My Bowles ancestors have been traced back to the little village of Ballickmoyler in the Slievemargy region of county Laois, Ireland.

  Note: County Laois was called Queen's County during the entire period the Bowles lived there but was renamed county Laois in 1922.  You will see both references on these pages.

2008 NEWS

I was honored to have an article that I wrote about my Bowles of Ballickmoyler published in the Laois Heritage Society Journal for 2008. 

See The Bowles of Ballickmoyler's Family Tree and The Bowles of Ballickmoyler in Canada

Click on any map to enlarge it

Map of Ireland in 1808 showing Queen's county (now co. Laois in the red square)	Map of Queen's county showing the Slievemargy region.	Map of the Slievemargy showing Ballickmoyler and the location of the two nearby churches attended by the Bowles family.

The Earliest Records 

The land they were on was owned by the Cooper family who lived at Coopers Hill Demesne just East of Ballickmoyler.  See The Bowles of Ballickmoyler and The Coopers of Cooper Hill Demesne.  There is a deed memorial dated Nov. 18, 1767 at the Dublin Land Titles office which refers to a deed signed between William Cooper of Shraugh (later called Coopers Hill) and John Bowles of Ballickmoyler, perukemaker (i.e. wig maker) dated July 27, 1750 which defines the terms of the lease which John Bowles held under the Coopers.  It also states John Bowles wife's name to be Ann, his mother's name to be Mary and refers to his eldest son, Michael, mentioned above. The wording of this lease indicates that it is a new lease replacing a previous lease which had already been effect for a long time, likely prior to John's birth as the only person remaining alive from the signing of the previous lease is John's mother Mary.  If so that would indicate that the Bowles were on this property as early as 1720 and possibly as early as 1714 when the Coopers first leased this land from Richard Saunders. text of the deed memorial

Prior to obtaining their land around Ballickmoyler the Coopers lived at Newtown in south co. Carlow very close to Dunleckney which several of our Ballickmoyler Bowles still had connections in the 1800's.  The ongoing connection of these Bowles to Dunleckney near where the Coopers came from leads me to suspect that the Bowles came from that region with the Coopers prior to the 1740's.  See The Bowles of Dunleckney, co. Carlow.  The Weldon family of nearby Ballylinan has another indication of a connection between Ballickmoyler and Dunleckney.  As will be seen below, the Bowles assisted in the rebuilding of the church at Castletown under the leadership of the Reverend Arthur Weldon of Rahin in 1801.  Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) mentions for the Dunleckney Civil Parish, "It is a vicarage, in the diocese of Leighlin, and forms part of the union of Dunleckney; the rectory is impropriate in A. Weldon, Esq. ".  I have confirmed that was an Arthur Weldon but the question would be whether these connections of the 1800's may indicate an earlier connection as well.  In any case, John Bowles move from Ballickmoyler to Dunleckney around the 1820's may have been related to their connection to the Weldons or to the Coopers or to both.  See The Bowles Connection to the Weldon Family

It's likely that the land that the Bowles acquired at Ballickmoyler included the rights to the rents from the existing Irish tenants on the land.  This area had been seized from the previous Irish landowners in the 1500's by Queen Mary. She had then awarded the land to loyal English subjects who gained an income by collecting the rents of the existing tenants on the land in some cases and in others by clearing the "peasants" off the land and selling it to new tenants brought from England.

See Selected Queen's County Land Deed Transactions for a list of deeds on file at the Dublin Deeds Office relating to the Ballickmoyler area and other areas in Queen's County connected to the Cooper family.

Also see The Early History of Ballickmoyler

From the 1750 deed we know that John Bowles was described as a Perukemaker which was a maker of the flowing white wigs worn by the gentry of the time.  There would not have been much call for such a profession in rural Queen's county so he seems to have used his leather working skills from wig making in a new profession as a shoemaker.  He would be the first of 6 generations of Bowles shoemakers which would even last for several generations in Canada.

