BOWES, Sir Thomas (d.1676), of Gt. Bromley, Essex.

Bowes’s brother-in-law, Sir Simonds D’Ewes*, was vaguely aware that the Bowes family of Great Bromley were distantly related to the Yorkshire family of that name but thought that ‘it is now become almost impossible to knit into, or clearly to deduce him from the prime stock of the same surname, it having been so long neglected’.24Autobiog. of Sir Simonds D’Ewes, ii. 18. The visitation pedigrees registered by the Essex branch add little to this information.25Vis. Essex ed. Metcalfe, 5, 27, 355. The move south had taken place in the early sixteenth century when this MP’s great-grandfather, Sir Martin Bowes†, had become a leading London goldsmith. Sir Martin had served as lord mayor of London in 1545 and had sat as the City’s MP six times between 1547 and 1559. The family estate at Great Bromley in north-east Essex had been acquired in 1618.26Morant, Essex, i. 442; HP Commons 1509-1558

Information about Sir Thomas’s early life is lacking. He was old enough to marry by 1626, but it seems likely that he was still a young man when he was knighted by Charles I at Nonsuch in 1630.27Autobiog. of Sir Simonds D’Ewes, ii. 17-18; Shaw, Knights of Eng. ii. 198. His elevation to the commission of the peace followed a year later.28C231/5, p. 65. With his neighbour, Sir Harbottle Grimston*, he was one of the justices of the peace appointed by the privy council in 1631 to report on the dispute between the town of Harwich and the local minister, William Innes.29CSP Dom. 1631-3, pp. 125, 145-6, 256, 276. He and Grimston were also entrusted by the privy council in 1636 with the task of informing the maltsters in and around Colchester of the king’s plans to incorporate them.30CSP Dom. 1636-7, p. 182. Through his brother-in-law, Sir William Howard*, who was lieutenant of the band, in 1637 Bowes obtained a position at court as a gentleman pensioner.31Badminton, Beaufort archives, Fm H2/4/1, f. 18.

In the first two years that it was in session, the Long Parliament made use of Bowes in his capacity as a local justice of the peace to handle any issues relating to Colchester.32HMC 4th Rep. 87; HMC 5th Rep. 38. Despite his court office, Bowes did not side with the king during the civil war. He was named by Charles to the Essex commission of array in the summer of 1642 but was dismissed from the band of gentlemen pensioners later that year, presumably because his real views had emerged.33Northants. RO, FH133, unfol.; Autobiog. of Sir Simonds D’Ewes, ii. 303. Indeed, as early as July 1642 Parliament had named him as one of the commissioners to raise horses, arms and money on its behalf in Essex.34LJ v. 203b. Soon Parliament appointed him to some other local commissions, such as those for gaol delivery and for oyer and terminer.35C181/5, ff. 208-254. He was probably also a member of the standing committee for Essex, as he was unable to attend a meeting of its subcommittee for auditing the accounts of the county treasurers because ‘that day he sat upon a reference from the House of Commons concerning tithes’.36SP28/227: case of the several gent. 1644.

Other duties kept him busy. In the spring of 1645 he and Sir Harbottle Grimston collected much of the evidence which was used to prosecute those in Essex who had been accused of witchcraft by the celebrated witch hunter, Matthew Hopkins. This was, as he soon told D’Ewes, an ‘amazing discovery’.37Harl. 483, f. 201v. At the trials at Chelmsford on 29 July Bowes testified from the bench against one of the accused, Anne West, that one of his acquaintances had battled with several black demons found in West’s house.38A true and exact Relation of the severall Informations, Examinations, and Confessions of the late Witches (1645), 1-35 (E.296.35). Witchcraft seems to have been a particular concern for him. He had already helped prosecute a witch three years before and he would do so several times in the future.39C.L’E. Ewen, Witch Hunting and Witch Trials (1929), 221, 238, 253, 257. Indeed, it could be argued that he and Grimston were at least as responsible as Hopkins and John Stearne for transforming the Manningtree cases into a full-blown witch craze. But that aside, there is no reason to suppose that Bowes at the forefront of the parliamentarian war effort in Essex. The failure to include him on the assessment commissions before 1650 is strong evidence that his role in local politics was still minor.40A. and O.

Bowes’s willingness to serve after 1649 and his addition to the assessment commission in 1650 suggest that he had few problems adapting to the new republican regime. The same conclusion can perhaps be drawn from the fact that, acting as one of Sir Simonds D’Ewes’s executors, Bowes made sure that the medals which his late brother-in-law had been allowed to remove from the royal collection were handed over to the committee for the king’s goods.41Autobiog. of Sir Simonds D’Ewes, ii. 157; Add. 29547, f. 28. He remained an active member of the Essex commission of the peace throughout the 1650s, undertaking a wide variety of local tasks on its behalf.42Essex QSOB ed. Allen, 1-153.

A reputation as a hard-working local official no doubt underpinned his successful candidature for one of the Essex seats in the 1654 Parliament. All that is known of his activity at Westminster is that he was among those added to the committee for retrenching the armed forces after it was decided to recall the fleet which was then at sea.43CJ vii. 373a. This suggests that he shared concerns about the high levels of military expenditure and possibly that he distrusted the power of the army. Such scepticism would help explain why, when he was re-elected as an MP for Essex in August 1656, he was on the council of state’s blacklist of those to be excluded from Parliament.44Josselin, Diary, 378; CJ vii. 425a. Whether he was ever allowed to take his seat is unclear, although he was included on the Essex assessment commission approved by this Parliament in June 1657.45A. and O.

Bowes adapted to the Restoration almost as easily as he had to the commonwealth. He did not boycott the quarter session meetings, remaining as active as ever as a justice of the peace.46Essex QSOB ed. Allen, 167-97. It was not until later in the 1660s that he was removed from the commission of the peace, and, even then, he continued to be included on the commissions for sewers.47C181/7, pp. 277-353. His son Richard, whom he had nominated to the living at Great Bromley in 1661, despite being under age, conformed to the 1662 religious settlement.48CSP Dom. 1661-2, p. 192; Josselin, Diary, 603. Bowes finally died in 1676 and was then buried in the church at Great Bromley.49Morant, Essex, i. 442. His estates passed to his eldest son, Thomas junior.