of his mother’s near relative, the late Admiral Phillips Cosby, who was at that time appointed commodore and Commander-in-chief on the Mediterranean station, and with whom Mr. Bowker continued until his return to England, at the close of 1788[1].
From this period we find him serving in the Ferret sloop of war, successively commanded by the Hon. Robert Stopford and Captain Davidge Gould; Gibraltar 80, Captain (afterwards Admiral) Goodall; and London 98, bearing the flag of the latter officer, until the Russian armament in 1791, when he joined his above-mentioned relative in the Impregnable of 90 guns[2].
Mr. Bowker was subsequently sent to the West Indies in the Proserpine frigate, under the command of Captain James Alms; but on hearing of Rear-Admiral Cosby’s appointment to the chief command at Plymouth, he obtained leave to return home, and once more joined that distinguished officer, whose flag was then flying on board the St. George 98, but which was removed at the commencement of the French revolutionary war into the Windsor Castle, a ship of similar force.
On the 15th April, 1793, Rear-Admiral Cosby sailed from Spithead, and proceeded to the Mediterranean, where he acted as third in command, under Lord Hood, until after the capture of Corsica, when he returned to England, with his flag in the Alcide 74.
- ↑ Captain Bowker’s father and mother were related before their marriage, and both descended from a rery respectable Norman family, several members of which distinguished themselves as warriors during the crusades. Admiral Cosby came into possession of Stradbally Hall, Queen’s County (the estate of his ancestors), on the demise of Lord Sydney, Baron Stradbally (a title now extinct), formerly Alexander Sydney Cosby, Esq. his Majesty’s representative at the court of Denmark; and it is now in the possession of Captain Bowker’s cousin, the only surviving son of his mother’s eldest brother. Admiral Cosby’s services are recorded in the Naval Chronicle, vol. 14, pp. 353-364.
- ↑ Admiral Goodall died at Teignmouth, Devon, in 1801:– his remains, agreeably to his will, were carried to the grave by six old seamen, accompanied by six young maids, to each of whom he had ordered one guinea to be given. Some account of his professional career will be found in the Nav. Chron. v. 6, p. 369, et seq.
