William Bowles of Wingfield

We only know about the existence of William Bowles of Wingfield, co. Wexford through a Land Deed Memorial which was registered in Dublin on Feb. 15, 1796. The memorial was for a land lease originally signed on April 29, 1793 between William Cooper of Coopers Hill in the Queen's county and William Bowles of Wingfield in the county of Wexford. It was for 6 acres of land in Ballymoilder in the Queen's county bordering Cooper's property and lying along the High Road leading from Ballymoilder to the town of Carlow. text of the 1796 memorial

This is significant to my family's history as my direct ancestor, John Bowles of Ballickmoyler, Queen's county, had leased his 6 acres of property from William Cooper of Coopers Hill in 1750. That memorial specified that John Bowles land bordered William Cooper's land in Ballickmoyler and lay along the High Road. It does not specify that the High Road led to Carlow but there is and was only one main road running through Ballickmoyler. To the NW it runs to the town of Arles and to the SE it runs to Carlow and the Cooper land was to the SE of town so if the land lay alongside the Cooper property it was on the High Road leading to Carlow. text of the 1750 memorial

A case might be made that Ballymoilder is not exactly the same name as Ballickmoyler except that there is also a memorial dated in 1813 in which a William Bowles leases the same property, described as 6 acres in Ballickmoiler adjacent to William Cooper's land and laying along the High Road leading to Carlow, to his son-in-law. We know that William Bowles of Wingfield had a son William and that both deeds specify the exact same owners for three of the four fields adjacent to the Bowles property. Certainly Ballymoilder is Ballickmoiler is Ballickmoyler. text of the 1813 memorial

So my ancestor, John Bowles, and William Bowles of Wingfield were neighbours in Ballickmoyler. It could be argued that this was purely a coincidence but there are sufficient other indications to make the case that these two were directly related. My full justification of this claim is at John Bowles and William Bowles of Ballickmoyler.

This is significant to my own family history and has to be examined extremely closely as William Bowles of Wingfield would knock down a 7 year brick wall and become the link between my family and Charles Bowles of Chatham, Kent, England; if I can demonstrate the likelihood of this sufficiently to pass critically close examination.

I say that William was 'almost certainly' connected to the Bowles of Chatham as the connection is not documented by public record but I believe that I can produce sufficient proof to demonstrate their connection. It's first necessary to document just what was meant by 'of Wingfield'.

The Wingfield family recurrently held the title of the Viscounts Powerscourt reference1 reference2 so named for their Powerscourt estate in Wicklow. They also owned extensive land in neighbouring Wexford where other branches of their extensive family had lived for hundreds of years. This property included their estate called Wingfield, one of several so named estates in areas where branches of the family owned land. However by the mid-1600's, Wingfield in Wexford had been leased to the Brownrigg family. Various web sites document the actual date of that claim but my own interest lies in the late 1700's when the Brownrigg family is on frequent record as occupying the Wingfield House in Wexford. references Wingfield was not a townland but rather an estate which was occupied by a Henry Brownrigg at the time of William Bowles of Wingfield's deed memorial of 1793.

The Brownriggs of the Wingfield estate are rather hard to sort out due to their repeated use of the given names Henry and Thomas but the following tree outlines their connection to Wingfield and to the Bowles family including a William Bowles who would have been the first cousin (by adoption) of the Henry Brownrigg who was living at Wingfield in 1793.

Henry Brownrigg of Wingfield, co.Wexford (d. 1723) m. Joan Symes

1. Thomas Brownrigg (d. 1750) who inherited Wingfield in 1723

1.1   Henry Brownrigg (1729-97) who inherited Wingfield in 1750 and was living there in 1793

1.1.1 Rev’d. Thomas Brownrigg (1755-1826)

2. Major Henry Brownrigg (~1716-1780)

m.(1) Katherina Bowles (sister of General Phineas Bowles) and settled at Altidore, Wicklow

2.1   William Bowles (adopted)

m.(2) Alithea Maria Bowles (the widow of General Phineas Bowles)

2.2   Richard Bowles (stepson through Alithea Maria Bowles)

3.  John Brownrigg

3.1 Thomas Brownrigg

William Bowles was the son of Charles Bowles of Chatham's son Thomas. reference We don't know what happened to Thomas but his son William went to live with his Aunt Katherina shortly after her marriage to Major Henry Brownrigg of Altidore. reference Katherina died in 1754 and in 1757 Henry married Katherina's sister-in-law, Alithea Maria (Hill) Bowles, the widow of her brother General Phineas Bowles who had died in 1749. Alithea died in October 1771, Henry retired from his military commission reference a month later and was living in Pennington, Hampshire, England when he died in 1780 Henry Brownrigg's Will.

Like Katherina, Alithea would have been William Bowles Aunt so it's likely he would have remained within the Brownrigg household, although as an adult he may well have gone on his own with some property settled on him by Henry Brownrigg or by his Aunt Katherina from her Hill inheritance or he may have acquired some property in his own right with money left to him by either of his Aunts or by his father, Thomas Bowles.

In any case, we know that William was still resident in Ireland in 1784 as he was listed as having come from Ireland to attend his Uncle Humphrey's funeral in England that year. reference

William's property would likely have been at Wingfield in order for him to be termed "William Bowles of Wingfield, Esq." in the 1793 land deed where he acquired the land in Ballickmoyler. He had apparently also married in Ireland as his eldest son William is mentioned in the deed.

An actual birth certificate proving this relationship would be much better but I believe there is sufficient likelihood from the evidence found to say that "almost certainly" John Bowles of Ballickmoyler was closely related (brother or cousin note) to William Bowles of Wingfield, co. Wexford who was the son of Thomas Bowles of the Chatham Bowles line and the adopted son of Henry Brownrigg and Katherina Bowles. This is not a 100% proof but it is much more likely than that while there was a known William Bowles around the Brownrigg family of Wingfield that there was also some second William Bowles in Ireland who had a connection to the Wingfield estate sufficient to be termed "William Bowles of Wingfield, co. Wexford", who was also a gentleman enough to use the term 'Esquire' and yet somehow was not a member of the Bowles family which was closely related to the Brownriggs who lived there.