Joseph Bowles' daughter Eliza

Eliza was baptised at St. Mary's Church, Carlow town, Ireland on May 7, 1810.  When she was 18 she emigrated to Quebec City with her parents.  On May 20, 1837 she married a Quebec City watchmaker William Learmont.  Soon after they moved to Montreal where their two sons, Joseph Bowles Learmont and William John Learmont were born.  Joseph Bowles Learmont would become a senior partner in a Montreal hardware business and a major patron of the Arts. 

Joseph Bowles’ son John^*

(as in all the Bowles in Quebec City pages, Joseph Bowles' son John is shown as John^* to distinguish him from the three other John Bowles in the family)

John^* was baptised at St. Mary's Church, Carlow town, Ireland on Nov. 8, 1811.  He arrived at Quebec City with his father around 1828 at age 17.  By 1830 he was living at Mr. Payne’s lodging house and working as a servant at the Albion Hotel.  On June 13, 1832 John^* married Mary Elizabeth Green at the Metropolitan Church in Quebec City.

Two weeks earlier, on May 27, 1832, a child was baptized John at Quebec City and recorded as John Bowles’s son born May 25 with the mother being Elizabeth Crumlis another lodger at Mr. Payne’s and servant at the Albion.  John did not sign as a witness and in fact was the defendant in a child support suit filed by Crumlis (or Cromlish).  His Uncle, John Bowles Sr., interceded on his behalf to put a stop to the discredit which the suit brought to his reputation and to his nephew’s who steadfastly denied the charge.  John^*’s marriage to Elizabeth Green in June 1832 probably aided his defense.  The child apparently died in the cholera epidemic of August of that year.   In February 1833, the court finally decided in the plaintiff’s favor and ordered John^* to pay £12’10 damages to Crumlis plus legal costs which were set at £23’19’4.  That would have been ruinous to someone in John’s position.  One statement in the court record was that John^* was intending to leave Quebec.  He does not appear in further records in Quebec City and he probably did leave shortly after this.  It’s unknown if any payment was made to Crumlis.  He is on record in 1847 in Toronto and then the family next appears at Whitby, Ontario county.  Note: Whitby is where John Bowles Sr. stated as his destination when he left Ireland in 1818.

Joseph Bowles’ son Joseph Jr.

Joseph Jr. in partnership with Sims operating Sims and Bowles, Apothecary Shop at the corner of Fabrique and St. Famille streets in 1841.

The May 9, 1843 issue of The Montreal Transcript contained an announcement that Mr.’s McKenzie and Bowles were the exclusive agents for a new Plaster of Paris product.

In October 1845, he was one of the leading citizens who signed a petition in support of a railroad to be built between Halifax and Quebec City. (Le Journal de Quebec, Sat. Oct. 18, 1845)

Joseph Jr. was one of the signers of a letter published in the May 2, 1846 issue of Le Journal de Quebec addressed to Dr. Bardy which regretted his departure from the city as a result of the recent disasters which had ruined the faubourges of Quebec. (note: in May 1845 a massive fire started in Mr. Richardson’s leather shop and swept through the faubourgs of St. Roch and St. Jean and on rue St. Paul.  The May 31, 1845 Journal printed an article appealing for aid and referring to money coming from Montreal for relief.  The June 12, 1845 Journal estimated the damages at 1200 buildings lost and 50 people killed.)

His rise in social status in the city is indicated by the Saturday, May 1, 1847 Le Journal de Quebec reported that a submission had been received from Joseph Bowles, pharmacist on Rue de la Fabrique, recommending the construction of a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel on some ground near the prison bounded by St. Stanislas, Dauphine and Ste. Angele streets.

In 1862, he was elected to the City Council of Quebec City representing the Palace Ward. 

Excerpts from the Quebec Mercury:

Sat. Oct. 11, 1862 p. 2  On Monday the electors of Palace Ward will be called upon to choose a representative in the City Council…..Mr. Joseph Bowles has allowed himself to be put in nomination.

Tues. Oct. 14, 1862 p.3  Mr Bowles Elected for Palace Ward

Wed. Dec. 30, 1863  Councillor Bowles moved that a notice be posted….for the improvement of the St. John’s Gate.

The list of Aldermen elected in the 1866 civic election includes Joseph Bowles as well as Charles Langlois.

Joseph placed regular advertisements in the local newspapers.  Some samples from Le Journal de Quebec include:

Sat. Dec. 8, 1847;   Wistar Balm for sale at Joseph Bowles Pharmacy               

From Jul 1, 1848 to end of 1849; Wright’s Indian Vegetable Pills available at Joseph Bowles Pharmacy

in the Courrier du Canada:

Aug. 5 to Oct. 19, 1857;  Persian Balm ad lists several Quebec druggists incl. Joseph Bowles

Dec. 21, 1859 to Jan. 23, 1860;  Carbon Oil for sale at Joseph Bowles, Salle Medicale, Place du Marche de la Haute-Ville

Nov. 12, 1860; Magic Lotion sold by Joseph Bowles

June 5 to Dec. 27, 1861; Ayers Salsepareille (Sasparilla) sold by Joseph Bowles

and in the Quebec Mercury:

Sat. Jan. 4, 1862; Ayer’s Cherry Pectoral sold at Joseph Bowles and many other similar ads

The Quebec City directories list Joseph Bowles at:

Medical Hall, 2 Fabrique St. from 1844-47

Medical Hall, Upper Town marketplace on Fabrique from 1848-58

Two locations  24 Fabrique St. and 11 D’Auteuil from 1861-63

Only at 11 D’Auteuil from1866-73

After 1873, the next record for Joseph Bowles is the 1881 British Census which lists Joseph and his wife and two children Charlotte and Louisa living on Crystal Palace Park Road (CPP Road) in Sydenham, Kent in a house called Parkhurst (note: technically this small section of Sydenham was ceded to Beckenham and so is considered to be a part of Beckenham, Kent despite the fact that town is several miles away).  His occupation is given as None but he is living in a rather grand house on a prestigious street (the south side backing onto the park) with a domestic and a cook.  CPP Road runs around the north edge of Crystal Palace Park where Queen Victoria’s famous Crystal Palace was constructed in 1854.  Major Samuel Page, the General Manager of the Crystal Palace lived just a few houses from Joseph.  The Sydenham directories lists them at Parkhurst from 1881 to 1885 (1886 directory is missing but they were gone by 1887).  Later this house became #35 CPP Road.  His daughters, Louisa and Charlotte, lived with them in Beckenham until Louisa married Charles McEuen, an Australian Merchant (i.e. an importer/exporter between England and Australia), in 1885 and Charlotte married in 1886.  In the 1891 and 1901 census, Louisa and Charles McEuen and their two children were living at #24 CPP Road, on the north side of the road across from Joseph’s former house and about 4 houses down, near the corner of Border Crescent.  Therefore, Joseph probably died between 1885 and 1891 or was living in hospital care by then.  Joseph’s son, James, was also living with the McEuen’s in the 1901 census.  The Kelly’s Directory of Bromley lists the McEuen’s at Highwood, #24 CPP Road, until 1912.