1835, sub-manager of the Varteg ironworks, near Pontypool. On the closing of the Varteg works in 1840 Bowman betook himself to study, graduated M.A. at Glasgow, and attended lectures at Berlin, acquiring several modern languages and mastering various branches of physical science. In 1846 Francis W. Newman resigned the classical chair in the Manchester New College, having been elected to the chair of Latin in University College, London. Bowman was immediately appointed his successor at Manchester as professor of classical literature and history, and he held that post till the removal of the college to Gordon Square, London, as a purely theological institution, in 1853. To this removal he was strongly opposed. Remaining in Manchester, though possessed of a sufficient independence, he gratified his natural taste for teaching by engaging in the education of girls. For the study of astronomy he had built himself an excellent observatory. On optics and acoustics he delivered several courses of lectures at the Manchester Royal Institution and elsewhere. From 1865, when the Owens scholarship was founded in connection with the Unitarian Home Missionary Board, he was one of the examiners. He was a man of undemonstrative disposition, of wise kindness, and of cultured philanthropy. He died, unmarried, at Victoria Park, Manchester, on 10 July 1869. Among his publications are:
- 'Arguments against the Divine Authority of the Sabbath … considered, and shown to be inconclusive' 1842, 8vo.
- 'Some Remarks on the proposed Removal of Manchester New College, and its Connection with University College, London,' 1848, 8vo.
- 'Replies to Articles relating to Manchester New College and University College,' 1848, 8vo.
- 'On the Roman Governors of Syria at the time of the Birth of Christ' (anonymous, but signed B.), 1855, 8vo (an able and learned monograph, reprinted from the 'Christian Reformer,' October 1855, a magazine to which he was a frequent contributor).
[W. H. H. (Rev. William Henry Herford) in Inquirer, 10 July 1869; Unitarian Herald, 16 July 1869; Roll of Students at Manchester New College, 1868; Hall's Hist, of Nantwich, 1883, p. 505 sq.]
BOWMAN, HENRY (fl. 1677), was a musician, of whose life little is recorded. He was probably a connection of that Franc. Bowman mentioned by Anthony à Wood as a bookseller of St. Mary's parish, Oxford, with whom lodged Thomas Wren, the bishop of Ely's son, an amateur musician of repute in Oxford (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), i. xxv). Henry was organist of Trinity College, Cambridge, and published in 1677 at Oxford a thin folio volume of 'Songs for one, two, and three Voices to Thorow Bass; with some short Simphonies collected out of some of the Select Poems of the incomparable Mr. Cowley and others, and composed by H. B., Philo Musicus.' A second edition was brought out at Oxford in 1679. The Oxford Music School Collection contains some English songs and a set of 'Fifteen Ayres,' which were 'first performed in the schooles 5 Feb. 1673-4.' In the same collection are some Latin motets by Bowman, and the Christ Church Collection contains a manuscript Miserere by him.
[Euing Musical Library Catalogue, 1878, p. 148; North's Memoirs of Musick; Catalogues of Royal College of Music Library, Christ Church Collection and Music School Collection; Grove's Dictionary of Music.]
BOWMAN, JOHN EDDOWES, the elder (1785–1841), banker and naturalist, was born 30 Oct. 1785 at Nantwich, where his father, Eddowes Bowman (1758-1844), was a tobacconist. His education was only that of a grammar school, but he was a bookish boy, and got from his father a taste for botany, and from his friend Joseph Hunter (1783-1861), then a lad at Sheffield, a fondness for genealogy. He was at first in his father's shop, and became manager of the manufacturing department, and traveller. He wished to enter the ministry of the Unitarian body to which his family belonged, but his father dissuaded him. In 1813 he joined, as junior partner, a banking business on which his father entered. Its failure in 1816 left him penniless, and he became manager at Welshpool of a branch of the bank of Beck & Co. of Shrewsbury. In 1824 he became managing partner of a bank at Wrexham, and was able to retire from business in 1830. From 1837 he resided in Manchester, where he pursued many branches of physical science. He was a fellow of the Linnean and Geological Societies, and one of the founders of the Manchester Geological Society. His discoveries were chiefly in relation to mosses, fungi, and parasitical plants. A minute fossil, which he detected in Derbyshire, is named from him the 'Endothyra Bowmanni.' In the last years of his life he devoted himself almost entirely to geology. He died on 4 Dec. 1841. He married, 6 July 1809, his cousin, Elizabeth (1788-1859), daughter of W. Eddowes of Shrewsbury. A daughter, married to George S. Kenrick, died in November 1838. Four sons survived him : 1. Eddowes [q. v.] 2. Henry [see below]. 3. Sir William, born 20 July 1816, the distinguished oculist.
