Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/70

 more justly attributed to the death of the czar. He was imprisoned, threatened, and at last dismissed in a fashion strongly contrasting with the splendour of his reception. When ready to embark he sent back the new emperor's letters and 'paltry present' by 'some of his valiantest and discreetest men,' who safely fulfilled their dangerous mission.

The subsequent life of Bowes has left few traces. In a report by the lord chief baron of the exchequer he appears in a discreditable light, as having fraudulently dealt with a will under which he claimed (the record is undated, but assigned to 1587 in the Cal. State Papers, Domestic). On 5 Feb. 1592 a special license is granted him to make drinking-glasses in England and Ireland for twelve years, and in 1597 'the inhabitants of St. Ann, Blackfriars, built a fair warehouse under the isle' for his use, and also gave him 133l. (Notes and Queries, 1st series, x. 349). In 1607 he was living at Charing Cross, as appears by an account of a robbery and murder committed at his house there. 'A true report of the horrible murder … in the house of Sir Jerome Bowes on 22 Feb. 1606' (London, 1607); tells the story in great detail, with many invectives against Brownists, to which sect one of the murderers belonged. The culprits were apprehended on suspicion at Chester, and the lords of the council gave directions for the restitution of their plunder to Bowes (Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th Rep. 381).

Bowes was buried on 28 March 1616 in Hackney Church. A portrait of him, painted in the year of his embassy, is in the possession of the Earl of Suffolk at Charlton, and was in the National Portrait Exhibition of 1866 (No. 400 in Cat.)

[Authorities as above.]  BOWES, JOHN (1690–1767), lord chancellor of Ireland, born in 1690, studied law at London with Philip Yorke, subsequently Lord Hardwicke. Bowes was called to the bar in England in 1718, and in Ireland in 1725. He was appointed third serjeant-at-law there in 1727, solicitor-general in 1730, and through government influence became, in 1731, member of parliament for the borough of Taghmon, in the county of Wexford. He was appointed attorney-general for Ireland in 1739, and before a court of high commission at Dublin in that year displayed great eloquence and legal acquirements at the trial of Lord Santry for murder. In 1741 Bowes was appointed chief baron of the exchequer in Ireland. He presided at the remarkable trial at bar between James Annesley and Richard, earl of Anglesey, which continued from 11 Nov. 1743 to the 25th of the same month [see ]. A mezzotinto portrait of Bowes as chief baron was executed by John Brooks. Through the influence of Lord Hardwicke, Bowes was promoted to the chancellorship of Ireland in 1757, and took his seat as chairman of the House of Lords in October in that year. In 1758 the title of Baron of Clonlyon, in the county of Meath, was conferred upon him. Mrs. Delany, who met Bowes in May 1759, wrote that he was at that time 'in a miserable state of health, with legs bigger considerably at the ankle than at the calf.' In the same year, during the riot at Dublin against the proposed union of Ireland with England, Bowes was taken out of his coach by the populace at the entrance to the parliament house, and compelled to swear that he would oppose the measure. Bowes was averse to relaxation of penal laws against Irish catholics. He continued in office as chancellor on the accession of George III. Bowes promoted the publication of an edition of the 'Statutes of Ireland,' which was printed by the government in 1762 under the superintendence of Francis Vesey. According to Vesey, in his dedication of this work to Bowes, the latter had made the high court of chancery 'a terror to fraud, and a protection and comfort to every honest man.' Bowes acted as a lord justice in Ireland in 1765 and 1766. The House of Lords in 1766 passed a resolution to present an address to the crown for a grant of one thousand pounds to Chancellor Bowes, in addition to his customary allowance, in consideration of his 'particular merit and faithful services' during that session of parliament. The faculties of Bowes are stated to have been unimpaired when he died in office as lord justice in July 1767. He was interred in Christ Church, Dublin, where a marble monument, including a bas-relief of his bust, was erected to him in that cathedral by his brother, Rumsey Bowes of Binfield, Berkshire.

 BOWES, JOHN (1804–1874), preacher, was born at Swineside, Coverdale, in Coverham parish, Yorkshire, on 12 June 1804, the son of parents in very humble circumstances. While still in his teens he began preaching,