intimate with Archbishop Ussher. This John Bowdler's son, Thomas, was a fellow-officer at the admiralty with Samuel Pepys, became a conscientious Jacobite, was the intimate friend of Dr. Hickes, and died in Queen Square in July 1738, at the age of 77. His elder son, Thomas, married in 1742 Elizabeth Stuart, second daughter and coheiress of Sir John Cotton, a direct descendant from the famous Sir Robert Cotton, and died in May 1785. John Bowdler the elder was the eldest son of this marriage. His mother, the authoress of 'Practical Observations on the Revelations of St. John' (Bath, 1800), written in the year 1775, was noted for her piety and general culture, and gave all her children a strict religious training. After attending several private schools, Bowdler was placed, in November 1765, in the office of Mr. Barsham, a special pleader, and practised as a chamber conveyancer between 1770 and 1780. In January 1778 he married Harrietta, eldest daughter of John Hanbury, vice-consul of the English factory at Hamburg. In November 1779 he attended Robert Gordon, the last of the nonjuring bishops, through a fatal illness. His father's death in 1785 put Bowdler in possession of a small fortune; he then finally retired from his profession. In 1795 he wrote a long letter to Lord Auckland about the high prices of the time, in which he fiercely attacked the clergy and the legislators for neglecting morality and religion. In 1796 he addressed letters on similar subjects to the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishops Porteus and Horsley. He published in 1797 a strongly worded pamphlet entitled 'Reform or Ruin,' in which he sought again to expose the immorality and irreligion of the nation. The pamphlet had a very wide sale, and reached an eighth edition within a year of its first publication. He disapproved of Sir Richard Hill's 'Apology for Brotherly Love,' a partial justification of the prevailing dissent, and issued pamphlets in support of the opposite views expounded in Daubeney's 'Guide to the Church.' In 1815 he formed a committee to memorialise the government to erect additional churches in the populous parts of England out of the public funds. In 1816 he petitioned Lord Sidmouth to abolish lotteries. He died at Eltham on 29 June 1823. Bowdler was one of the founders of the Church Building Society. He had ten children, six of whom survived infancy. His sons John and Thomas are separately noticed. His daughter Elizabeth died on 4 Dec. 1810.
[Memoir of Life of John Bowdler, Esq., written for private circulation by his son Thomas in 1824 and published for sale in 1825.]
BOWDLER, JOHN, the younger (1783–1815), author, younger son of John Bowdler the elder [q. v.], was born in London on 2 Feb. 1783. He was educated at Winchester, and in 1798 was placed in a London solicitor's office. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1807, made some progress in his profession, and attracted the notice of Lord-chancellor Eldon. But in 1810 signs of consumption appeared, and he spent the two following years in the south of Europe. In May 1812 he returned to England and lived with an aunt near Portsmouth. But his health was not restored, and he died 1 Feb. 1815. According to the testimonies of his father and brother Charles, John was in every way an exemplary character. He engaged in literary pursuits during his illness, and his father published in 1816 his 'Select Pieces in Prose and Verse' (2 vols.) The book contained a full memoir and the journal kept by Bowdler during his foreign tour of 1810-1812. Wide reading in current English philosophy is exhibited in a long sympathetic exposition of Dugald Stewart's philosophical theories, but the other essays and the poems are religious rhapsodies of no literary merit. The book was reprinted in 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820. Selections from the religious portions of it appeared in 1821 and 1823, and in 1857 the author's brother Charles reissued a part of it under the title of 'The Religion of the Heart, as exemplified in the Life and Writings of John Bowdler.' This edition includes a new biographical preface and much hitherto unpublished correspondence.
[The editions of Bowdler's works of 1816 and 1857.]
BOWDLER, THOMAS (1754–1825), editor of the 'Family Shakespeare,' the younger son of Thomas and Elizabeth Stuart Bowdler, was born at Ashley, near Bath, on 11 July 1754. His father, a gentleman of independent means, belonged to an ancient family originally settled at Hope Bowdler, Shropshire. His mother, the second daughter of Sir John Cotton of Conington, Huntingdonshire, fifth baronet in direct descent from the well-known Sir Robert Cotton, was a highly accomplished woman and author of 'Practical Observations on the Book of Revelation,' Bath, 1800 (Life of J. Bowdler, pp. 109-23). Thomas suffered much through life from a serious accident sustained when he was nine years old. About 1765 he went to Mr. Graves's school at Claverton, near Bath, where his intimate friend in after life, William Anne Villettes, a military officer of repute, was a fellow-pupil. In 1770 he
