BOWYER, Sir William (1588-1641), of Knypersley, Biddulph, Staffs.

inherited estate valued at £500 p.a. comprising manors of Apedale, Bucknall and Knypersley; capital messuages of Podmore Hall and Sidway Hall; messuage of Norton-in-the-Moors; rectories of Biddulph and Maer; lands in Biddulph, Knypersley and Maer, Staffs.; manor of Docking, Norf.; and messuages in Cheshire and Salop.C142/289/97; C2/JASI/B19/1; C2/CHASI/B128/52; BRL, 917/1250; HMC Hatfield, xxiii. 204. In 1619, he and another gentleman purchased property in Burslem, Sneyd, Tunstall and elsewhere in Staffs. for £1,200.‘Final concords Staffs. temp. James I’ ed. W. K. Boyd (Collns. Hist. Staffs. n.s. vii), 204. In 1637, he covenanted to pay portions of £1,000 to each of his four daughters, and estimated that his purchase of the wardship of Francis Trentham would amount to £2,000.Staffs. RO, B/C/11, will of Sir William Bowyer, 1641. At his d. estate inc. manors of Audley, Bucknall and Knypersley; a third part of manor of Tunstall; Podmore Hall; rectory of Maer; and property in Apedale, Aston, Audley, Betley, Biddulph, Billington, Bradley, Bucknall, Derrington, Ellenhall, Haughton, Heakley, Keele, Knypersley, Maer, Madeley, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Norton-in-the-Moors, Seighford, Sidway, Stallbrook and Whitmore, Staffs.C8/70/124; C142/702/36. The family also owned coalpits in Apedale.PROB11/251, f. 74. Family estate valued at c.£1,000 p.a. in 1644 and £900 p.a. in the early 1660s.C8/70/124; D. Fawkes, ‘The gentry of Staffs. 1662-3’ (Collns. Hist. Staffs. ser. 4, xiii), 60.