FOWLE, Robert (?1628-81), of Iridge, Salehurst, Suss.

Fowle was born into a long-established gentry family from the Kent-Sussex borders, which had been resident in Lamberhurst (Kent) since at least the reign of Henry VII.17Vis. Suss. (Harl. Soc. liii), 114-15. By the seventeenth century the two major branches of the family were based in north-east Sussex, in Rotherfield and Salehurst, at the latter of which Fowle’s father settled on his second marriage in 1624, to a daughter of Sir John Wildgose of Iridge.18Add. 39480, f. 254; E. Suss. RO, Dunn 48/4. However, neither branch had yet represented their locality in Parliament. Sir John Fowle, our MP’s father, was knighted in 1619, but served only as a sewers commissioner, not on the commission of the peace.19Shaw, Knights of Eng. ii. 174; E. Suss. RO, DAP1/2/3, p. 17. During the reign of Charles I, the Rotherfield branch of the family was more prominent. Its head, Anthony Fowle, a prosperous iron-master, was sheriff of the county in 1637, and served assiduously on the commission of the peace and, during the civil war, on the county committee.20Fletcher, Suss. 19-20, 207, 209, 221, 291, 326, 339, 353.

When Sir John Fowle died, probably in 1640, he left parcels of property in Westfield, Kent, and a clutch of minor manors in Sussex, as well as a personal estate which was valued at £1,600 for probate purposes.21E. Suss. RO, Dunn 26/13, 49/20, 23. Like other family members, his three sons successively entered Gray’s Inn, John in February 1642, Anslett or Ansley in May 1646 and Robert in December 1649. Youth and – for a time at least – studies may have assisted them to avoid involvement in the civil wars. While John was described in the inn’s register as coming from Kent, Ansley and Robert were said to come from Sedlescombe, the home parish of successful ironmaster and puritan activist Peter Farnden (d. 1653), one of whose nine daughters was married to Gray’s Inn lawyer and MP Samuel Gott*.22G. Inn Admiss. 234, 241, 252; Fletcher, Suss. 19, 104, 127, 132, 257, 295, 326, 338, 341, 354. Farnden leased land nearby at Bodiham to Robert Fowle ‘of Sandhurst, gentleman’ on 19 July 1652.23E. Suss. RO, Dunn 29/14. A week earlier both Robert and Ansley witnessed a deed of their brother John Fowle ‘of Sandhurst, esquire’, but John was dead by 1654, and Ansley followed him two years later. Since John died leaving four daughters, and Ansley was unmarried and childless, Robert inherited the family patrimony.24E. Suss. RO, Dunn 23/5, 26/13, 54/17, 23/5; Add. 39480, f. 253; PROB11/369/161. Also a trustee for the estate of Peter Farnden, in November 1657 Fowle married one of Farnden’s daughters, who had been promised a dowry of at least £500.25E. Suss. RO, DAP1/2/5, pp. 86, 94, 105, 109, 140, 143, 159, 166, 171, 176, 184; Abstracts Suss. Deeds and Docs. 169; PROB11/227/585 (Peter Farnden); St Vedast, Foster Lane, par. reg. transcript.

Fowle’s profile was already sufficiently high for him to be appointed a sewers commissioner in 1654.26C181/6, p. 31. In 1658-9 he was a candidate in parliamentary elections. Apart from his own local interest, he probably owed his return for Winchelsea to his brother-in-law Gott, who had represented the borough between 1645 and Pride’s Purge, and who did so again in 1660. It is likely that neither Fowle nor the other successful candidate, John Busbridge*, were approved by the former major-general, Thomas Kelsey*, who as governor of Dover Castle had jurisdiction over Winchelsea as one of the Cinque Ports, and attempt to wield influence in late December 1658.27E. Suss. RO, WIN58, ff. 144v, 145v. Fowle played no visible part in the ensuing Parliament.

A rare insight into Fowle’s personal inclinations is provided by an entry in the Salehurst parish register that on 21 August 1659 he ‘sat in his gallery for the first time since new stairs were built’, indicating that he had probably encouraged improvements to the church fabric.28E. Suss. RO, PAR477/1/1/1. That month he contributed to the militia, but there is no other evidence of his playing a part in the turbulent events in Westminster and the county following the restoration of the Rump Parliament.29SP28/335/82. During the brief life of the restored Long Parliament, on 12 March 1660 Fowle was appointed to the Sussex militia commission.30A. and O.

Soon after the return of Charles II, an event of which Fowle probably approved, he was appointed to the commissions of the peace and of sewers.31C220/9/4; C231/7, p. 123; E. Suss. RO, QO/EW4, ff. 30, 36v; QO/EW5, ff. 3, 5v, 65, 85; DAP 1/3; DAP 1/2/6, ff. 1, 5v, 6v. Although he did not again sit in Parliament, his local standing is evident from his appointment to the shrievalty in 1665.32List of Sheriffs, 141; E. Suss. RO, Dunn 54/15. He was also an active trustee for the estates of kinsman Walter Dobell.33Abstracts Suss. Deeds and Docs. 127. Fowle died in December 1681.34Vis. Suss. (Harl. Soc. lxxxix), 47; Add. 39480, f. 253 He left one son, Robert, who had matriculated at Oxford in July 1680 aged 17, and a daughter, Lucy, to whom he bequeathed a respectable marriage portion of £1,000, in addition to parcels of land in Salehurst.35E. Suss. RO, Dunn 54/17; Stowe 780, ff. 87-9; Al. Ox.; PROB11/369/161. Fowle had given the reversion of the estate to his brother John’s four daughters (of whom one was the wife of one of his executors), but he also left instructions that land might be sold. The death within a few years of both Robert junior and Lucy led to what appears to have been an acrimonious legal dispute.36PROB11/375/435; E. Suss. RO, Dunn 54/17.