Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/96



], which was received with high approbation from Dr. Wotton, Samuel Clarke, and other men of letters. On 9 Oct. 1728, shortly after his mother's death, he married Anne Prudom, his mother's niece, a ward of his father, acquiring with her freehold farms in Yorkshire and Essex. On 17 Oct. 1731 his wife died in her twenty-sixth year, leaving one child only, Thomas, born 1730, a previous son, William, having died in infancy. In 1729 he wrote the preface to Bonwicke's life of his son—'A Pattern for Young Students in the University,' &c., London, 12mo; and in the same year he was appointed, through Onslow, the speaker, to print the votes of the House of Commons, an office he held under three speakers, and for nearly fifty years, in spite of efforts to prejudice him as a nonjuror. In 1730 he edited Dr. Wotton's posthumous work, 'A Discourse concerning the Confusion of Languages at Babel,' London, 8vo. In 1731 he wrote 'Remarks on Mr. Bowman's Visitation Sermon on the Traditions of the Clergy,' exposing that gentleman's deficiency in Latin and Greek, as well as in ecclesiastical history. The 'Sermon' and these 'Remarks' made a great stir at the time. In 1732 Bowyer was involved in a literary dispute with Pope, which seems to have ended with the poet's expressing a good opinion of his critic. The same year he published 'The Beau and Academick,' a translation of Haseldine's 'Bellus Homo et Academicus,' recited in the Sheldonian theatre. In 1733 he wrote in the magazines many letters and papers on Stephen's 'Thesaurus.' In May 1736, at the recommendation of Drake, the antiquary, Bowyer was appointed printer to the Society of Antiquaries, of which he was elected a fellow the July following. He made several valuable contributions to the society, of which are noteworthy one on 'The Inscription on Vitellius at Bath,' and a 'Dissertation on the Gule or Yule of our Saxon Ancestors.' The same year, in conjunction with Dr. Birch, he formed the Society for the Encouragement of Learning, an institution which promised well, but had a very brief existence. In 1738 he became liveryman of the Stationers' Company, of which he was afterwards called on the court in 1763, and fined for the office of master in 1771. In 1741 he put into useful form two schoolbooks, 'Selectæ ex Profanis Scriptoribus Historiæ,' and 'Selectæ e Veteri Testamento Historiæ,' with his own prefaces. In 1742 he edited a translation of Trapp's 'Latin Lectures on Poetry,' with additional notes; and also the seventh volume of Dr. Swift's 'Miscellanies,' 8vo; and in 1744 he wrote a pamphlet on the 'Present State of Europe,' chiefly from Puffendorf, which is now exceedingly scarce.

In 1747 he married his housekeeper, a widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Bill, who had lived with him fourteen years. In 1750 he wrote a prefatory critical dissertation to Kuster's treatise, 'De vero usu Verborum Mediorum,' also a Latin preface to Leedes's 'Veteres Poetæ citati,' works, printed together, of which new editions with improvements were issued in 1773, 12mo, 1806, 8vo, 1822, 12mo. The valuable and extensive notes on Colonel Bladen's 'Translation of Caesar's Commentaries' signed 'Typogr.' were by Bowyer, 1750. He also wrote the long preface to Montesquieu's 'Reflections on the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire,' Lond. 1751, and translated the dialogue between Sylla and Eucrates. The same year he gave to the world the first translation of Rousseau's 'Paradoxical Oration on the Arts and Sciences,' which gained the Dijon prize in 1750, and wrote a preface to the work. Excepting a few brief periods of retirement to Knightsbridge, Bowyer clung to business very closely, and his great labours in producing an immense number of learned works at length told upon his constitution. He therefore entered into partnership in 1754 with Mr. James Emonson, a relative, and Mr. Spens, a corrector of the press, and afterwards editor of 'Lloyd's Evening Post,' and took another house in Kirby Street, Hatton Garden, to enjoy 'a freer and sweeter air' in the garden grounds attached. A separation of partnership took place in 1757, when Bowyer resumed the active duties of his profession. This year he took as his apprentice John Nichols, then thirteen years of age, who was soon entrusted with the management of the office. In 1761, through the interest of the Earl of Macclesfield, president of the Royal Society, Bowyer became printer for that institution, and held the same office under five presidents up to his death. The same year he published 'Verses on the Coronation of their late Majesties, King George II and Queen Caroline,' spoken by scholars of Westminster School, with translations of all the Latin copies. In this humorous pamphlet he had the assistance of Mr. Nichols. In 1762 he edited the thirteenth and fourteenth volumes of Swift's Works, 8vo, and in 1763 appeared his excellent edition of the Greek Testament in 2 vols. 12mo, pp. 488, to which he added 'Conjectural Emendations,' &c., paged separately, pp. 178. These critical notes, selected from the works of Bishop Barrington, Markland, Schultz, Michaelis, Owen, Woide, Gasset, and Stephen Weston, were considered of very great value. A second edition of the 'Conjectural