Sir John Bowring at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum Exeter

As I said yesterday, in my post about the Royal Albert Memorial Museum at Exeter, that I would share my memorial item from the Museum.

One of my ancestors, was well known and lived in various places round the globe, but was born and died in Devon and in particular Exeter. I gave a fleeting thought on whether there would be anything at the museum about Sir John Bowring (1792 - 1872).

Well, as luck would have it there was a small mention of Sir John and in particular the fact that he left his collection to the Museum.

Here is what was on display -

Having looked at the small collection on display I asked a staff member if they held anything more. They do and it is held in the bowels of the museum and not likely to be added to the item displayed any time soon.

The Museum website revealed this about John Bowring, so no details that I didn't already know, but what a shame that there was not more on display.

The Ruling Caste by David Gilmour

Recently, I have been focusing my genealogical time on India as I work on a book about part of my family who spent time in India. Nothing special, except the research has unravelled some real surprises and I felt the stories were worthy of being shared through a wider audience.

As part of that research I wanted to fully understand India during the Victorian period and I came across The Ruling Caste by David Gilmour.

As always I turned to the index and was delighted to see a reference to another family connection.

It is those references I thought I would share here -

"Lewin Bowring felt that the great void in his life was travel. In 1854 he therefore set off on a long journeys through Rajputana, China (where his father, whom he had not seen for 10 years, was Governor of Hong Kong), France, Italy and Central Europe (which he toured three times), and the British Isles, where he inspected seventeen cathedrals" (page 276 Source Unpublished Memoirs).

"Lewin Bowring, who joined the Bengal Civil Service in 1843, won several prizes at Haileybury for Persian, Sanskrit and Hindustani. Yet on arrival in India he found his proficiency in these languages was "nearly useless" "(Page 40 Source Unpublished Memoirs)

I think we always assume that those who travelled to overseas destinations did so with little chance of returning home. That is a inaccurate. The amount of travel depended on your means in terms of financial and your status. The family whom I have been researching made several journeys, yet the time it took to travel and the conditions must have been very trying.

Family History Through The Alphabet Challenge: D is for.....

On the back of the A-Z April Challenge, the lovely folk at Gould Genealogy devised another challenge - Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge. Each week, we work through the letters of the alphabet sharing perhaps an elusive ancestor, a favourite or particular ancestor, or perhaps a heirloom.

D is for Discovery

I have a search facility set up on a well known auction site for some specific family names. Every time something is listed with the particular name I receive and email and a link to the item.

A few months ago I received within a week two such emails. Two different items listed by two different sellers, relating to the same surname. I was delighted! I watched the items and placed at the appropriate time a maximum bid and then waited. The first item was an original document from 1844 and pertains to a lease. A mistake with written on the page, so on the reverse is an amendment.

At the end of the auction I won the item and then waited patiently for the item to arrive. When it did I was not disappointed. I wrote to the seller asking if they had any further information. I received a response that the item belonged to a friend, whose father used old documents, which he cut up and used them to decorate lampshades. I was so glad that for whatever reason he changed his hobby and this beauty of a document survived.

The second item related to a book, which is a first edition and as well as containing poetry by the John Bowring, the book also contains a small biography written by Lady Deborah Bowring, the second wife of the deceased.

Rothwell & Bowring Ltd, Newfoundland, Canada

Sepia Saturday 112 - Books

You would think in a house stuffed to the rafters I might have an old photo of some books, but no, so this week's submission is an offering of a couple of newish photos, taken last year of this wonderful old scrapbook which I stumbled across on eBay. Made extra wonderful, because I have a distant genealogical collection to the Bowring featured in the scrapbook.

Taking part in Sepia Saturday

1909 Advert - Bowring Red Cross Line Cruise

1912 Advert - Bowring Red Cross Line

1902 Advert - Bowring & Company Red Cross Line

1923 Advert - Bowring & Co

Postcard Friendship Friday - Bowring Institute Bangalore India

Submitted as part of Postcard Friendship Friday hosted by The Best Hearts are Crunchy

Wordless Wednesday - An old Scrapbook

Taking part in Wordless Wednesday

1926 Advert - C T Bowring & Co Ltd

1911 Advert - Bowring Red Cross Line Cruise

1911 Advert for Bowring Red Cross Line Cruise Watercraft Ship

Sunday Salon - Books & Quilts

I have not written a fuller Sunday Salon post for over two weeks, although I did write last week about the situation in New Zealand.

