John Bowles and Mary Snow

Yvonne Bean Research

"re John Bowles - In the 1841 Census, it said that John was "Army", so looked on the Kew site & found 2 possibilities: one from Wilton & the other, Winterbourne Gunner. Looked at both Parish records & found in each a bapt in circa 1776 for a John Bowles / Boles.  I'm going to get in the marriage at Tardebigg with crossed fingers that there is more info on it - regiment / parish. If the Regiment is mentioned, then I can get the Army papers."    9 Oct 2006

"The marriage record came in - it just says that both were of this parish, which leads me to think that it's the wrong marriage. If he was Army (which he should've been in 1803) usually the marriage records say so.
No satisfaction with the Army papers that I got in - basically I'm looking for the date of death for both John Bowles.  This is usually written on the Pension papers." 10 Oct 2006

"I looked at the marriage of John Bowles & Mary Snow on the Parish records - LDS film.  I don’t think that this is the right couple.  John Bowles was in the Army from the 1790’s - & would’ve been still in them at the time of the marriage.  No where on the registers does it mention anything about the Army only that they were ‘of the Parish of Tardbig’.  Usually it would give the Regiment.  I also had this marriage as we know that Mary was born in Worcestershire, but having 2nd thoughts, now.
 There are 2 different John Bowles that can be our guy: 
Covering dates        1792
Scope and content   JOHN BOWLES
Born                        WILTON, Wiltshire
Served in other regiment(s) unspecified; 4th Foot Regiment
Discharged aged 35 after 15 years 9 months of service
Access conditions Normal Closure before FOI Act: 30 years
Closure status Open Document, Open Description
Held by The National Archives, Kew
Possible:
Covering dates 1796-1814
Scope and content   JOHN BOWLES
Born                        WINTERBOURNE GUNNER, Wiltshire
Served in 15th Dragoons (Light)
Discharged aged 37
Access conditions   Normal Closure before FOI Act: 30 years
Closure status Open Document, Open Description
Held by The National Archives, Kew 
Possible:
Par: George & Mary   born: 11.11.1775      bapt:  29.09.1776   Wilton by Salisbury
Par: Charles & Elizabeth         bapt: 10.03.1776  Winterbourne Gunner
 
I’m now awaiting Army Pensioner records, which hopefully, will give a date of death to tell us which one is ours."
13 Oct 2006

Review

In the light of Yvonne Bean's research, where are we?
(1) John Bowles
We have the choice of the Christenings in Winterbourne Gunner and Wilton. John was living in Winterbourne Earles in the 1841 census. Winterbourne Earles, Gunner and Dauntsey are less than a mile apart, while Wilton is about six miles away, and on the other side of Salisbury. We would have to go with the local boy as a 75% chance?
(2) Mary Snow
Her 1851 census entry is the key. It is mis-indexed in Ancestry.com under Mary Davis (b abt 1784), but the text is Mary Bowles, and her place of birth is Worchestershire. The town is not very legible.
Ancestry has read it as Boarcanght.. Yvonne has read it as Boarcaught, which looks better.

 Either way, it doesn't seem to exist. In a discussion to Yvonne's query,  Helen Verrall suggests as possibles  BROUGHTON HACKETT - BROMSGROVE - BOCKLETON. An LDS search for christeninig of Mary Snow in Worchestershire 1780-90 gives just one entry  26 Sep 1781, in Bromsgrove, Worcester (parents Thomas and Mary Snow), so I reckon that is her. Bromsgrove is at the junction of the M5 and the M42 north of Worchester. Tardebigge, location of the John/Mary marriage is two miles WSW of Bromsgrove, so I think this is our Mary, and that is the marriage. Again it is the only marriage that  LDS has for John Bowles and Mary  in the county 1798-1808. That smells of overoptimism, but the 1851 census does have her living in Wiltshire and born in Worchestershire. Her age is pretty close.
Email in from Michael Mar 2013
I was looking at your page on John and Mary Bowles and noticed the bit about the place called Boarcaught (1851 census) that no one has been able to locate. I wonder if it is a misspelling of Burcot in Worcester (the census enumerator may not have been able to spell it as it wasn't local) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burcot,_Worcestershire. I've been googling for ages trying variations of the name and then thought to try the Wikipedia lists of place names in Worcester and found it there http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_places_in_Worcestershire.

Acknowledgemnts

Yvonne Bean's research has given us most of what we know here, and Michael for the email

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