John Bowman came with to Bucks County with a certificate from the meeting at Pardshaw, Cheshire in 1701, which he presented to Middletown Monthly meeting.1 It said that he came with his wife and children.2 The wife was probably Francis; the children were Sarah and Jeremiah.3
John was listed as a cordwinder of Middle Township, Bucks County when he bought land there in 1708, paying £40 to Israel Morris.4 It was a 52-acre tract in Newtown, adjoining land of Israel Morris, Henry Paxson and Ezra Croasdale.5 John left this land to his son Jeremiah, who sold it to Stephen Twining in December 1735.6 According to the records of Middletown MM, John died in December 1712. He wrote a will, dated 12th 8th mo (October) 1712, but it was lost. In it he left £40 to his daughter Sarah and his land to Jeremiah.7
His widow Francis requested in 1st mo 1716 that the marriage of her daughter Sarah to Alexander Beal be accomplished at the house of Stephen Twining in Newton. The marriage was reported orderly accomplished the next month.8 Francis died in December 1730, still a member of the Middletown Monthly Meeting.9
Children of John and Francis:
Sarah, b. ab. 1695, m. 1716 Alexander Beal, son of William and Elizabeth. Alexander grew up in Bensalem and was a member of Abington Meeting. In 1716 he married Sarah at Wrightstown Meeting. The births of their children were not recorded, but only two survived to adulthood, Hannah and William.10 Sarah died about 1722, possibly in childbirth, leaving Alexander with small children to raise. He later married Sarah Town, had two children with her, after her death married Hannah Rogers, moved with Hannah to Burlington County, after Hannah’s death married Esther Butterworth. Alexander died in 1754.
Jeremiah, named in minutes of Buckingham Meeting in 1723, sold 52 acres in Newtown to Stephen Twining in 1735, witnessed the will of John Chapman of Wrightstown in 1743.11 Jeremiah was probably dead by January 1748, when his niece Hannah, her brother William, and her father Patrick confirmed the sale of the 52 acres to make the title good for Twining and others.12
Children of Sarah and Alexander: (surname Beale)
Hannah, b. 1717, d. between 1769 & 1784, m. Patrick Malone about 1742. Patrick bought a farm in 1745 in Buckingham near Forest Grove. He was a member of Buckingham Meeting, although not active in its affairs. In 1781 he released from bondage a mulatto lad named Jesse, filing the record with Bucks Quarterly Meeting.13 Patrick died in 1788. In his will he named seven of his eight children; another daughter, Sarah, had died before him.14
William, b. ab. 1722, d. 1752, m. 1742 Grace Gill at Buckingham Meeting, the daughter of Thomas Gill and Alice Comly of Byberry. William and Grace had six children.15 They lived in New Brittain on a farm of 157 acres. William left a will, as did Grace. She outlived him by forty years, dying in 1793. By the time she died the plantation was reduced to 30 acres.16
- He should not be confused with the wealthier Thomas Bowman, purchaser of 5000 acres, or with a John Bowman who died in 1708 for whom letters of administration were granted to Thomas Stroud of Philadelphia County. ↩
- Certificate of arrival, Middletown Meeting, on Ancestry, Quaker records, Bucks, Middletown MM, Minutes 1698-1824, image 19. Note that Francis is the only name in early Pennsylvania that could be either a man or a woman. See for example Francis Searle (male), Francis Barnett Bowater (female), Francis Bezer (female), Francis Chadsey (male), to name a few. ↩
- In 12th mo 1681 Jeremiah Bowman of Papcastle married Jane Tiffin, daughter of John Tiffin of Mockerkin, in the meeting house at Pardshaw Crag. (On Ancestry, English and Wales, Quaker Births Marriage and Deaths, Cumberland, Piece 1026: Monthly Mtg of Pardshaw. These would be plausible parents for John except that they apparently had a son John born on 8 Nov 1689 in Pardshaw. This could not be the John who immigrated with a family in 1701, if the dates are correct. (England, Select Births and Christenings 1538-1975, on Ancestry) ↩
- Bucks County Deeds, vol. 4 p. 32, Bucks County Courthouse. ↩
- There is a hill along the Delaware River near Washington Crossing called Bowman’s Hill. Tradition in the 1800s said that Bowman was one of Captain Kidd’s pirates, who settled in Newtown after Kidd was hanged in 1700. There were rumors that he had a chest full of gold. Even more dramatically, “the story used to be told that if one would go quietly and lie down by Bowman’s grave and say, ‘Bowman, what killed you?’, the reply would come back, ‘Nothing.’” (Davis, History of Bucks County). Needless to say, this story does not connect well with the Quaker shoemaker John. ↩
- This deed was not recorded, but is reported in Davis, History of Bucks County, chapter 29. Davis probably got the information from Josiah Smith, who apparently acquired unrecorded deeds. (Josiah Smith, Smith’s Records, 4 volumes, Spruance Library, Doylestown.) ↩
- Josiah Smith’s Records. ↩
- Minutes of Middletown Meeting, in Watring & Wright, Bucks County Church Records, vol. 2. ↩
- Watring & Wright, p. 186. ↩
- A deed, apparently not recorded but referenced in Josiah Smith’s notebooks, named “William Beal of New Britain and Patric Malone of Buckingham and Hannah his wife, only surviving children of Sarah Beal, formerly Sarah Bowman, who died intestate, daughter of John Bowman…”. ↩
- In 1723 a member of Buckingham Meeting apparently owed money to Jeremiah (Men’s minutes, 5th month 1723). It is not clear whether Jeremiah himself was a member. The reference to the land sale is from Davis, History of Bucks County, probably taken from Josiah Smith’s records. ↩
- Josiah Smith’s Records. ↩
- A Record of Divers Manumissions, Bucks County Quarterly Meeting, on Ancestry, US Quaker Meeting Records, image 69. ↩
- Bucks County probate records, File #2148, Bucks County Courthouse, Doylestown. ↩
- Comly Family, p. 41 ↩
- William’s will is online at Bucks County Wills, 1713-1759 vol. 1-2, image 312; hers is at Wills 1786-1797 vol. 5, image 211, both on Ancestry, Pennsylvania Probate Records. ↩