The last few weeks have been busy, with work and proof reading the final days of the Family History Writing Challenge. I did manage to return my library books last Monday without incurring a fine - hooray! and collect a few more. I cannot resist, but I did try....honest. I also collected my stash of books for World Book Night, but more about that later.

My latest book review was the latest in the Lindsay Boxer series by James Patterson - 9th Judgement.

A few weeks ago I dropped a note on a blog hosted at Dizzy-C Book Blog of the strangest food eaten. My comment was that I had eaten, even the smallest, minuscule bit of snake. I promise a blog post on it, which I finally did yesterday and you can read about it HERE, the result was my comment won me a lovely signed copy of the latest book by Christina Courtenay called The Scarlet Kimono, which looks at first glance to be a great book, more when I have read it.

One of my favourite author's is Marie Bostwick, who writes a great series called the Cobbled Court Series, which is essentially about quilting. I highly recommend the series and have read books one and two, have book three on the bedside table and yesterday I have received an email advising that book 4 is due to be published later in the Spring.

Also mentioned in the newsletter was a great link to a website called Jo's Library Quilt and you can also join the Face Book page which accompanies the web page. There are a few link to follow if you are interested, but it appears that the original concept was a patten created by Christine Thresh. The whole purpose is to raise money for a new library in Coalville in Utah USA, and what a wonderful way to raise it. I am planning to purchase the patten from Christine Thresh's website for a project of my own.

A couple of weeks ago I spotted on a well known auction site a rather amazing scrapbook relating to a distant branch of my family. I watched the item for a week, daring to read each day what the current bid was at. Last Sunday evening was the finish line and I placed my bid, and waiting to see if anyone else was planning to bid. Thankfully no one did, and yesterday the scrapbook arrived. It spans the entire political career of my distant ancestor from 1868 - 1874. I sat yesterday morning and looked through the book wondering just who had collected the items, was it a Victorian fan, or perhaps a family member? Maybe even the individual himself. I think I have now worked it out, but more on that later. In the meantime, a little glimpse at the scrapbook!

Bowring Family at Torquay

Through various bits of research I established the Bellasis family connected to a fairly well know Devonian family called Bowring. As I live in the County it was relatively easy to access the archives and cemeteries. I don't want to write more of the Bellasis & Bowring families at the moment as they are going to be the subject of a couple of "Ancestor of the week" posts over the next few months, but I wanted to load the photos up the Grave Encounters site and I couldn't do that without a small write up.

Having established that Lewin Bentham Bowring was buried in Torquay I telephoned to see if I could arrange for the grave to be marked so that I could find it it easier. When I met up with the groundsman he said that there were two graves and asked if I had known that. I said no. He then arranged for me to see the burial books, which indicated that in addition to the grave of Lewin Bentham Bowring and his wife Katherine there was also the grave of Lewin's son Captain Vincent Bowring, but the plot also contained the son Edward Lewis who had died in 1885 aged 15 years.

It is a purely a guess that the grave had been initially been marked with a headstone for Edward by his father, but by the time Captain Vincent Bowring had passed away in 1951 both Lewin and Katherine themselves were deceased and as the family already owned the plot someone made the decision that Captain Vincent could be interned there and placed the headstone accordingly, which means that the burial of Edward is no longer recorded at the site, and only in the burial register.

Buried in section C, Un-consecrated ground

Pray for the souls of

LEWIN BENTHAM BOWRING CSI

Chief Commissioner of Mysore and Goore

J P for Devon

Who died Jan 14^th 1910 aged 85

And KATHERINE his wife

Née BELLASIS

Who died March 18^th 1915 aged 74

Requiescant in Page

Pray for the soul of

Captain VINCENT LEWIN BOWRING

Royal Navy

Died Feb 23^rd 1951

RIP

Section C line 18 Grave

From the Cemetery records we can establish that also buried in this grave is

EDWARD LEWIS LLANISLAS BOWRING

Who died 3^rd July 1885 aged 15.

The plot was purchased by Lewin B BOWRING.

Katherine purchased the grave of Lewin Bentham BOWRING at the time of his death. She purchased a double plot and they lay side by side.

At the time of her death Katherine was residing at 90 Hagley Road, Edgebaston Birmingham.

Graves Transcribed March 2000, Photographed June 2002