About 1765, my direct ancestor, John Bowles' eldest son Michael, left Ballickmoyler to find work in Manchester.  That led to his enlistment in the British Army, his marriage to two and possibly three wives (consecutively, not all at once) with whom he raised a large family.  He was to return to Ballickmoyler with his family only around or after the events of 1798 described below.  see Michael Bowles of Ballickmoyler

In 1787 John Bowles was The Rev. Edward Whitty's land agent and was beaten badly while accompanying Whitty to seize some cattle from some tenants who were refusing to pay their tithes.  reference

In 1798 the United Irish Rebellion swept through Ballickmoyler which had been a gathering point for United Irish pikemen prior to their attempt to take Carlow town.  Their attempt was turned back by the British Army which was expecting them and they retreated through Ballickmoyler again with the British Army in pursuit.  Most of Ballickmoyler was burned either by the rebels or by British troops, probably by both, including the marketplace and many houses including Joseph and William Bowles' homes and then besieged them in Whitty's house, Providence Lodge.  Joseph and William were able to file for compensation from the government afterwards and received 50% of their claimed damages which allowed them to rebuild in Ballickmoyler.  Michael Bowles probably returned from England around this time as he is last on record in England in April 1797 and his son Michael Jr. baptized a son, John, in the nearby Castletown Church in 1806.

See Ballickmoyler in the 1798 United Irish Rebellion for an account of the above events.

Some of the Bowles' church functions of the 1700's were held at St. Mary's Church in Carlow town and these records have survived.   There does not seem to have been a church at Ballickmoyler but the family probably also attended services at the Killabban-Castletown church about 3 miles NW of Ballickmoyler.  The Vestry records for that church indicate that a new church was built there in 1801 replacing an earlier church.  That church was probably also burned in the 1798 rebellion and no records for it now exist.  In 1801, the Bowles were active in the planning and building of the Killabban-Castletown church and we find the Bowles records there after that. 

The Bowles of Ballickmoyler and the Church at Castletown

Bowles References in St. Mary's Carlow Church Registers

Bowles records at Killabban-Castletown

There are a number of other references to Bowles in the Ballickmoyler, Killabin parish, co. Laois area:

The index books for the Dublin Quaker Meeting Minutes include references to a Robert and Anne Bowles of Ballickmoyler, Queen's county at the time of their son Robert's marriage to Hannah Wardell in Dublin in 1833.  The indexes also mention their son Thomas and their daughter Lucy also both living in Dublin.  See Robert Bowles of Ballickmoyler and Dublin for more information on this family.

Griffith's Primary Valuation for Ballickmoyler (also see the following) lists 6 people who are leasing their houses from William Bowles.  The 1852-53 Griffith’s Primary Valuation for Carlow town lists William Bowles as resident on Dublin Road in Carlow town.  That would indicate that after Michael Bowles left for Canada, William moved to Carlow and sub-let their land in Ballickmoyler to other families.

Griffith’s Primary Valuation, co. Laois (Queen’s co.),  Killabban Civil Parish  (Baronies of Ballyadams & Slievemargy; Unions of Athy and Carlow) May 1850 listing people who were leasing property in Killabban Civil Parish in 1850 and the occupiers of the property.  All these lots (Lot 9, units c, d, g, h, i and j) are 10 to 15 perches (200 to 300 sq. ft.), with a land value of 2-3 shillings and a house value of from  8 shillings to £1, 3 shillings. Fiche reference 5.F.10. 

Occupier	Immediate lessor	Townland	Tenement Type
Edward Bambrick	William Bowles	Ballickmoyler	House, office & garden
John Brennan	William Bowles	Ballickmoyler	House
Thomas Donegan	William Bowles	Ballickmoyler	House, office & garden
James Fitzhenry	William Bowles	Ballickmoyler	House and garden
Mary Holohan	William Bowles	Ballickmoyler	House
Catherine Neal	William Bowles	Ballickmoyler	House and garden

The last record that I have for a Bowles in co. Laois would be an Alexander Boles.  These are recent enough to obtain civil records for but I haven't yet.

Alexander Boles is in the 1901 Census as living at Knocknagrally or Kilkennybeg, Aghmacart parish. DED 4/18

The August 1920 edition of The Nationalist has a sale notice for Mr. Alexander Boles' residence at Levally Farm, Rathdowney, Queen's county. ref.

At present there do not seem to be any Boles/Bowles living in co. Laois.