Thomas Bowles
| Thomas Bowles | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1696 Corfe Castle, Dorset |
| Died | 6 November 1773 |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Doctor of Divinity |
| Alma mater | University College, Oxford |
| Occupation | Clergyman |
| Years active | 1717–73 |
| Organization | Church of England |
| Known for | not speaking Welsh |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth, née Lisle |
Thomas Bowles (died 1773) was a Church of England priest. He is notable for a controversy in which he was appointed to two parishes in Wales where hardly any parishioners spoke English, despite the fact that Bowles spoke no Welsh. Bowles was a grandfather of the priest and poet William Lisle Bowles (1762–1850).
Bowles was born at Corfe Castle, Dorset in 1696, the son of Reverend Matthew and Elizabeth Bowles. Bowles became married to Elizabeth Lisle of Evenley, Northamptonshire on 6 July 1727. Elizabeth bore Bowles a son, William Thomas Bowles, in 1728 and a daughter, Catherine, in 1733. Bowles' wife died on 9 August 1767.
William Thomas Bowles went on to be Vicar of King's Sutton, Northamptonshire 1760–73 and also Rector of Uphill and Brean in Somerset. A daughter of Bowles became married to another Church of England clergyman, Arthur Lewis, who was Rector of Thenford, Northamptonshire 1774–87. William Thomas Bowles' children included William Lisle Bowles, who was ordained priest in 1792 and was also a poet and critic.
Bowles was a graduate of University College, Oxford. He followed his father into the church, being ordained deacon on 16 June 1717 and priest on 24 May 1719. He was Vicar of St Mary de Haura, New Shoreham, Sussex, from 23 September 1727 until 3 October 1728.
Bowles was Rector of the parish of St Peter, Brackley, Northamptonshire for 37 years, from 1729 to 1766. From January 1734 he also held two Berkshire parishes, being the absentee Rector of Tubney (from 18 January) and Aston Tirrold (from 19 January). He would seldom if ever have ministered in either Tubney or Aston Tirrold: Bowles followed the then common Church of England practice of pluralism, under which Rectors could hold a number of parishes for their tithe or glebe income, use some of that income to pay a perpetual curate to minister in each parish, and keep the difference.
...
Wikipedia