George Bowles, one of the famous Lord Mayors of London, was among the members of the Virginia Company of London in 1620, it seems probable that John Bowles was related to him, as he came in 1621 with Sir Francis Wyatt. However this may be, John Bowles spent the balance of his life in Virginia and prospered. He lived in several localities, his final home being in Elizabeth City. In his will, probated July 1, 1664, he left his estate to his son John, who was a planter. From this will it appeared that he had farms, plantations, houses, African slaves, tobacco, herds and the ship "Amelia." In 1719 John Bowles 3, grandson of the immigrant, moved to New Kent County. From that time forward the family seems to have greatly multiplied, and to have extended its homes, in the course of the next fifty or sixty years, over a wide region. An interesting incident of record regarding this family is that of Joshua Bethel Bowles, who, born in 1800 in Albemarle County, moved to Louisville before he was a man, amassed a large fortune, became President of the Franklin Insurance Company, and for twenty-nine years was president of the old State Bank of Louisville. He married Grace Shreve, of Cincinnati, Ohio, by whom he had thirteen children. She was a niece of Ann Hopkins, who was the mother of Johns Hopkins, the founder of tlie great University in Baltimore. Ann Hopkins was of Quaker stock and was expelled from the society because she married a slaveholder. The descendants of John Bowles, the early emigrant to Virginia, are now scattered over the United States and would make a very large regiment if all of them could be drawn together in one body. The other branch of the Bowles family identified with Virginia is descended from Gideon Bowles, of Oxford, England, who settled in Dublin, Ireland, where he was a merchant in 1752. His oldest son, John, married Eleanor, the granddaughter of Sir William Parsons. Of the sons of John and Eleanor, five came to Virginia. Gideon settled in Goochland County, James in Leesburg, Loudoun County, and John in Winchester, Frederick County. The other two brothers were Stephen and Hugh. John settled in Winchester before 1800. His children were Jacob, Avery, Isaac, James, and six daughters, Mrs. Eva Newcomb, Mrs. Catherine Tutstone, Mrs. Rebecca Smith, Mrs. Sally Coapheabner, Mrs. Nancy Carper, and Mrs. William Keffert. James Bowles, son of John, was born on the 28th of February, 1810. He lived for many years near Winchester, where his personal integrity and sober life gained for him the esteem of his neighbors. He was a farmer and stock breeder, giving special attention to the breeding of fine horses, especially the Black Hawk Morgan strain. He accumulated a considerable estate. He married Mary Louise Smith, born April 9, 1821. James Bowles died October 6, 1872, and was survived by his wife for nearly twenty-seven years, she dying April 19, 1899. They had sixteen children, as follows: Isaac W., James Edwin, Stewart Baldwin, Jonathan S., Henry C., Charles M., Wilson W., Victor S., Joseph W., John L., Milton C., Thomas S., Fanny S., Oliver C., Minnie L., and James. Victor S. moved to Dallas, Texas, and Oliver C. and Milton C. to Fort Worth, Texas. Minnie L. married James Thomas, Fort Worth, Texas, some of the others passed away, and some of them are still living in their native section. Among these is Wilson W. Bowles, who was educated in a private school at Winchester up to the age of sixteen, when he entered the Confederate Army in the last year of the war, but was shortly afterwards captured and imprisoned at Point Lookout until the end of the struggle. After the war, starting in business on his own account, he took up the life of a farmer and stock breeder in Hampshire County, West Virginia. After a period in Hampshire County he returned to his native county of Clarke, Virginia, where he has been engaged in the same occupation and has been largely successful. Mr. Bowles is now one of the best known horse breeders in Virginia. He has a beautiful estate of about thirteen hundred acres of land and does an extensive business. He is Director of the First National Bank of Berryville and a Director of the Horse Show and the Winchester Fair. He has been a judge of the National Horse Show at Washington, D. C, and of numerous others in various cities. He is regarded as one of the best authorities on live stock in a State which has always been rich in men possessing that qualification. He has served on the Advisory Board of the Hagerstown Fair. A lifelong Democrat in his political affiliations, he was a delegate to the Norfolk Convention of 1912, being made Chairman of his delegation, and casting its entire vote for Woodrow Wilson, but has never been a seeker after public office. Mr. Bowles belongs to that class of intelligent farmers and livestock breeders which has made the Valley of Virginia one of the most noted sections of the United States from an agricultural standpoint. While we must concede that the men who have done this occupied a territory possessed of unusually productive soil, it is to their credit that they have made the most of it, and other sections of the country which have had equal advantages in this respect do not now compare with the valley, so at the last we are forced to Sidney Lanier's conclusion "that there is more in the man than there is in the land." Mr. Bowles married at White Hall, Frederick County, October 29, 1879, Annie Vriginia Lodge, who was born March 19, 1850, daughter of William Russell and Rebecca Janney Purcell Lodge. Mrs. Bowles' mother belonged to a famous Quaker family, the Janneys, through whom she is related to many prominent members of the Society of Friends. The children of this marriage are Joseph William Bowles, Wilson Lodge Bowles. Harry Hallowell Bowles and Bertha Anne Bowles. The three sons were educated at the old Clay Hill Academy (now not in existence), and the daughter, after attending a private school in Millwood, went to the Mary Baldwin Seminary at Staunton, the Fort Loudoun Seminary at Winchester, and finally the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. The youngest son, Dr. H. H. Bowles, made a fine record in the medical world. He was a graduate of the University College of Medicine in Richmond, where he served as an interne. He graduated at the Bellevue Hospital, New York; was an assistant in the Women's Hospital, in Manhattan Maternity and Lying-in Hospital, and then became an assistant to Dr. Lawrence Summit, of New Jersey, with whom he is now in partnership. Dr. Bowles is said to be the youngest physician in New Jersey confining himself entirely to surgery, and by men of his profession his record in college and in practice is accounted brilliant. William Wesley Bowles has borne his part in his generation manfully. Ready as a mere boy to fight his country's battles, his mature life has been devoted to agriculture. In everything pertaining to this most essential of all industries, the cultivation of the land and the breeding of stock, he has made vast improvements on the old methods. He deserves the credit that is given to the man who makes two blades of grass grow where only one grew before. He has preserved his personal integrity and made character. Now, over a wide area, his name is synonymous with good judgment and honest dealing. He has served his generation well. There are some eighteen Coats of Arms in the various branches of the Bowles family, the outstanding feature of a majority of these being the bowls and boars' heads, which illustrates the close family relationship which existed between the original grantees of these Coats of Arms. Additional Comments: Extracted from: MAKERS OF AMERICA BIOGRAPHIES OF LEADING MEN OF THOUGHT AND ACTION THE MEN WHO CONSTITUTE THE BONE AND SINEW OF AMERICAN PROSPERITY AND LIFE VOLUME II By LEONARD WILSON, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ASSISTED BY PROMINENT HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WRITERS Illustrated with many full page engravings B. F. JOHNSON, INC. CITY OF WASHINGTON, U. S. A. 1916 Copyright, 1916 by B. F. Johnson, Inc. Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/clarke/photos/bios/bowles89gbs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/clarke/bios/bowles89gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/vafiles/ File size: 12.7 Kb