formalities to be used in the execution of justice in the combined court of the wardens of England and Scotland. We are not surprised that a man of such powers of administration was needed for weighty matters. In June 1551 he was one of the commissioners appointed to make a convention with Scotland. In the following September he was made a member of the privy council, and next year he was appointed master of the rolls. His signature is affixed as one of the witnesses of Edward VI's will, and he was a member of the short-lived council of the Lady Jane Grey. The council soon found its position to be impossible. On 19 July 1553 Bowes signed a letter to Lord Rich on Jane's behalf. On 20 July he signed an order to the Duke of Northumberland bidding him disarm (Queen Jane and Queen Mary, Camd. Soc. 1851, p. 109). On the accession of Queen Mary Bowes was not disgraced. He held office as master of the rolls for two months, and then resigned of his own accord. In 1554 he was ordered by the privy council to repair to Berwick and assist Lord Conyers in organising the defences of the border, and received from the queen a grant of 100l. Soon after his return from this duty he died. He married Alice, daughter of Sir James Metcalfe of Nappa, near Richmond, but left no surviving children.
Bowes's 'Survey of the Border' is printed in Hodgson's 'Northumberland,' ii. pt. v. 171, &c., where, besides the survey of 1551, there is given in the note an earlier one of 1542 made by Bowes and Sir Ralph Elleker. The latter one is more detailed and is more full of interest. It is also printed in 'Reprints of Rare Tracts,' vol. iv. Newcastle, 1849, and in a private issue of the Border Club, 1838. The 'Form of Holding a Day of Truce' is partially printed in the same issue of the Border Club, and extracts are given in Raine's 'North Durham,' xxii. There are three manuscripts, one in the Record Office (State Papers Edward VI, iv. No. 30), and two in the British Museum (Caligula B. viii. f. 106, and Titus F. xiii. f. 160). The last is most perfect.
[Foss's Judges of England, v. 354; Sharp's Memorials of the Rebellion, 370; Surtees's Durham, iv. 112.]
BOWES, ROBERT (1535?–1597), English ambassador to Scotland, fifth son of Richard Bowes and Elizabeth Aske [see Bowes, Elizabeth], married first Anne, daughter of Sir George Bowes of Dalden, and in 1566 Eleanor, daughter of Sir Richard Musgrave of Eden Hall. He served under his father in the defence of the borders. In 1569 he was sheriff of the county palatine of Durham, and helped his brother, Sir George Bowes [q. v.], to hold Barnard Castle against the rebel earls. Afterwards he was sent in command of a troop of horse to protect the west marches. In 1571 he was elected M.P. for Carlisle. In 1575 he was appointed treasurer of Berwick, and in this capacity had many dealings with the Scottish court. In 1577 he was appointed ambassador in Scotland, where he had a difficult task to perform. His object was to counteract the influence of France, retain a hold on James VI, keep together a party that was favourable to England, and promote disunion among the Scottish nobles. His letters to Burghley, Walsingham, and Leicester are of the greatest importance for a knowledge of Scottish affairs between 1577 and 1583. In 1578 he managed by his tact to compose a quarrel between Morton and the privy council which threatened to plunge Scotland into civil war (Bowes's Correspondence, 6, 11). In 1581 he was busily employed in endeavouring to counteract the growing influence of Esme Stewart, lord of Aubigné, over James VI. He witnessed the events which led to the raid of Ruthven and D'Aubigné's fall. He tried hard to gain possession of the casket letters, which after Morton's death were said to have come into the hands of the Earl of Gowrie, but his attempts failed. He was weary of his arduous task in Scotland, and managed to procure his recall in 1583. But he still held the post of treasurer of Berwick, and was often employed on diplomatic missions in Scotland, though the affairs were not afterwards of so much importance. Like his brother, Sir George, he worked for the penurious Elizabeth at his own cost, and was rewarded by no substantial tokens of the royal gratitude. He wrote in 1596: 'I shall either purchase my liberty, or at least lycence to come to my house for a tyme to put in order my broken estate before the end of my dayes.' This satisfaction was, however, denied him. Elizabeth held him at his post, and he died in Berwick in 1597.
[The letters of Robert Bowes are published by Stevenson, 'The Correspondence of Robert Bowes, of Aske, Esquire' (Surtees Soc. 1842). For his life see Stevenson's Preface, and Sharp's Memorials of the Rebellion, p. 30.]
BOWES, THOMAS (fl. 1586), translated into English the first and second parts of the 'French Academy,' a moral and philosophical treatise written by Peter of Primaudaye, a French writer of the latter half of the sixteenth century. The translation of the first
