The Story of the family of Bowes down to Taylor
Sir George Bowes was born in 1529 in Streatlam, Durham He died in 1587. He was heir male of the whole family, withstood the rebellious Earls of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmorland, and Lord Dacres and was, by a Special Commission, made Knight Marshall North of Trent, and with his younger brother, Robert, was appointed Ambassador of Scotland, had a grant of the lands, and Manor of Bradley County Durham. He succeeded his father, Richard Bowes, as heir-general of the family, and to him descended the Dawdon estates, with other possessions in the eastern part of the county of Durham. Sheriff of Yorshire. He was knighted in 1558 and appointed Governor of Barnard Castle. In 1568 he escorted Mary Queen of Scots from Carlisle to Bolton Castle. Later Mary had a grateful remembrance of his kindness and wrote to him as a friend. He was made Knight Marshall North of the Trent by special commission, for his signal services to Queen Elizabeth, "an office which gave him an opportunity of wreaking his vengeance on the enemies of the queen and himself, and which he is said to have exercised with great severity", Marshall Knight of Berwick and a supporter of Elizabeth I at the time of The Rising of the North in 1569. When the Earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland reared the Standard of revolt in the North, Sir George was the only person of great influence that opposed the insurgents, having, for that purpose, fortified himself in Barnard Castle. He, and his brother, Robert, occupied and defended Barnard Castle against the Earls during the Rising, though his home at Streatlam was destroyed. The family was rewarded with the title of "Master and Keeper of the forests and chases within the Lordship of Barnard Castle." He was in many commissions for treaties with Scotland, and had other marks of confidence and trust. He distinguished himself in the suppression of the Rising of the North, in 1569, and earned for himself an unenviable notoriety for the relentless cruelty with which he pursued the fugitive and defenceless rebels. There was scarcely a village in the north in which there were not executed one or more of the inhabitants for participation in the rising. It was in 1569 that the Bowes family was granted Bradley Hall. He first married Dorothy Mallory, of which children they had were William, Robert, George, Elizabeth (she married Sir Charles Wandesford, of Kirtlington), and Anne (she married Sir John Conyers).
Second he married Jane (Joan) Talbot. "By a strange will or entail made by Sir George about the year 1590, the estate of Streatlam, with the great bulk of his property, passed to Sir Talbot Bowes, his son by the second marriage; and thus his eldest son, by his former wife, was deprived of his birthright, and only inherited from his father the estate and lordship of Bradley Hall which had been acquired by a grant from the crown 14th of Elizabeth. The younger branch, having in this manner become possessed of the immense estates of Sir George, continued for a long time to be one of the most considerable families of the county palatine..." - from Burkes "Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland." It is through this line that the Bowes-Lyon family of the later Queen Mother emerges. Sir George was twice married and left a considerable family. (Source: Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families (Royal Ancestry) by Douglas Richardson shows marriage date between George and Dorothy as 1541).
His 4th great grandson was Thomas Bowes who was born in 1687 and died in 1752. He married 29 April 1718 in Wolsingham, Durham to Elizabeth Pickering of Hedley Hall. Thomas and Elizabeth had 4 children, 2 daughters and 2 sons. Thomas and Elizabeth Bowes’s daughter Jane, who was baptised 24 April 1725 in Wolsingham, Durham, fell in love with a young attorney-at-law named Jacob Grieve and as her father forbade the match, the young couple ran away to Gretna Green to be married in October 1749. They were afterwards married at the Durham Cathedral. They had an only daughter, Elizabeth Mary Grieve, and they died leaving their daughter a very young orphan and heiress. Her mother Jane, left her two estates named Gibside and Highfriars, as her inheritance. Her great friend, the Countess of Ravensworth promised to look after her and present her at court when she left school. However, she ran away from school and married a Divinity student by the name of Robert Taylor. He was never fully ordained, as his father Anthony died, and Robert had to return to look after the family estates. The family estate was the Great House, of Great Lumley, Durham. It was a substantial house, and was known to the family as the Great House. Robert and Elizabeth had 10 children, named George Bowes (1792-1795), Jane (died young), Dorothy, Jacob (died young) Anthony (died young) Thomas, Jane, Robert, George Bowes and Anthony. Robert’s occupation was classified as a farmer in his son, George Bowes and Mary Ann’s marriage register.
Robert and Elizabeth Mary’s daughter, Jane Taylor, who was born on 2 December 1802 married to John Brown on 15 April 1832. They had 6 children, 5 of them born in Chester le Street, while the last born, Ralph, was born in Washington, Durham. They moved around quite a bit, from Chester le Street, to Washington, to Staffordshire, England, to Monmouthshire in Wales.
Elizabeth Mary Brown, Jane and John’s 2nd born daughter, was born 1838 in Chester, Washington, Durham England, baptised at Holy Trinity, Washington on 27 May 1838 and she was perhaps named after her grandmother, Elizabeth Mary Grieve. She married on 24 March 1864 in Christchurch, Monmouth to Isaac Evans, son of Evan Evans and Sarah. He was a Brewery Manager, his father being an Innkeeper. She married against her parent’s wishes and after her parents died she was completely cut off from her family. She died in 1937.
She is seen in the 1861 census as a visitor in her sisters home in Monmouthshire, Christchurch. She was the 3rd wife of Isaac Evans. This family gravitated towards the professions of engine fitters and blacksmiths.
George Bowes had a brother who died with the same name, and so he was so named to replace him. (It seemed that if a child died young, the next child of the same sex would be named the same.) He was born on 30 May 1798 in Chester le Street, Durham and christened on 22 July 1798. He was part of what would have been a large family of 10, but through the deaths of some of his siblings, there were 7 in the family.
