John Bowdler

John Bowdler was an annuitant for £120 p.a. on the estates (and presumably the enslaved people) of John Abel Ward from 1774 onwards, one of a long list of such annuitants for different amounts on different lives, suggesting that John Abel Ward had sold annuities secured on the estate to raise capital. LBS has identified Bowdler as John Bowdler the elder (1746-1823), who has an entry in the ODNB as 'author' and who was the brother of Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825) of the Bowdlerised 'Family Shakespeare.' Although no mention of the annuity appears in the will of John Bowdler, the identification is confirmed by the presence in 1837 of Rev. Thomas Bowdler, George Gipps and Sir Lancelot Shadwell among the executors of John Bowdler the annuitant, the same men as the executors under the will of John Bowdler proved 1823. Rev. Thomas Bowdler was Thomas Bowdler the younger (1782-1856), John Bowdler's son, who also has an entry in the ODNB.

London Gazette 19129, 18 February 1834, pg. 296; London Gazette 22415 21/08/1860 p. 3106 gives the executors of John Bowdler the annuitant as Rev. Thomas Bowdler, George Gipps (MP who married Jane, daughter of John Bowdler of Hayes) and Sir Lancelot Shadwell, the Vice Chancellor; will of John Bowdler of Inner Temple proved 17/07/1823, PROB 11/1672/442; John Bowdler (1746-1823) is known to have lived at Hayes c. 1810, Thomas Bowdler, Memoir of the Late John Bowdler, Esq: To which is Added Some Account of the late Thomas Bowdler Esq., editor of the Family Shakespeare (London, 1825).