William Bowyer (Keeper of the Records)

William Bowyer (d. 1569/1570) was an antiquary and government official who was a Member of Parliament and Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London early in the reign of Elizabeth I of England. He was the first Keeper to systematically organize and catalogue the store of government records maintained in the Tower. An avid collector of old manuscripts, he also created Heroica Eulogia, a compilation of grants and verse eulogies relating to the earls of Leicester, along with satirical verses and illustrations, for presentation to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.

William Bowyer was a son of Robert Bowyer, merchant and four-time mayor of Chichester, Sussex, and his wife Margaret. Little is known of William's life before 1553, when he followed his older brother Robert into the Middle Temple.

William married Agnes, daughter of Sir John Harcourt (d. 1566) of Oxfordshire and Staffordshire, the widow of John Knyvet of Ashwellthorpe, Norfolk. They had three children:

William Bowyer was appointed Bailiff of Westminster in 1560, probably with the support of Sir Thomas Parry. In this capacity, Bowyer advised Sir William Cecil as to the gifts expected of him in his new role of High Steward of Westminster Abbey (1561).

In 1563, probably with the good graces of Cecil, Bowyer attained the position of Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London, although he did not receive a formal patent for the office until 18 June 1567. As Keeper, Bowyer was responsible for the vast store of government records accumulated in the Tower since the reign of William the Conqueror. During his tenure, Boyer created the first systematic arrangement of the records. At a cost later estimated at some £1000, Bowyer produced a six-volume overview of all the documents under his management, including "digests of the parliament, patent, charter, close, and foreign rolls, from the reigns of King John to Edward IV (now in the College of Arms), as well as a list of escheats, a medieval roll of arms and a heraldic commonplace book."

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