Bernanuel Bowers (abt. 1627 - 1698)

Born about 1627 in East Orchard, Dorset, England [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Dunster) Bowers — married 9 Dec 1653 in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Descendants

Died 28 May 1698 at about age 71 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Brian McCullough [send private message], Seely Foley [send private message], and Antoine Boisvert [send private message]

Biography

Benanuel Bowers immigrated to New England as a child during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640).

Discrepancies from merge Apr 2018:

• First name: Benanuel, Benanuell, Bernanuel
• Birth location: East Orchard, Dorset, England, United Kingdom vs Yorkshire
• Birth date: 1621 vs 1627

Benanuel Bowers was likely born in England, but this researcher has found no record of his birth. Unless he was born in Plymouth Colony (not impossible) he was probably born in his father's home county of Yorkshire, like his older sister. His marriage to Elizabeth Dunster on 9 DEC 1653 is recorded in the Cambridge town records. She was related to the first president of Harvard College, Henry Dunster, who calls her my Cousin Bowers in his will. Five shillings were left to her and each of her children in his will. Benanuel Bowers appears in the court records as early as 1650 when he was admonished for absenting himself from the ordinance of baptism.

Benanuel was also an early convert to the Quaker religion. In 1663 he was convicted of absenting himself from church for about a quarter of a year and of entertaining Quakers in his family. He was fined twenty shillings for his absence from church, and four pounds for his hospitality, with three shillings by way of costs. Year after year he was fined for the absence of himself and wife from church. In 1673 for "slandering and reviling the court, and for servile labor upon the Lord's Day;" in 1676, for " profane and wicked cursing." After a time he refused to pay fines, and passed more than a year in prison.

From time to time he petitioned for release. He claimed that he had attended worship according to his own faith and conscience. He complained of hard usage. He appealed to those who knew him to bear witness to his character. '" I am about sixty years of age, thirty of which I have dwelt within about a mile of Cambridge town. What my life and conversation hath been amongst them, and what I have suffered these fifteen years for not going to the public meeting, is well known to many of my neighbors." In 1677 the court ordered that the marshal general should levy upon the estate of Bowers the fines which had been imposed on him, and that thereupon he should be set at liberty.

But his troubles were not ended by his release. While in prison he vented his rage at his treatment in "a paper of scurrilous verses, wherein the honored Mr. Danforth and others were defamed." He sent the verses by his wife to the house of Mr. Danforth, who laid the matter before the Court. The magistrates sentenced Bowers to be severely whipped with twenty stripes or to pay a fine of five pounds.

Mr. Bowers went to church on one occasion, at least, in 1677, when, after the services were closed, he stood on a bench and began to speak to the people. Mr. Oakes, who was then the minister, tried to stop him, but did not succeed. He gave him leave to reply to anything which had been said if he would do it on a week-day. Major Gookin commanded the constable to carry him out of the meeting-house, but he continued to bring his charges against Magistrate Danforth, and desired the church to take notice thereof. In December Bowers and his wife were convicted of slandering the magistrate, and were sentenced to be openly whipped fifteen stripes apiece and to pay five pounds apiece in money, and to stand committed until the sentence was executed. This is substantially the history of the sad Quaker episode, so far as the records of Cambridge present it.

In 1681 and 1682 Mr. Bowers was fined for non-attendance on public worship, but of the latter years of his life very little is known.

The witnesses of his will were men of prominence —one of them the president of the college, and the others orthodox ministers. " This fact," remarks Dr. Paige, "justifies the presumption that he did not regard them as persecutors, and that they did not consider him to be an arch-heretic."^[1]

Benanuel was born in England in 1621.

Benanuell Bowers married Elizabeth Dunster in Cambridge on Dec. 9, 1653.^[2]

Benanuel and Elizabeth Bowers had, in Cambridge:

• George, b. Feb. 3, 1653-4^[3]

"Benanuel. who m. Elizabeth Dunster. cousin of President Henry Duuster. of Harvard College, and lived in Charlestown"^[4]

He passed away in 1698. ^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ Hurd, D. Hamilton. History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men. Vol. 1. Philadelphia: J.W. Lewis, 1890 GOOGLE BOOKS
2. ↑ Middlesex, Vital Records of Cambridge Massachusetts, to the year 1850, page 43
3. ↑ Middlesex, Vital Records of Cambridge Massachusetts, to the year 1850, page 76
4. ↑ History of Billerica, Massachusetts, with a Genealogical register by Hazen, Henry Allen, pg 14 (382 of 588 in pdf)
5. ↑ That event not found in Cambridge vital records.

• New England Marriages Prior to 1700.. By Clarence Almon Torrey...[1]
• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LD84-ND2