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Descendants of Robert Bowman, Senior

Generation No. 1

1. ROBERT¹ BOWMAN, SENIOR was born Aft 1600 in England or Scotland, and died Bef April 17, 1671 in Varina Parish, Bermuda Hundred, Henrico Co., Va..

Notes
       In the United States the Bowman name traces to the British isles, both England and Scotland may have produced the name; continental Germanic names of similar sound have been anglicized to the Bowman spelling and frequently in a given area descendants of German language immigrants outnumber the descendants of Scottish or English colonists. In some families so many generations have passed (maybe more than a dozen) since the original owners of the name arrived on this continent that the present bearers of the name may have no idea of their forbears origins.
       The Bowman surname appears quite early in the colonial records of three colonies, Virginia, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. The Rowan County (N. C.) Memorial Library in Salisbury, North Carolina has an important genealogical collection, the McCubbins Collection, and amongst the papers which have been donated are the genealogical gleanings of the late W. W. Smith. Walter Smith was a college professor who began investigating family history sometime after the First World War, and continued his effort into the 1960s. A seven page outline, apparently drawn up by Smith during the later years of his efforts, is in the McCubbins collection. A copy of an earlier and shorter version of the outline of his conclusions about the origins of his Bowman relations is also in the genealogical collection of the State Library in Raleigh.
       In a letter from 1934, a Mr. J. V. Bowman from Philadelphia wrote Professor Smith telling him of a then-deceased General Wendall P. Bowman who prior to his death had informed the letter writer that the General's research had indicated that the Bowmans settling in the colonies of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia during the 1640s were from branches of a single original Bowman family. General Bowman speculated that the Bowmans who settled in Pennsylvania were an English family with Scottish roots. According to J. V. Bowman, General Wendall P. Bowman was the last in his line of the family.
       Professor Smith had a Bowman connection through a Tennessee offshoot of a Virginia branch of the family. Like the General, Professor Smith concluded that the family was of Scots origin. Based primarily upon family traditions Professor Smith reconstructed a line with one Robert Bowman as the founder of the family. His reconstruction clearly includes many names which can be traced to various Virginia families of the Bowman name, but he conflates the generations and branches. Many of the documents which can now be used to reveal Professor Smith's errors were not available to researchers until after the Professor's death. However, it seems that Professor Smith is connected to the Bowmans of the Henrico/Chesterfield line from which we descend. The Bowman Family, published by the National Genealogical Research Institute, Washington, D.C., in 1975 (C571 / .B788 / 1975) identified four British counties which were traditional homes for the Bowman name, Cumberland, Durham, Hertfordshire and Westmoreland. Perhaps there in one of those counties some future researcher will find the documents or historical evidence which will connect our original colonial ancestors to their transAtlantic origins.
       "It is a family tradition that the earliest ancestor was a ship carpenter who came with the first colonists to Jamestown from London," according to Charles W. Bowman on p. 3 of his 1912 publication, BOWMAN GENEALOGY: Fragmentary Annals of a Branch of the Bowman Family, Law Reporter Printing Company, Washington, D.C. Professor Smith stated that Robert Bowman was the immigrant ancestor of Scots origin, but he did not identify his source for that identification.

Abstracted Virginia colonial records taken from CAVALIERS & PIONEERS: Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents & Grants, by Nell Marion Nugent.

p.28       28 Sept 1667 Robert Bowman Jr. granted 250 acres in Henrico south of the James. Adjacent to Robert Bowman, Senr.
p. 59       18 Mar 1662 Gilbert Elam 867 acres Henrico south of the James. 803 acres granted Elam 18 Mar 1662 above Bermuda Hundred, the residue adjoining said tract, Henry Lowin, Mr. Wm Hatcher, Martin Elam, Roxdale Sw., Robert Bowman Jr, Robert Elam &c. 503 acres granted to Robert Elam 20 Nov 1662 & due said Gilbert as marrying his daughter.
p. 109        29 June 1671 Robert Bowman Jr 557 Acres Henrico County south of James on south side of Henry Lower above Packers Gutt, to land given him by his father, Robert Bowman, dec'd; along Martin Elam, to Joseph Tanner's orphants, to Coles Creek, to the landing; 100 acre part given him by his father 10 Jan 1661.
p. 108        15 May 1672 John Bowman 108 Acres James City County North of James west of Chickahominy River. (Now in Charles City County -- J.L.B.)
p. 393        20 Apr 1694 Samuel Knibb, 82 Acres Henrico County in Varina Parish in Bermuda Hundred Neck . . . next to Shirley Hundred, through swamp to Captain Royall . . . adjoining Richard Dewe's, Mr. Elam's & Mr. Bowman

From ORPHANS COURT BOOK 1677-1739 OF HENRICO COUNTY, VA., by Pauline Pearce Warner; 1963, Tappahannock, Va.

p.5 Oct 11, 1679, John Bowman, Jr an orphan in wardship of John Bowman, Senr came of age and received his estate.

       In the customary usage of the time, orphan/orphant as used in the courts indicated any minor who had received a legacy which must be placed under the wardship of a guardian until the minor attained his majority. John Bowman, Jr., for instance, could have been a grandson of Robert Bowman, Sr., who inherited some legacy from his grandfather since the deed records indicate Robert, Sr., had died by 1671. The Orphans Court entry cited above gives no indication of the source of the legacy, however, nor does it indicate the familial relationship if any between the younger and the older John Bowman. John Bowman Sr may have been father, uncle or unrelated namesake to the younger man, but most certainly he stood in the legal role of guardian to the younger man as ward.

       Children of Robert Bowman are:

2.	i.	ROBERT² BOWMAN, JR., b. Abt 1630, Scotland or Virginia; d. Aft 1671, Virginia.
	ii.	GILBERT BOWMAN, b. Aft 1630, Virginia; d. Bef March 16, 1677/78, Virginia.
	iii.	WILLIAM BOWMAN, b. Aft 1630, Henrico County, Virginia (?); d. Bef March 16, 1677/78, Henrico County, Virginia (?).
	iv.	JOHN BOWMAN, b. Aft 1630; d. Bef 1718, Henrico County, Virginia (?); m. ELIZABETH MAIDENNAMEUNKNOWN, Virginia.
3.	v.	"MARY" BOWMAN, b. Abt 1627, Virginia.

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