Bowyer Study Group Newsletter #17
July 1996
Author:
Mr. Denis Bowyer
Conkers
Hurst Green
Etchingham
East Sussex, TN19 7QD, UK
INTERNET.
E-mail versus Snail Mail, or how I hate writing personal names with small capital letters
I have received from Richard C. Bowyer some details of his internet pages. It is all double Dutch to my ancient brain. Nevertheless he has asked for our newsletters to send the "chat therein" (my words) around the world, well; mainly America. So I have sent them to him (on receiving the required stamps),and he sends me back the new format, necessary for his kind of delivery. At this point I have received no feed back what so ever, but then I would not, at least not by my friendly human postperson, would I ?....... One point that I find rather odd is that you are invited "to e mail me if your surname is Bowyer". Sorry all you now married Miss Bowyers out there, you seem not to he included. In fact of the 190 names on MY list only thirty hold the surname Bowyer, whereas of the ‘over a hundred e mail addresses' on Dick’s list, I know only a few, possibly no more then five! It seems that we are poles apart, and I do note with a wry smile that twenty or so Bowyers on the e mail list are attached to some University or other. Does this show more interest in e mail potential than a family tree’. Still, thank you Dick for including us in your preparations for a Bowyer Study Group in the twenty-first century, for all interested here is the e mail address, I hope that I have put all the dots in the correct place: r.bowyer@dial.pipex.com
Incidentally for those wishing> to know more about internet for the Genealogist there is a book by David Hawgood priced at £1.96 post paid from the Family Tree Magazine, 61,Great Whyte, Ramsey, Huntingdon, Cambs.PE17.1HL.
SUSSEX IRON FOUNDERS.
I see before me as item 171 of a catalogue, the second hand hook 'Wealden Iron' by Ernest Straker ( a reprint of 1969) offered at forty five pounds, no less. It remains on my 'want-list'! I will continue to use the much battered library copy that comes with the librarian's warning about its poor state and need for careful handling. Which I always give it. It contains lots about the Sussex Bowyer iron founders of Cuckfield, Hartfield, Tinsley, Crowborough, and Dunsfold in Surrey, temp. Henry the Eighth and his daughters. The best story concerns "the militant lady of Parrock", the "Amazonian" Denise Bowyer, widow of John of Hartfield. For when rival William Saunders ’broke up her ponds and waters so that she could not use the forge' she rallied her forces and with eighteen men armed with staves, bills and bows and arrows, made a counter attack. Poor Saunders was in jeopardy of his life, as the good lady yelled on her forces with loud cries of "Down with Greybeard" and "Shoot at Greybeard". She was taken to the Star Chamber for the deed, but, alas, no result is recorded. Scattered in the text are Bowyers who supply iron for the cannons, and "gunstones for great bambardys" used in the several wars of this period. I would like to think that those two knightly Bowyer soldiers of Staffordshire at Maer and Seighford, now sleeping peacefully beneath heavy stone effigies, ignited a cousin's cannon to help repel the ships of the Spanish Armada of 1588. Perhaps the guns of the 'Mary Rose' were made from some Bowyer iron, certainly gunstone were made for the ship 'Mary and John' in 1513. As we know by the wealth of the Cuckfield Bowyers, money is to be made from this trade, for we can read here that one iron founder, Leonard Gale, a poor blacksmith from Sevenoaks in 1656, made enough for his son to purchase a £9000 estate during 1690. I constantly look for rusty water in our local woods!
STAFFORDSHIRE IRON MOULDERS.
Karen Lemnell sends me details of a couple of Bowyers convicted at Stafford in 1848,and were sent to Australia in the 'Hashemy' in 1850. Richard (b.1808,married with three children) for attempting to steal some lambs, whereas brother(?) Thomas (b.1809,unmarried) for receiving stolen goods. Both were iron moulders by trade, ‘semiliterate' Protestants. Richard applied for his wife and children to go to Western Australia in 1852. Karen say she will search for more details if asked: 2/122 Edinborough St, Mount Hawthorne, 6016. W.A
The Pevensey Castle gun.
Cast iron, with Cipher and Badge of Queen Elizabeth.
BERMUDA FAMILIES.
