BOWLE, John (c.1578-1637)

Bowle, eldest son of the auditor to Edward Russell^*, 3rd earl of Bedford, was raised at Wrest Park, Bedfordshire, in the household of Henry Grey^*, 6th earl of Kent – preaching the latter’s funeral sermon, he recalled that the late countess had taught him to read and write. He then went to Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he held a fellowship for almost a decade,21 PROB 11/151, f. 139v; Bowle, A Sermon Preached at Flitton, sig. E3r-v; Al. Cant.; Trin. Coll. Camb., snr. bursar’s accts. 1601-21, ff. 6v-7, 106v-7. resigning after his appointment as rector of St Michael-le-Querne, London.22 His appointment is noted in Al. Cant. though there is no further information in R. Newcourt, Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense (1708-10), i. 489-90. It was presumably Robert Cecil^*, 1st earl of Salisbury, who, as master of the Wards, nominated Bowle to the vicarage of Upminster, Essex in 1609, during the minority of the lay patron, Edward Vaux^*, 4th Lord Vaux. Bowle was probably already one of Salisbury’s chaplains, but his tenure can only be traced with certainty from 1611. In the following year he accompanied his master to take the cure at Bath, sending to the dean of the Chapel Royal, James Montagu^*, bishop of Bath and Wells, an account of the earl’s final days which emphasized Salisbury’s commitment to the Church of England.23 CCEd; HMC Hatfield, xxii. 205; Desiderata Curiosa ed. F. Peck (1779), i. 205-11.

Salisbury was succeeded as master of the Wards by his former associate, Sir Walter Cope^‡, who doubtless nominated Bowle as rector of Bradfield, Berkshire in 1613, where the patron was a crown ward; Bowle valued this living at £560 p.a. in 1631. It was also in 1613 that Bowle was instituted to the nearby living of Tilehurst, Berkshire, at the nomination of his brother-in-law Robert Coppyn, Merchant Taylor of London, who had been granted the right of next presentation by Bishop Montagu in 1612. It was perhaps Montagu who secured Bowle’s appointment as a royal chaplain. Bowle also found favour with George Abbot^*, archbishop of Canterbury, who appointed him to the court of High Commission in 1613, and to the rectory of Eynsford, Kent in the following year, in exchange for which he surrendered his living at Upminster. For the next two decades Bowle’s main home lay at Bradfield, conveniently placed for his father’s residence at Chesham, Buckinghamshire, where three of his children were buried in 1614.24 CCEd; SP16/192/68; Chesham par. reg., 304.

In looking to Montagu and Abbot for preferment, Bowle diminished his chances of patronage from the Howards, the dominant faction at the mid-Jacobean court. However, the rise of the new favourite, Abbot’s protégé George Villiers^*, marquess (later 1st duke) of Buckingham, offered fresh opportunities: by May 1619 Bowle considered himself sufficiently ensconced in Buckingham’s orbit to seek preferment in the round of promotions following the death of John Overall^*, bishop of Norwich. Assuming that Norwich would go to Robert Townson^*, he pleaded for the deanery of Westminster, where he had been at school. However, Townson was passed over for promotion until March 1620, when he was elected as bishop of Salisbury, the deanery of Westminster being snapped up by the more influential John Williams^*, leaving Bowle to content himself with Williams’ former post as dean of Salisbury.25 Fortescue Pprs. 128; Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae, vi. 2, 6.

With two sermons already in print, Bowle enjoyed some reputation as a preacher. He was therefore selected to give the sermon at the opening of the 1621 Convocation, which he larded with anti-papal rhetoric, reflecting the rising confessional tensions of the time.26 J. Bowle, Concio ad Reverendissimmos Patres (1621). After the sudden death of John King^*, bishop of London on 30 Mar., Bowle was nominated by James I to the deanery of Westminster, in succession to Williams, who accepted promotion to the bishopric of Lincoln. This grant apparently progressed as far as the privy seal office before the news arrived that Williams was to be permitted to retain his deanery in commendam. Williams vaguely promised Bowle a better deanery, at which the latter ‘most willingly gave way’. However, London (the best then available) went to John Donne^‡ in November 1621, while in March 1622 Windsor was granted to Buckingham’s kinsman Henry Beaumont.27 Fortescue Pprs., 157-9; Chamberlain Letters ed. N.E. McClure, ii. 360; Add. 72275, ff. 116, 119; SP14/122/112. Bowle remained stuck at Salisbury during the 1620s, presumably because of his links to Archbishop Abbot and the Church’s Calvinist faction, which was in the process of being eclipsed at court by the Durham House group – the papal envoy Gregorio Panzani subsequently described him as ‘puritanissimo’.28 G. Albion, Chas. I and the Ct. of Rome, 414.

