Talk:John Bowles (author)

Completely disgraced in 1809?
The son of John Bowles the printseller and mapseller described here by the British Museum sure sounds like this guy but the main sentence of his bio (disgraced in a fraud case in 1809) seems to be entirely missing here. Completely different guy? or just massive omission from the other sources? — Llywelyn II   02:29, 21 May 2023 (UTC)

Seems so. I can only get a snippet view out of Google but
 * John Bowles, for example, the barrister son of John Bowles and brother of Carington Bowles, the printseller. An energetic loyalist pamphleteer in receipt of secret government pay, Bowles was the most active of all antivice members between 1803 and 1809 (when a fraud case happily disgraced him). The elevated windbaggery of his Reflection on the Political and Moral State of Society at the Close of the Eighteenth Century...

would make him the same guy. Obviously need more details on whatever was going on. Anyone have access to a library? — Llywelyn II   02:40, 21 May 2023 (UTC)

This looks to be the major episode in the Hansard (Alt): He and the other four commissioners for the Dutch prize ships and cargoes captured in the war c. 1795 had given themselves a 5% commission producing a ridiculous return, as opposed to the actual amount of work involved in overseeing the sales and the business each lost by serving, which was detailed in a report and then thrashed out in Parliament 1 May 1809. — Llywelyn II   05:09, 21 May 2023 (UTC)

Relation to William Augustus Bowles?
Even weirder, this presumably isn't the same guy but is another brother who must've had a rather bizarre life intended for a feature film:
 * Major Bowles, who died lately in the cells of the Moro Castle, Havannah, was brother to the famous Carrington Bowles, of print-shop memory, of Ludgate Hill, London. The major had lived so long among the Canadian tribes of Indians, as to become more than half savage himself. Long employed by the American ministers, and the American governors, he had perpetuated a number of mischiefs and cruelties on the peaceful and defenceless frontier inhabitants of the United States; went to England for a few years; after the revolutionary war, was again noticed and employed; but a few years back was landed out of a British sloop of war on the shore of the Bay of Mobile; made his way towards our southern frontier; and after alternately committing many excesses on the subjects of the United States, urging the savages to the war, and committing open hostilities against the Spaniards, he was betrayed, taken up by a party of his brother savages, and delivered to the Spanish commandant, who soon had him confined in the Moro Castle. He was there shut out from light and air, fed upon bread and water only, until, being deprived of all hope of delivery, he refused to take all kind of sustenance whatever, and died April 1806.

Presumably his first name wasn't "Major", though, or "General" which is what this source calls him. The second source, though, says Gen. William Augustus Bowles was the nephew of Carington (and thus John) and his father had just been a Maryland schoolteacher before the revolution. Presumably father and son didn't separately join different groups of indians to raid the Americans, Brits, and Spanish. — Llywelyn II   02:50, 21 May 2023 (UTC)

"Further reading"
It was fairly common with early Wikipedia to just dump lists of the cites from other sources at the bottom without any vetting. Kindly restore these to the article after they are either used as a citation for some fact or some guide is provided as to why an interested reader would find any of the following sources valuable on the topic:

— Llywelyn II   04:43, 21 May 2023 (UTC)