Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/95

 in January 1765 became prebendary of Westminster. He was promoted from his prebend to the bishopric of Killaloe and Kilfenora by patent dated 29 June 1771, and on 8 Jan. 1779 was translated to the archbishopric of Dublin, with a seat in the Irish privy council. While he held the bishopric of Killaloe he caused the present see-house to be erected. Philip Skelton [q. v.] has spoken of him in terms of high respect for his great regard for religion, as well as for his kindness and affability, not, however, unattended by warmth of temper—an ordinary ‘concomitant of good nature;’ and he has noticed as unrivalled his solemnity of manner in reading the services of the church (, Life of Skelton, 1792, p. 183). John Wesley makes a similar remark (Journal, xx. 14). In 1782, as a member of the Irish House of Lords, Fowler was one of twelve spiritual peers who protested against the bill for the relief of dissenters, as likely to promote clandestine and improvident marriages. In 1789 he concurred with fourteen other peers in protesting against the memorable address to the Prince of Wales (Lords' Journals, vi. 243). He also joined in protesting against the resolution condemning the answer of the lord-lieutenant refusing to transmit the address. He married, in 1766, Mildred, eldest daughter of William Dealtry of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, and coheiress of her brother, William Dealtry of Ashby in the same county, and had an only son, Robert, who was promoted to the bishopric of Ossory in 1813, and two daughters, Mary, countess of Kilkenny, and Frances, who married the Hon. and Rev. Richard Bourke (subsequently bishop of Waterford and Lismore), and was mother of Robert, fifth earl of Mayo. Fowler died suddenly at Bassingbourne Hall, near Dunmow, Essex, where he had resided two years for his health, on 10 Oct. 1801.

 FOWLER, WILLIAM (fl. 1603), Scottish poet, has been doubtfully described as at one time pastor of Hawick, a living formerly held by Gavin Douglas. He was in France before 1581, whence, he wrote, he was driven by the Jesuits. In 1581 he published, with Robert Lekprewick, at Edinburgh, ' An Answer to the Calumnious Letter and erroneous propositiouns of an apostat named M. Jo. Hammiltoun.' The dedication, dated from Edinburgh 2 June 1581, is addressed to Francis, earl Bothwell. Fowler sets forth what he alleges to be the errors of Roman Catholicism, and claims acquaintance incidentally with the Earl of Crawford, Sir James Balfour, and other distinguished Scottish statesmen. He was subsequently prominent as a burgess of Edinburgh, and about 1590 became secretary to James VI's wife, Queen Anne. He was engaged in political negotiations with England, and in 1597 wrote an epitaph on his friend, Robert Bowes [q. v.], the English agent at Berwick. In 1603 he accompanied his royal mistress to England, and was reappointed not only her secretary but her master of requests. His leisure was always devoted to poetry, and soon after his arrival in London he enclosed two sonnets addressed to Arabella Stuart in a letter to the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury; they are printed in Nichols's ‘Progresses of James I,’ i. 250, 260–1. In September 1609 a grant was made him of two thousand acres in Ulster.

Fowler's sister married John Drummond, first laird of Hawthornden, and was mother of William Drummond, the poet [q. v.] Fowler seems to have left the chief part of his poetry, none of which has been published, to his nephew William. This consists of two volumes, entitled ‘The Tarantula of Love’ and ‘The Triumphs of Petrarch.’ The former is composed of seventy-two sonnets in the manner of the Italian sonneteers, and the latter is a somewhat diffuse translation from Petrarch. These manuscripts were presented by Drummond of Hawthornden to the university of Edinburgh in 1627. The esteem in which Fowler was held by his contemporaries is illustrated by the commendatory sonnets, including one by the king himself, prefixed to his poems. His style is marked by the verbal and sentimental affectation of the period, but it is not seldom scholarly and graceful.

 FOWLER, WILLIAM (1761–1832), artist, was born at Winterton, Lincolnshire, 12 March 1761, not, as is wrongly stated in the parish register, 13 March 1760. He became an architect and builder at Winterton, and about 1796 made drawings of Roman pavements discovered there. These were so much admired that he took them to London to be engraved. He there studied the 