JOHN BOWATER JR.

The following is from Bill Putman's research at http://www.billputman.com/Bowater.pdf:

John Bowater, junior or some other numerical designation, was born in Bromsgrove, County of Worcestershire, England in about 1629. He was married about 1650 to Ann Carter, I think the daughter of Francis Carter. There is a record of the marriage at Spelafields Hamlet, Whitechapel, London. According to one source, Ann Carter was born in Bromsgrove in 1632. John and Ann had at least one child, Thomas, who was born in 1655. There may have been others, but if there were, they did not come to America, and I have no record of them.

By the 1660s, John had become a follower of George Fox and his Quaker faith. He became a minister or at least traveled extensively spreading the faith.' In 1677, he sailed to America and held a number of Quaker Meetings on the eastern shore of Virginia from 1677 to 1678.

The following is from a HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY:

John Bowater visited Virginia. In a list of the names and places and Friends in America, where John Bowater was received and had meetings and held services for the Lord, the following are mentioned which are known to be in the section of Virginia (eastern shore) of which we speak: James River in Virginia, James River at Chuckatuck, Pagan Creek, Moody Creek in Accomak, Savidge Neck, Nesswatakes and Ochanack.

John's wife Ann died on February 25, 1679 in Warwickshire, England. She is buried at the North Friends Burying Grounds.

John remarried sometime about 1681 to Frances Corbet, daughter of William Corbet of Worcestershire, England. He then spent the next few years, 1681 to 1683, in prison in London for his religious beliefs.

At the Dudley Monthly Meeting in Worcestershire, on May 21, 1684, John and his wife received certificates to transfer to the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting in America. His son Thomas Bowater had moved to America the year before.

John Bowater and wife presented their certificates to the Friends Monthly Meeting at the Governor's House in Philadelphia on November 4, 1684 (9th month old style).

John and Frances and their two young children, Mary and Elizabeth, joined the Chester, Pennsylvania Monthly Meeting on May 7, 1688.

John Bowater as a minister established his own meeting, the Bowater Friends Meeting, at his home in Nether Providence, Middletown Township, Chester County. Meetings were held there until a new church was built in 1700 on lands of Joshua Hastings adjacent to John Bowater's land. The Meeting was still named after him.

In July of 1702, the Bowater family moved to Williston (Weston), Pennsylvania and the old meeting house was renamed the Middletown Monthly Meeting.

John was active in both church and community. He was on many church committees and on several Grand Juries.

John Bowater died at his farm in Middletown Township, Chester County on November 4, 1704 (9th month old style) and his will, written on July 20, 1704, was proven in court on November 17, 1705 in Weston, Chester County. The will mentioned his wife Frances and five daughters. Frances lived another fifteen years and died in 1720 in Concord Township of Chester County. Her will was proven on December 28, 1720. The Following is what I know of the children of John Bowater. By his first wife, Ann Carter, I know of only one child:

• THOMAS BOWATER.

John and Frances Corbet Bowater had these children:

• ANN BOWATER born November 30, 1684 in England and died there February 25, 1685.
• MARY or MERRY BOWATER was born in Pennsylvania on August 25, 1685. She
• married Stephen Ailes.
• WILLIAM BOWATER born February 19, 1686 and died young.
• ELIZABETH BOWATER was born February 23, 1688. She married William Pussey and
• she died in 1740.
• JOHN BOWATER a twin born August 3, 1690.
• ANN BOWATER was the other twin born August 3, 1690. She was the second Ann, the
• first having died as an infant. She married William Chandler.
• ALICE BOWATER was born in 1692. She was married twice, first to Jacob Pyle and then
• to Moses Mendenhall in North Carolina.
• PHEBE BOWATER was born about 1694 and married Shadrack Scarlet.