FOWELL, Sir John, 3rd Bt. (1665-92), of Fowellscombe, Ugborough, Devon.

Fowell’s replies on the repeal of the Test Act and Penal Laws followed the standard negative pattern set by Sir Edward Seymour. He was apparently in London in November 1688, but slipped away to join William of Orange before the end of the month. The family borough of Ashburton was securely under Whig control in 1689, but Fowell was successful at Totnes, three miles from his estate at Washbourne, no doubt with the aid of the Seymour interest. An inactive Member of the Convention, he was listed by Anthony Rowe as voting to agree with the Lords that the throne was not vacant. His only committees before the recess were to draw up the address of thanks for the King’s promise to maintain the Church, to consider the bill for restoring corporations and to inquire into the education of Papists’ children. In the second session he was added to the committee of elections and privileges, and named to a committee on a private bill on 2 Jan. 1690, when he presumably voted against the disabling clause in the bill to restore corporations. He was re-elected two months later, but buried at Ugborough on 26 Nov. 1692. The baronetcy became extinct, and his intention of leaving his estate to a cousin of his name and blood was thwarted by a technicality. Fowellscombe eventually came to his sister, the mother of Arthur Champernowne, MP for Totnes from 1715 to 1717.2Hatton Corresp. (Cam. Soc. n.s. xxiii), 110; HMC 7th Rep. 416.