Bowle’s fortunes revived in the autumn of 1629, when he was chosen as bishop of Rochester in succession to John Buckeridge^*, who was translated to Ely. Samuel Harsnett^*, archbishop of York, professed himself mystified as to the source of Bowle’s patronage, he being one of the few Calvinists preferred at a time when ecclesiastical policy was being reshaped by William Laud^*, bishop of London (later archbishop of Canterbury). However, having remained silent during the doctrinal controversies of the 1620s, Bowle was no threat to the Laudians, while his bishopric, valued at only £332 p.a., was too poorly endowed to appeal to more ambitious clerics.29 SP16/151/80; Trans. Congregational Hist. Soc. (1913-15), vi. 56; GEORGE ABBOT; WILLIAM LAUD. Laud clearly planned to keep a close watch over Bowle, sending him a copy of the royal instructions of 1629 requiring annual reports from each diocese, and urging him not to delay informing him of ‘any neglect or repugnance which is fit to be made known’.30 Kent Hist. and Lib. Cent., DRb/Ar1/16, f. 66v There was some contention about the livings Bowle was to be allowed to hold in commendam: Buckeridge’s sinecure, the rectory of Southfleet, Kent, had already been granted to the archdeacon, his Oxford protégé, Ellis Burgess. Bowle was required to surrender his own Kentish rectory of Eynsford; but he ultimately retained his Berkshire livings, which he rated at £560 a year, far more than his new diocese.31 CCEd (Ellis Burgess); SP16/153/111; 16/192/68; Works of Abp. Laud ed. J. Bliss, vii. 35.

As bishop, Bowle was involved in local administration, at least until 1634. He was also active in High Commission, the only institution over which Archbishop Abbot retained some influence in the final years of his life. In the latter role, Bowle was particularly scathing about the Lincolnshire incumbent John Vicars, who had poured scorn on the local clergy and magistrates from the pulpit of St Mary’s, Stamford: ‘his name is Vicars, but he hath done things becoming the vicar of Hell, the vicar of Rome’.32 SP16/269/94.I; Reps. of Cases in Star Chamber and High Commission ed. S.R. Gardiner (Cam. Soc. n.s. xxxix), 184, 227, 256, 272, 319; CSP Dom. 1631-3, p. 349. His efforts did not go unnoticed, as in the autumn of 1632 he was tipped for the vacancies at Bath and Wells, and Coventry and Lichfield, although both were ultimately granted to anti-Calvinists.33 W.S. Powell, John Pory, microfiche supplement, 306; Harl. 7000, f. 455. While Bowle preached Abbot’s funeral sermon in 1633, he was careful to further the agenda of his successor, Laud: in his first annual report as archbishop of Canterbury, the latter noted with approval that Bowle and Burgess had proceeded against nonconformists in Malling, Kent. Bowle also appealed to Laud’s priorities by complaining about the failure of the dean and chapter to maintain the fabric of their cathedral.34 Oxford DNB, vi. 934; Works of Abp. Laud, v. 319.

According to Laud, Bowle was afflicted by a palsy in 1634, which left him unable to perform his administrative duties.35 Works of Abp. Laud, v. 345, 349. However, the combined income from Bradfield and his bishopric allowed him make generous provision for his family in his final years. In 1631 he had acquired a lease of Kersey Priory, Suffolk from King’s College, Cambridge, which he settled upon his daughter-in-law as a jointure, and in 1634 he procured a lease of the rectory of Idmiston, Wiltshire from the dean and chapter of Salisbury Cathedral, where he built a house for his son. Two years later the chapter of Rochester Cathedral granted him a lease of two Suffolk rectories. In his will of 16 Apr. 1637, Bowle left Kersey and Idmiston to his son, while his unmarried daughter was allowed a portion of £1,150, to be held in trust by two old friends, Henry King^* (later bishop of Chichester) and John Mountford.36 PROB 11/175, ff. 105v-7; King’s Coll. Camb. Archives KCAR/1/2/12/4/1-3. He died in London on 9 Oct. 1637, and was buried at St Paul’s Cathedral, dispensation having first been granted by the king to hold the funeral at night. His will was proved on 16 Oct. by his executors: Mountford, Coppyn, and his servant and kinsman Henry Brayton.37 Oxford DNB, vi. 954; PROB 11/175, f. 107; Coll. of Arms, I.25, f. 74.