BOWYER, William (1612-79), of Denham, Bucks.

The fortunes of the Bowyer family had been established in the mid-sixteenth century by Francis Bowyer, a wealthy Grocer and London alderman.25Vis. Bucks. 1634, 13; List of the Wardens of the Grocers’ Co. from 1345 to 1907 (1907), 20; R.M. Benbow, ‘Notes to Index of London Citizens involved in City Government, 1558-1603’, IHR T/S, n.d. It was Francis’s son, William, who had acquired land in Buckinghamshire when in 1596 the crown granted him the manor of Denham, which had previously been confiscated from the Peckham family.26VCH Bucks. iii. 258. From 1602 William held office as a teller of the exchequer and the following year he was knighted by James I.27J.C. Sainty, Officers of the Exchequer (L. and I. xviii), 233. Sir William’s son, Sir Henry, made a lucrative match in 1609 when he married the only child and sole heiress of the financier Sir Nicholas Salter.28Regs. of St. Olave, 259; A. Povah, The Annals of the Par. of St Olave Hart Street and Allhallows Staining (1894), 165. Three years later Lady Bowyer gave birth to a son, William, the future MP. The death of his father in December 1613 left William as an only child. An Essex gentleman, Sir Arthur Harris, became his stepfather in January 1615 when he married Sir Henry’s widow.29Regs. of St Olave, 260; Povah, Annals, 165-6. Already in line to inherit the Salter fortune, William inherited Denham when his grandfather died in 1616.30PROB11/128/188; VCH Bucks. iii. 258. Two years later his grandmother, Sir William’s widow, married Sir James Ley†, later 1st earl of Marlborough. In 1626 Bowyer’s wardship was granted to Salter, Harris, Sir Richard Anderson and Robert Bowyer.31Coventry Docquets, 463.

By the late 1630s Bowyer was beginning to emerge as a public figure within Buckinghamshire. His wealth and family connections made him a natural member of the county elite. In 1639 he was added to the commission of the peace and he was included on several of the county commissions appointed by the crown and by Parliament in the years immediately preceding the civil war.32C231/5, p. 337; C181/5, f. 176v; SR. This makes it all the more significant that Parliament did not include him on its Buckinghamshire commissions once war had broken out. Any support he gave to Parliament can only have been very lukewarm and it is more likely that he tried to remain neutral. His appointment by Parliament as the sheriff of Buckinghamshire in December 1646 need not contradict that impression, as it is possible that this job was given to him precisely because he had so far avoided taking sides.33List of Sheriffs, 9. He seems to have performed the duties of the office enthusiastically enough and in 1648 Parliament included him on its assessment and militia commissions.34A. and O. If Bowyer was now demonstrating that he was willing to work with Parliament, any reconciliation was quickly overtaken by events. The regicide was a step too far and Bowyer withdrew from any involvement in public affairs until he sought election to the 1659 Parliament ten years later. A family tradition that the Bowyers hid the future Charles II at Denham and that this was commemorated in four paintings formerly belonging to them (one of which is now in the Buckinghamshire County Museum) must be considered entirely spurious.35J. Thorne, Handbook to the Environs of London (1879), i. 140; Bucks. County Museum, AYBCM:2007.58.6.

It has previously been assumed that Bowyer sat in the 1659 Parliament for the Buckinghamshire constituency of Amersham.36HP Commons 1660-1690. This is now known to be incorrect and it can be deduced that he instead sat for the county seat. His political detachment during the protectorate may well have worked in his favour in the context of these elections. Once elected, he played very little part in the proceedings of this Parliament. His appointment to the committee for elections is the sole surviving trace of his activity.37CJ vii. 594b.

Bowyer sat for Buckinghamshire again in the Convention and was rewarded for his support for the Restoration with a knighthood and a baronetcy. There followed a flurry of local appointments, including that as one of the Buckinghamshire deputy lieutenants.38Beckett, ‘Evolution and decline’, 29; SR. Combined with his role as knight of the shire, these made him a figure of some consequence within his local community. As a Member of the Cavalier Parliament, his record was that of a loyal but inactive supporter of the government. By the mid-1660s he was heavily in debt and he obtained his place at court as a gentleman of the privy chamber because it gave him more permanent legal protection from his creditors than he already enjoyed as an MP.39Carlisle, Inquiry, 176. His plight was so bad by 1670 that he had to sell most of his lands at Denham to Sir Roger Hill†, although he was able to retain his house, Denham Court, which remained the family seat.40VCH Bucks. iii. 258. He died nine years later and was buried in the local church.41Lipscombe, Buckingham, iv. 453; RCHME Bucks. i. 116. Several months later, his eldest son, William, who had succeeded as baronet and who inherited what little was left of the family estates, married Frances Cecil, daughter of Viscount Cranborne (Charles Cecil*). The second baronet was a friend of John Dryden, who completed parts of his translations of the Georgics and the Aeneid while staying at Denham.42J. Dryden, The Works of Virgil (1697), 662. The male line of the family and the baronetcy died out in the mid-twentieth century.