and colonel of the 7th horse, now the 6th dragoon guards or carabineers. He died in 1749. He was member of parliament for Bewdley in February 1734-5.
[Luttrell's Relation of State Affairs, 1857, vi. 213, 427; Home Office Mil. Entry Books, vols. iii. and viii.; Treasury Papers, cvi. 57, cxvi. 32; Cannon's Hist. Records, 6th Dragoon Guards, 8th Hussars, 12th Lancers.]
BOWLES, WILLIAM (1705–1780), naturalist, was born near Cork. He gave up the legal profession, for which he was destined, and in 1740 went to Paris, where he studied natural history, chemistry, and metallurgy. He subsequently travelled through France, investigating its natural history and mineral and other productions. In 1752, having become acquainted with Don Antonio de Ulloa, afterwards admiral of the Spanish fleet, Bowles was induced to enter the Spanish service, being appointed to superintend the state mines and to form a collection of natural history and fit up a chemical laboratory. He first visited the quicksilver mines of Almaden, which had been seriously damaged by fire, and the plans he suggested were successfully adopted for their resuscitation. He afterwards travelled through Spain, investigating its minerals and natural history, living chiefly at Madrid and Bilbao. He married a German lady, Anna Rustein, who was pensioned by the king of Spain after her husband's death. Bowles is described as tall and fine-looking, generous, honourable, active, ingenious, and well informed. His society was much valued in the best Spanish circles. He died at Madrid 25 Aug. 1780.
Bowles's principal work was 'An Introduction to the Natural History and Physical Geography of Spain,' published in Spanish at Madrid 1775. It is not systematically arranged, but has very considerable value as being the first work of its kind. The second edition (1782) was edited by Don J. N. de Azara, who rendered considerable assistance to the author in preparing the first edition. It was translated into French by Vicomte de Flavigny (Paris, 1776). An Italian edition, much enlarged by Azara, then Spanish ambassador at Rome, was published at Parma in 1784. Bowles was also the author of 'A Brief Account of the Spanish and German Mines' (Phil. Trans. lvi.); of 'A Letter on the Merino Sheep,' &c. (Gent. Mag. May and June 1764); and of 'An Account of the Spanish Locusts' (Madrid, 1781). Sir J. T. Dillon's 'Travels through Spain' (London, 1781) is very largely an adaptation of Bowles.
[Preface to English translation of Bowles's Treatise on Merino Sheep, London, 1811.]
BOWLES, WILLIAM LISLE (1762–1850), divine, poet, and antiquary, was born on 24 Sept. 1762 at King's Sutton, Northamptonshire, of which his father was the vicar. Both his father and mother, as he tells us in his autobiographical preface to 'Scenes and Shadows of Days Departed,' were descended from old and much-respected families. In 1776 he was placed at Winchester School, under Dr. Joseph Warton, who, discerning his taste for poetry and general literature, did his best to foster it by encouragement and training. On the death of his old master, Bowles wrote a monody which expresses his regard for his character. On leaving Winchester he was elected in 1781 a scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, of which Joseph Warton's brother, Thomas Warton—professor of poetry at Oxford and eventually poet laureate—was the senior fellow. In 1783 the young student, by his poem entitled 'Calpe Obsessa, or the Siege of Gibraltar,' carried off the chancellor's prize for Latin verse. Here, however, any signal distinctions at the university seem to have ended. It was not until 1792 that he obtained his degree. Having entered holy orders he first officiated as curate of Donhead St. Andrew in Wiltshire. In 1792 he was appointed to the rectory of Chicklade in Wiltshire, which he resigned in 1797, on being presented to the rectory of Dumbleton in Gloucestershire. In the same year he was married to Magdalene, daughter of Dr. Wake, prebendary of Westminster, whom he survived. In 1804 he became vicar of Bremhill, Wiltshire, where, greatly beloved by his parishioners, he thenceforth generally resided till near the close of his life. In 1804 he was also made prebendary of Stratford in the cathedral church of Salisbury, of which in 1828 he became canon residentiary. Ten years earlier he had been appointed chaplain to the prince regent.
About 1787, the year of his leaving college, Bowles fell in love with Miss Romilly, niece of Sir Samuel Romilly; but his suit, probably for want of sufficient means on his part, was rejected. After a while he formed a second attachment, but the hopes to which it gave rise were unhappily cut short by the lady's death. Bowles then turned for consolation to poetry. During a tour through the north of England, Scotland, and some parts of the continent, he composed the sonnets which first brought him before the public. The little volume was published at Bath in 1789, under the title of 'Fourteen Sonnets written chiefly on Picturesque Spots during a Journey.' Their success was extraordinary, the first small edition being