George is listed in Gore’s Liverpool Directory of 1827 as a bookkeeper and living at 13 Grafton Street, Liverpool. A Bookkeeper is those times meant a person who looked after business books, much the same as today’s meanings.
He married Sarah Ann Garside on 19 May 1828 at Walton on the Hill, when she was 22 years old and he was 30 years old. Together they had 5 children, John, Elizabeth, Robert, Ann and Sarah Georgina. He was listed in the 1841 England census as an accountant during the time of his marriage to Sarah.
Sarah, the mother, died in the Dec quarter of 1843 in Prescot, a mere 13 km from Walton-on-the-Hill, and he remarried to Mary Ann Jefferson (born Rothwell), who was 33 years and he was 47 years old, in the same year. Their marriage took place at St Augustines, Everton, Liverpool on 17 October 1845. Mary Ann’s father is listed as William Rothwell, merchant. (Incidentally at the time of his marriage to Mary Ann, he was listed in the marriage register as being a Collector of Taxes.) Mary Ann was born on 6 April 181 and christened on 14 June 1811 at St Peters, Liverpool.
By the time 1851 rolled around, he was a bookkeeper and living at 1 Chesnult Street in Mount Pleasant, Liverpool with only his daughter Sarah at home with him and his wife. The 1851 census took place in June 1851, a month before Mary Ann fell pregnant with their son George Jefferson who was born the following year.
His son was born in April 1852 in Liverpool, and was named George Jefferson Taylor. Tradition dictated that the eldest son was always called George Bowes, and as George Bowes Taylor had great admiration for Jefferson, a historical figure at the time, he broke this tradition.
In the 1861 Scotland census, it shows that George Bowes Taylor was living as a lodger within the household of Thomas Dickson in Ladhope, Roxburghsire. He was a book canvasser, and it seems that his occupation took him from place to place.
In the 1871 Scotland census he was living as a lodger in the household of Marion Gracie who letted apartments in Dumfriesshire. His wife was living at Port Street, in Annan, Dumfriessshire, Scotland with their son, George Jefferson Taylor. She may have gone there with her son to “settle him in” as he was an apprentice lawyer, or because of the nature of her husband’s occupation. They lived together while the father George lodged during the week in Dumfries and perhaps came home on weekends to be with his wife and son.
By 1881 he was a retired agent living at Moss Lane Cottage in Kendal, London. His wife was back at the age of 69 years and they had a housekeeper called Sarah Barker. He died later that year at the age of 83.
After his death, his son George came to fetch Mary his mother and they sailed on board the SS Roman leaving Plymouth on 24 June 1882 and arriving in Cape Town at 04h00 on 15 July 1882. They then sailed on past Algoa Bay to East London, from where she settled in the Eastern Cape near her son. George had emigrated between 1871 and 1878. She died in 1889 in Aliwal North, not far from where her son was a solicitor. She was buried at the Aliwal North Cemetery on 21 or 26 June 1889.
When her son George came across to South Africa, he at some point, met and married Isabel Ellena Alice Turvey in Queenstown. Isabel was baptised on 18 March 1858 in Queenstown, Eastern Province. He is shown to be in the Voters List of the Eastern Cape in 1878. At least the first two children were born in Cathcart, as shown in the Farmers Chronicle at the time. He had an advert in the Farmers Chronicle dated 17 January 1889 advertising himself as an Attorney-at-law and Notary Public as well as an Agent for the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society Ltd.
They moved to Lusikisiki at some point of his life. His children were Beryl Mary Harriet, Francis Rothwell Bowes, Charles Strathmore Jefferson, Cecil John Rhodes, Kathleen Isabel Marguerite and Frances Lenore, who was adopted. It seems that George decided to bring the tradition in again in part, by giving his eldest son the Bowes name again. He died at 29 Prince Alfred Street in Queenstown, which could have been either his home or at the home of one of his children. He was 65 years and 1 month when he died on 17 May 1917. His youngest daughter Frances was 9 years old at the time.
His daughter, Beryl married twice, and had 3 children, 2 daughters and a son. She died at the age of 82 years.
His sons, Francis Rothwell Bowes and Charles Strathmore Jefferson, went into business together as General Dealers, naming their business “Taylor Brothers” which was in East Griqualand.
Charles then became a salesman and traveller, marrying Kathleen Muriel Howard in 1919. He had 3 children, 2 sons and a daughter. His son Desmond was born a year before he died. He died at the Monastry, Sea Point at the age of 37 on 5 August 1927. His children were all minors at his death.
Kathleen Isabel Marguerite, married Johannes Jacobus du Toit in 1927 and they had 3 children, 2 sons and a daughter. She died at the age of 81 years.
Frances Lenore was adopted and married twice. She had four children in total, 3 daughters and a son. Her first husband was killed in an accident involving a train. She died at the age of 84 years. Her daughter Joan from her first marriage never married, and stayed at home.
Cecil married Cecilia Margaret Clyde, daughter of Sarah Jane Sills, born Webster and John Clyde. They had their first two children (both sons) while in Queenstown and then moved to East London where the next 2 children, daughters, were born. They stayed “on the Quigny” as it was always termed.
Cecil owned the Central Dairy in East London. He was a telephone sales rep for a while and he had an affair which resulted in his wife moving up to Johannesburg to be with her daughter Joan for a while who had gone there in August 1947. The separation was finally healed and she went back to her husband until her death in 1966. He remarried to a lady named Ethel, and they lived in Cape Town until his death on 13 April 1980. He was 84 years old.
