in Angola and Mozambique,’ London, 1824, 8vo. Proceeding to Madeira, where they were detained for some months, he wrote a geological description of the island of Porto Santo, the trigonometrical measurement of the peaks, a flora, &c., which was published in 1825, after his death. They next reached the Cape de Verde Islands and the mouth of the Gambia, and, while waiting at Bathurst for a means of transit to Sierra Leone, he began a trigonometrical survey of the river. Unfortunately, while taking astronomical observations at night, he caught cold, which was followed by fever, to which, after several partial recoveries, he succumbed at the early age of thirty-three, on 10 Jan. 1824. The last chapter of his life's story was published by Mrs. Bowdich, in a work entitled ‘A Description of the Island of Madeira, by the late Thomas Edward Bowdich … A Narrative of his last Voyage to Africa … Remarks on the Cape de Verde Islands, and a Description of the English Settlements in the River Gambia,’ with plates coloured and plain, London, 1825, 4to. Under dates from 1819 to 1825 there are also five scientific papers by Bowdich in ‘Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine,’ ‘Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,’ and the ‘Zoological Journal.’
In figure Bowdich was slightly but well formed, and he possessed great activity of body and mind. He was an excellent linguist, a most pleasing and graphic writer, and his conversational powers made him a very agreeable companion. His enthusiastic devotion to science cost him his life. He left a widow and three children, one of them named after the two companions of his Ashantee mission. Mrs. Tedlie Hutchison Hale (wife of Dr. Douglas Hale) republished her father's early work, with an introductory preface, ‘The Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, &c.,’ London, 1873, 8vo, inscribing the volume to her father's old friend, Mr. David R. Morier.
Mrs. Bowdich afterwards married Mr. R. Lee, and under the name of ‘Mrs. R. Lee’ became a popular writer and illustrator of scientific works for the young up to her death in 1865.
[Bowdich's Works; Mrs. Bowdich's Works; Mrs. Hale's Mission, 1873; Dupuis's Ashantee, 1824; Bristol Directory, 1812–15; Lit. Gazette, 1824; Gent. Mag. 1824, pt. i. 279–80; Royal Society's Cat. of Scientific Papers; Quarterly Rev. xxii.]
BOWDLER, HENRIETTA MARIA (1754–1830), commonly called Mrs. Harriet Bowdler, author, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Stuart Bowdler, and sister of John Bowdler the elder [q. v.] and Thomas Bowdler the elder [q. v.], was the author of a series of religious 'Poems and Essays,' 2 vols. (Bath, 1786), which passed through a large number of editions. Her 'Sermons on the Doctrines and Duties of Christianity ' (n. d.) appeared anonymously, and passed through nearly fifty editions. Beilby Porteus, bishop of London, believed them to be from the pen of a clergyman, and is said to have offered their author, through the publishers, a living in his diocese. In 1810 Miss Bowdler edited 'Fragments in Prose and Verse by the late Miss Elizabeth Smith,' which was very popular in religious circles. A novel by Miss Bowdler entitled 'Pen Tamar, or the History of an Old Maid,' was issued shortly after her death. Miss Bowdler died at Bath on 25 Feb. 1830.
[Gent. Mag. 1830, pt. i. 567, pt. ii. 649; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
BOWDLER, JANE (1743–1784), author, born 14 Feb. 1743 at Ashley, near Bath, was the eldest daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Stuart Bowdler, and thus sister of John the elder [q. v.], and of Thomas the elder, the editor of Shakespeare [q. v.] Throughout her life she suffered from ill-health. In 1759 she had a severe attack of small-pox, and from 1771 till her death was a confirmed invalid. She died in the spring of 1784. In her later years she wrote many poems and essays, and a selection was published at Bath for the benefit of the local hospital in 1786 under the title of 'Poems and Essays by a Lady, lately deceased.' This volume became extraordinarily popular. The verse is very poor, and the prose treats, without any striking originality, such subjects as sensibility, politeness, candour, and the pleasures of religion. Nevertheless, sixteen editions (with the author's name on the title-page) were published at Bath in rapid succession between 1787 and 1830. Other editions appeared at Dublin, in London, and in New York, where the first American edition (from the tenth Bath edition) appeared in 1811. A few of Miss Bowdler's pieces, not previously printed, appear in Thomas Bowdler's 'Memoir of John Bowdler,' 1824.
[T. Bowdler's Memoir of John Bowdler the elder, 1824, 93-104.]
BOWDLER, JOHN, the elder (1746–1823), author, born at Bath on 18 March 1746, was descended from a Shropshire family originally settled at Hope Bowdler. His great-grandfather, John Bowdler (1627-1661), held high office in the Irish civil service during the Commonwealth, and was
