But this is not the first time that interest has been shewn in this building, and I am indebted to Marian Parker for bringing a drawing of the house-front to my attention, that in a volume of Old and New London. The original sketch above comes from my copy of Ye Parish of Camberwell by William Harnett Blanch. Landowners from the sixteenth century, the Bowyers built their manor house of Camberwell Buckingham during the reign of Queen Elizabeth (says Blanch in 1875), though the letter from D A Briton in Gents Magazine asserts that it was designed and built by Wren. Here an illustration ‘chosen principally for the air of antiquity confered by its imbowed windows’, shows the property’s side view with an ‘annex’ stuck onto the rear of the house like a sore thumb. Evelyn records a visit in his diary of September 1657, being more enamoured of the garden with its "pretty grove of oaks, hedges of yew and row of tall elms". Possibly he gave the cedar -"Queen Elizabeth’s tree" that grew in later times within the entrance to the property. Sir Christopher Wren certainly stayed in the house during the rebuilding of St Paul’s Cathedral, and murals by Sir James Thornhill added splendour to the rather ornate interior. Evelyn found little to his liking inside when he "visited Sir Edmund at his melancholic seate at Camberwell", subsequent owners removing the fine carvings and ornaments..(and pictures of the Bowyers?).., until the house was pulled down to make way for the new railway line to Dover in 1861. Certainly ‘melancholic’, for we can read in the Gents Magazine of "a small but exquisite piece of painting in which Saturn devouring his children is shown in the centre, surrounded by ruins". But I have yet to find any evidence that King James the Second ‘was concealed in the house previous to his escape’.
The Bowyers were originally of the Sussex family, from John of Chichester to his son Ralph, to Richard, to William (who married Joan Lambert), to Thomas (d.1539) to John, who married Joan Brabant. John of Camberwell was the son of this John and Joan and reputedly born in Shepton Beauchamp. He has left us the cost of the trousseau for his second bride, Elizabeth Draper ... .also from a well known Camberwell family. Material for her Venice gown costing all of £9.12.8p, being of tawney taffeta with a "tawney velvet to gard the Venyce gown". Her Dutch gown was black, her ‘pety cote with plites’ was scarlet and its ‘one yard and half quarter’ of material cost a pound. The wedding ring ‘weying two angells and a duckett’, (see Lyson’s Environs). The monumental brass in St Giles Church, Camberwell (see Blanch) shows the proud parents with eight sons and three daughters, and records John’s death as October 1570. A daughter was baptised ‘Sence’ only the previous January.
The church register entries from 1560 to 1789 are also shewn in the Blanch book, the family then married the Windhams who inherited the estates, until 1810 when the Smyths take control, from Sir William Smijth ... yes, Smijth ... who married heiress Ann Windham. The Bowyer surname addition was assumed by royal licence in 1836, also the Bowyer arms, to become the present family of Bowyer-Smyths. The break up of the estate --- some 444 acres --- is interesting reading in ‘A Victorian Suburb’ by H J Dyos, with lease-holders committed in 1763 to build ‘one or more brick dwelling houses within two years’. In one instance one lease holder had built 143 houses, several workshops and a vinegar factory on a plot by 1830!! "A case of meadow to slum in a single generation" says Mr Dyos.
A Pub too.....During a recent television epic starting with a scene outside a London Pub, the cameras retreat to reveal its name.... the Owyer arms. Did they remove the B to disguise the place? The ‘other one’ is in the village of Radley, due south from Oxford.
A Mystery Solved ......You may remember I asked the Clerk of Nantwich, CHS, why a Bowyer Avenue. He was perplexed, so it is pleasing that we can come up with the answer. Doreen Dale says that she was once in touch with Miss Mable Bowyer of that town, whose father had three brothers, Edward, Matthew and James. In 1927 James was Mayor of Nantwich, and when the council houses were built a street was named after him. Present day Nantwich, it seems, cannot be that proud of its history.
Judging by the lack of queries arriving here I take it that you all have means of looking into the 1881 census indexes. Christine Lawler has kept me busy though and reports that as a result of letters to addresses from the BIG R she has been able to go back a further generation. The 81 census fiche continue to arrive, and Derbyshire, Essex, Lincolnshire and Sussex should be added to my list. We all await London .... and as we say at our Sevenoaks (NWKFHS) meetings .... ‘Sorry, no Kent yet’. I am willing to look up any surname in this index, as also in the Big R, which, as you may not know, is a list of names and addresses of researchers interests. Long lost cousins abound!
"A major step forward in the analysis of Family History research" ...... or the International Genealogical Microfiche. Nine research columns comprising Surname, Occupation, Spouse, Event, Date, Town, County, Father’s name, and Mother’s Maiden name. I was sent the fiche on your behalf and found the 600 entries overworked, being listed any which way under the above headings, no task for a decent computer. It is published bi-monthly with new material added by subscribers (£20 annually) with an allowance of ten names. Perhaps in time it will become a kind of IGI, if it lasts that long. From Ashtree Publications, Oystershell Lane, Newcastle on Tyne, NE5 4QS. The major snag is that if an interest is located in this index then you have to send to the publisher for the input owner and address to establish contact. Not one for me, just yet. But I did put the Study Group into the GRD as usual this year, and splashed out for a copy of this Directory, so if you cannot get near to a copy, send me your queries. I have never had anything to do with the Family History Club (of Tracey Park) or its ‘Knowledge’ publications (due in November 1995 I am told) so cannot help there.
Shame on me .... I often hear at Sevenoaks meetings how letters go unanswered ..... And I have just found one from Mrs S Gordon (nee Bowyer) written to me last July. Mrs Gordon had sent me a ‘family momento’ , a booklet of 16 pages about ‘The Bowyers of Charlwood, Betchworth and Redhill’ that she wrote and presented for the 75th birthday of Bridget (Joan) Gibb (Bowyer), with several family photographs, and trees. I am sure that Mrs Gordon (The Shubberies, Sowton Lane, Yelverton, Devon, PL20 6DB) would like to hear from anyone interested, including me .........
Cheers,
Denis
P.S. The 1881 census fiche for NORTHUMBERLAND and CUMBERLAND have arrived.
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