In the Australian magazine Descent of Sept, 1989, Ms Jan Worthington tells at' 193 male prisoners arriving in Sydney aboard the Royal Admiral 3, having left London 5th July and arrived 8th Nov.1830..........so what?, I hear you ask. Twenty one of the prisoners had already served some time in Bermuda, where they were used for heavy construction work on the new dock yard there, one being a William Bowyer. Working alongside slaves, they lived on one of four convict ships moored in the docks, home to some nine thousand white prisoners from around 1809 to 1863, when penal exile was abolished. A quarter of this number died there, states Ms Worthington. I know no more details of this William, does anyone' The article is a must for anyone researching a family in Bermuda,1784-1914,with interesting source references.
EASTENDERS.
Nearer home, all researching this part of London, and Hertfordshire, will want to know that Malt Sears is extracting Eastenders mentioned in the Old Bailey sessions, as well as indexing the census years (51 and 61 so far) of names in the Herts. Mercury newspapers. For the price of a photocopy (min.f1....maxZ10) we can learn of the lawful and unlawful deeds of our ancestors from this neck of the woods. Mr. Sears (250,Westfield,Harlow, Essex CM18 6A) says he will firstly supply an abbreviated entry for any surname given. I will ask him for the Bowyers in his index.
DASTARDLY DEEDS IN SO'TON.
Ted Redstone writes to say that he has scanned the local Southampton newspapers on the track of a relative of his,....albeit a first cousin thrice removed! Walter Bowyer was Superintendent and Clerk to the Harbour Board until he resigned the post in 1903, following an investigation enquiry. What is all this about various items, which could be Board property, being delivered by Board carriers to residences in the tow' Did some wire rope end up on Walter's yatch? Were staff being paid overtime for work on the yatch? What happened to the abandoned (for three months) bicycle on the quay? Was Walter’s son seen riding it away' There is no truth in the rumour that Ted has been offered millions to turn these events into a fifteen part epic for television.! I say 'Hurrah for first cousins thrice removed, may we find more of them!‘ Actually Ted is looking for a James Bowyer, born Stepney c.1789,married Portchester,1811 and died Southampton 1853. But where was he during 1789 and 1811? Anyone know?
BATTERSEA BORN.
Evelyn Hammant says that scanning through the census is like doing a geography lesson. She seeks the death of her Henry Bowyer, wanting to find out if he re-married before having a daughter Ellen Mary. Clutching at straws, says Evelyn. Henry was born in Battersea in 1824 and was last found in the 71 census in Wye Street there, a widower, aged 47. All will be resolved when the 81 fiche (all 502 of them) for Middlesex is issued, due soon, as also the 600 fiche of Lancashire, the final two counties in this important index series. I can find no trace of Ellen's birth in my St. Cath. index, but a Henry died in 1906....the last year in the index!!!!....aged 81,registered at Wandsworth.
HERTFORDSHIRE.
Len Bowyer writes that the 1851 and 1891 census of Herts is (being) put onto computer by helpers of the University of Hertfordshire. A copy is (will be) available at the C.R.Q. He has sent me a list of Bowyers that he has stumbled across, interestingly some born out of county; Grantham, Falkingham, (Lines) and Aylesbury, (Bucks).
WATERMEN OF LONDON.
David Hussey is engaged in collecting details about his watermen ancestors. He sends me lists of Masters, Apprentices, and two interesting complaints. One of a 'breach of the Sabbath thereby robbing the Sunday ferry' and one for 'Spitting and staving the boat' of Thomas Bowyer,1802. If you have a waterman lurking in your tree, contact David at 44, Forestfield, Horsham Ssx.RH13 6DZ, he will be pleased to hear from you.
KEDINGTON, SUFFOLK.
'Ten Miles from Anywhere’ is a book by Jean Bean, says Sheila Catchlove, with flashbacks of events between the wars and turn of the century at Wickhambrook. It mentions Tom Bowyer (d1920) of Stadishall Manor. Sheila sends 41 and 51 census details of Bowyers in the area for my slip file. Kedington receives some mention in Brent Bowyers book (see newsletter 15) with the plea "there are literally hundreds of other entries" which" I hope that someone will someday make sense of it all". I wonder if William Bowyer's book of Kedington photographs is still in print at Salient Press, County Hall, Ipswich.....priced £2.40.? Brent tells us that William, a son of Edward and Hannah, is a descendant of Samuel and Elizabeth (nee Pearman) of Coton Hall, who had twelve children from the year 1785.
ENDNOTE.
I am extremely grateful to receive your letters, it shows that you are still interested in researching Bowyers. Thank you for popping in a stamp or two, especially from friends overseas. I will PROBABLY ask for more stamps in my next newsletter, if in a bad mood at the time! Cheers, Denis.
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