Samuel Bowly

Samuel Bowly
Bowly at the 1840 Anti-Slavery conference
Born	1802 Cirencester
Died	1870 Gloucester
Nationality	English
Known for	Slavery abolitionist, Temperance
Spouse	Miss Shipley & Mrs Cottrell

Samuel Bowly (1802–1884) was an English slavery abolitionist and temperance advocate.

Biography

Bowly, son of Mr. Bowly, miller at Bibury, Gloucestershire, was born in Cirencester on 23 March 1802. He had a sound business training under his father. In 1829 he removed from Bibury to Gloucester, and commenced business dealing in cheeses.

He became chairman of local banking, gas, railway, and other companies, and for the last twenty years of his life he was a leader in commercial circles and affairs. In the agitation against the Corn Laws he took a prominent part, and supported Messrs. Cobden and Bright. It was one of his endeavours to give the people cheap and universal education, and he was not only one of the founders of the British and ragged schools in Gloucester, but a consistent advocate of a national system. Like his father, he belonged to the Society of Friends; he was a faithful and fair supporter of disestablishment.

Bowly took an active part in the anti-slavery agitation, and by his powerful appeals completely beat Peter Borthwick, the pro-slavery lecturer, off the ground. He was one of the deputation, 14 November 1837, which went to Downing Street to have an interview with Lord Melbourne about the cruelties exercised towards the slaves under the seven years' apprenticeship system, and in the following year took an active part in the formation of the Central Negro Emancipation Committee, which was ultimately instrumental in causing the abolition of the objectionable regulations. He is pictured above at the 1840 International Anti-Slavery conference in London.

Bowly is to the left in this painting, which is of the 1840 Anti-Slavery Convention. Move your cursor to identify him or click icon to enlarge

On 17 April 1840, the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society was formed to campaign for worldwide abolition of slavery. A short time later, the first World Anti-slavery Convention was held in London, attracting an international participation. Lecesne attended the convention and is depicted in a painting The Anti-Slavery Society Convention, 1840 by Benjamin Haydon(1841). However it was his advocacy of temperance that made him best known. It was on 30 December 1835 that he signed the pledge of total abstinence, and formed a teetotal society in his own city. One of his earliest missions was to the members of his own religious society, undertaken in company with Edward Smith of Sheffield, throughout Great Britain and Ireland. During his later years he held frequent drawing-room meetings. As president of the National Temperance League, as president of the Temperance Hospital from its foundation, and as a director of the United Kingdom Temperance and General Provident Institution, he was able to draw the attention of scientific men to the injurious effects of alcohol on the human system. On behalf of the National Temperance League he attended and addressed 107 meetings during the last year of his life, travelling many hundreds of miles.

The eightieth anniversary of his birth was celebrated in Gloucester in 1882, and he died in that city on Sunday, 23 March 1884, the eighty-second anniversary of his birthday. He was buried in the cemetery on 27 March, when an immense concourse of people, both rich and poor, attended the funeral.

He married, first, Miss Shipley, daughter of Mr. John Shipley of Shaftesbury. His second wife was the widow of Jacob Henry Cottrell of Bath, especially known for his connection with the Rechabite Friendly Society.

Works

Bowly published:

1. A Speech delivered 1 Oct. 1830 at a meeting to petition Parliament for the Abolition of Negro Slavery 1830
2. Speech upon the present condition of the Negro Apprentices 1838
3. A Letter to J. Sturge on the Temperance Society and Church Rates, by L. Rugg, with a reply by S. Bowly 1841
4. An Address to Christian Professors 1850
5. Total Abstinence and its proper Place 1863

References

• Haydon, Benjamin Robert (1841). "The Anti-Slavery Society Convention, 1840, publisher=National Portrait Gallery, London". London. http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait.php?search=ap&npgno=599&eDate=&.  NPG599, Given by British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in 1880

Attribution

• Claus Bernet (in German). Samuel Bowly. Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). 32. cols. 130–133. http://www.bautz.de/bbkl/b/bowly_s.shtml. 
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Boase, George Clement (1886). "Bowly, Samuel". In Leslie Stephen. Dictionary of National Biography. 6. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 71.