The BOWRY One-Name study grew out of the wider research into my family history, begun in 2000, and my increasing interest in surname studies. I learned early on that, as a result of a couple of irregular relationships in my ancestry, BOWRY could have been my maiden name. My BOWRY line can be traced back to Henry BOWEYRE who married Alce BERRINGTON at St Mary the Virgin parish church, Datchet, Buckinghamshire in 1588. My suspicions that most, and perhaps all, the BOWRY reference in the records could also be traced back to Henry encouraged my interest in surname studies and this One-Name study. The desire to trace the line back before Henry was the final driver to register this One-Name study in September 2013.

I was distracted from the study for some years as I researched my biography of Captain Thomas BOWREY, Jeopardy of Every Wind, published by Dollarbird in April 2020 but I have now returned to my study concentrating up until now on England and Wales. Progress was slowed by an injudicious merger of three different data sets but, now the data cleansing is complete, rather than a single family, I have identified a number of distinct family lines.

Wraysbury and Horton

The largest family, making up about a third of all individuals throughout history, does indeed descend from Henry BOWERYE and Alce BERRINGTON. Henry died at Wraysbury in 1621. Prominent given names in this group are Francis and Samuel, names that persist into the beginning of the twentieth century. This family includes a branch of papermakers. There was an early paper mill in Wraysbury and, over generations, they migrated to different papermaking locations. It is possible that another sizeable line of Quakers originating from Thomas BOWRY and his wife, Ann, living in Rickmansworth in 1654 are also part of this family. Rickmansworth is less than twenty miles from Wraysbury.

Forest of Dean

The next largest grouping of families accounting for more than ten percent of the total, but as yet not all connected, originated in the Forest of Dean area. The primary line descends from John BOWREY and Ann who started having children at Longhope, Gloucestershire in 1745. In some branches their family name morphed over time from BOWERY, BOWREY and BOWRY to BOWRER, BOWER, BOWERS and, even, BROWN. The family were free miners and later generations migrated to the Lancashire and Yorkshire mines.

County Durham

The third largest grouping of families, scattered across the two counties and as yet unconnected, originated in County Durham and Northumberland. They amount to just less than ten percent of the total. The earliest record found is for Robert BOWRY who was buried at Ryton in 1608.

The above three family groupings are almost certainly represent three  distinct roots of the surname. The next largest set may be distinct or part of another grouping.

Bristol

Bristol is only about thirty miles from the Forest of Dean and it is conceivable that there was a migration from Bristol to the Forest of Dean. The root of the primary Bristol family line was John BOWRY, tobacconist, married Sarah ESTCORT in 1725. One of John’s descendants went out to British Guyana as a Baptist missionary and a number of his children were born there.

Of course, Bristol today has darker connections, those with slavery. I still have a great deal more work to do but have recently identified a number of BOWRY slave owners as well as Afro-Caribbean holders of the surname.

Unsurprisingly, there are numerous individuals in London, many belonging to one of the larger family groups although a number of the London families have not yet matched to one of them. They include the family of Captain Thomas BOWREY [1659-1713] and many are mariners and/or shipwrights. They may have occupational connections with Bristol.

In London, Jacob BOWREY MDX, shipwright, married at Stepney in 1634. His sons, Jacob and Ephraim respectively became a mariner and a shipwright. Joseph BOWRY, grandfather of  Captain Thomas BOWREY, was a shupwright and his three sons were mariners. William BOWERY, mariner, died at Shadwell in 1695.

In Bristol, William BOWREY who was a shipwright was living at Bedminster in 1646. John BOWRY a Bristol shipwright in 1670 had two sons who followed him into the same trade, Nicholas and James. Joseph BOWRY was a Bristol-based mariner in 1677 and William BOWRY at Bedminster in 1682.

Ireland

Although so far I have concentrated on England and Wales, I already have identified a number of Irish families, as yet unconnected. They already make up more than five percent of individuals in my study and have the potential to become a more major grouping. The earliest were Steaven BOWRE, whose first child was born about 1634 in Dublin, and Mary BOWRY born c.1789, who died 1873 at Balrothery, about 30 miles north of Dublin.

