occupation

Agricultural labourer and farm
bailiff

dates

Born: Crowell, Oxon, 11 Apr 1859

Married: Mary Ann YEATES, 4 Nov 1877

Died: 17 Feb 1939, buried at Lewknor, Oxon

residence

Crowell, Chinnor, Pyrton, Cuxham, Lewknor, all in Oxfordshire.

submitted by

Suzanne PACKMAN (great-granddaughter)

related faces

Mary Ann BOWLER, née YEATES (wife)

Mary Jane HUMPHREY, née BOWLER (daughter)

Edith Minnie BAILLIE, née BOWLER (daughter)

Rose CHARD/TICKNELL, née BOWLER (daughter)

Background information

My great-grandfather John BOWLER was born 11 April 1859, the son of Frederick BOWLER and Elizabeth STRATFORD, in Crowell. In 1861 he was living with his parents in Chinnor, at Crooks Farm next to the parish church and in 1871 the family lived at the public house, the Catherine Wheel (now the Shepherd's Crook) in Crowell, where his father Frederick was the landlord.

On 4 November 1877 he married Mary Ann YEATES, daughter of Eliza YEATES; they were both living in Crowell at this time. By the time of the 1881 census they lived in a cottage in Crowell with three children, including my grandmother Rose, and in the 1891 census they are shown as living at Pyrton Heath Farm House – now with eight children. By 1901 they lived at Hollybush Farm, Lewknor, with their family.

All this time John is recorded as being an agricultural labourer, although on the marriage certificate of his daughter Mary in 1898 he is shown as a farm bailiff. Their various children were born in Crowell, Pyrton, Cuxham and Lewknor, so they must have moved around from farm to farm. In all, John and Mary Ann had thirteen children, the youngest being Edith Minnie BOWLER who was born in 1905. John died on 17 February 1939 and was buried in Lewknor.