The registered variants of the name are BOWERY, BOWREY and BOWRIE. Although there are regional biases, until the twentieth century all are recorded interchangeable within family groups and, even, by individuals.

Some sources suggest that BOWRY is a variant of the BOWRA and BOWERY a variant of BOWER. While I have found one Kent family line where BOWRA morphed into BOWREA, BOWERY and BOWEREY this is far less common than the interchangeability between the registered variants.

The surname does not appear in any surname dictionary but many resources on the Internet suggest that it has the same root as BOWRA, BOWER and BOWERMAN. The derivation of these is believed to be topographical, occupational or toponymic locational from the Old English word “bur” meaning a bower: a small cottage or the inner room of a large house.

Topographical: someone who lived in a small cottage.

Occupational: a house servant who worked in the bower.

Toponymic: from the villages of East and West Bower in Somerset [recorded in the Domesday Book, 1086] or Bowers Gifford in Essex [recorded in the Essex Curia Regis rolls, 1203].

[A Dictionary of English Surnames, P H Reaney, revised by R M Wilson, Oxford University Press, 1997]

An alternative suggestion is that the surname is a variation of BOWIE, a Scottish and Irish name derived either from the Gaelic nickname buidhe, meaning yellow or fair-haired or an Anglicised form of the Irish surname Ó Buadhaigh meaning descendant of Buadhach [also rendered as BOGUE and BOYCE].

[en.wikipedia.org/wiki /Bowie_(surname)#:~:text=Bowie%20is%20a%20Scottish %20and,rendered%20as%20Bogue%20and%20Boyce accessed 22 December 2021]

Finally, there is a neighbourhood of Manhattan, New York known as the Bowery, an anglicised version of the Dutch bouwerij, derived from an antiquated Dutch word for farm. In the 17^th century, the Bowery was an area containing many large farms.

[en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowery accessed 29 Sep 2013]

I have been told an apocryphal story passed down a couple of family lines from Henry BOWEREY of Wraysbury that Heathrow Airport was built on BOWRY land. There is still a Bowry House and a Bowry Drive in the village. One great grandson of Henry, Edmund, was a churchwarden at the neighbouring village of Horton, Buckinghamshire and has his name inscribed on one of church bells there.

Early examples of the surname, according to one website, include:

• Hugo le BURER recorded in the Assize Court rolls of Lincolnshire in 1218
• Alice BURRER of Cambridgeshire in 1279
• Henry del BOURE of Cheshire in 1287
• William le BOURERE of Surrey in 1332

[surnamedb.com/Surname/Bowry accessed 29 Sep 2013]

In 1393 Robert BOWERS was appointed to care for a Lion and Lioness, a Leopard and two “Cat-Lions” at the Tower of London.

[gilbertwesleypurdy.blogspot.com//2019/05/henry-viis-keeper-of-lions-john-de-vere.html accessed 21 Dec 2021]

I am slowly working through the transcribed English Poll Tax returns for 1377, 1379 and 1381 and, so far, have found a number of instances of BOUR, BOURE, atte BOURE and de la BOURE in Bedfordshire, Essex, Herefordshire and Leicestershire. It is very possible that all or some of these are bynames rather than surnames. I have, however, found the following more interesting entries:

• Thoma BOUYR alias Thoma BOURI at Ragdale, Leicestershire in 1379
• Andrea BOWERE at Peakirk, Northamptonshire in 1377

The BOWRY surname is relatively rare, there only being in the region of 350 instances of it (and its registered variants) on the 1881 UK national census.

[source: www.ancestry.co.uk 29 Sep 2013]

The current, worldwide population sharing the surname [and its registered variants] is a little over 2,800. [See Distribution of the Name below.]

The current, worldwide distribution of the name (and its registered variants) is a follows:

[forebears.io/surnames/ accessed 17 December 2021]

Within the UK the surname is spread widely within England and occurs in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland but appears to have originated in a limited number of discrete geographic locations. It is likely that most worldwide holders of the name can trace their origins back to the UK.

The one exception is in India where the surname [in the forms BOWRY and BOWRIE] is primarily found in the Maharastra region and is an apparently separate, indigenous Indian surname rather than an Anglo-Indian. A few occurances of this name are recorded in England.