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Charles Bowles received his military commission on the recommendation of John Joshua Proby, 1st Earl of Carysfort (1751-1828) in April 1808.[1] Charles Bowles, gent, was gazetted ensign without purchase in the 83rd Regiment of Foot on 28 April 1808.[2] The 2nd Batallion of the 83rd Regiment sailed from Ireland for the Iberian peninsula on 29 March 1809.
He was promoted in the field by Arthur Wellesley, Lord Wellington (later 1st Duke of Wellington)[3] and was gazetted lieutenant 9 November 1809.[4]
Bowles fought at Busaco on 27 September 1810 and Fuentes de Oñoro in May 1811.[5] At the storming of Badajoz on 6 April 1812 he was said to have been one of the first over the ramparts[6], although this was disputed[7]. He was severely wounded, and was awarded a temporary pension of £100 per annum from 7 April 1813.[8] He received the General Military Service Medal with three clasps.[9]
Charles Proby Bowles of Dawson Street, Dublin, had licence 14 August 1813 to marry Catherine Davis, widow, of the parish of St Mary’s Dublin.[10] They married 23rd August 1813, at St Mary’s.[11] “Married… On the 4th instant, at St. Mary’s Church, in this City, by the Rev. Mr. Lefanu, Lieutenant Charles Bowles, of the 83d regiment, to Mrs. Catherine Davis, daughter of the late Samuel Hanly, Esq. of the Town of Galway.”[12] (The marriage date was apparently given incorrectly in the newspaper announcements.)
Louisa Catherine, daughter of Charles Proby and Catherine Bowles, was baptised 27 May 1816 at St Mary’s (Catholic) Church (later the Pro-Cathedral), Dublin[13]; while their son Frederick William Carysford Bowles was baptised 11 February 1818 at St Peter’s (Church of Ireland), Dublin.[14]
On 25 March 1817 the 2nd Batallion 83rd Foot was disbanded and Bowles was placed on Half Pay.
Another child, John Edwin Bowles, was born at Athlone on 17 December 1819.
From 1 January 1822 property at 33 Middle Coombe, County Dublin, was leased to Patrick Collins, corn chandler, by William Bowles of Judd Place West, City of London, gentleman and Charles Proby Bowles of the city of Dublin, Esquire, executors of Mary Bowles late of the city of Dublin, widow, deceased, mother of the said William Bowles and Charles Proby Bowles.[15] On 10 December 1823 the same William and Charles Proby Bowles, executors of Mary Bowles late of Dublin, widow, deceased, leased a house at 70 West Park Street, Dublin, to John Magouran, silk weaver.[16]
From 25 June 1823 his pension for wounds received at Bajoz was £70.[17]
A Charles Bowles, Esq arrived from Ireland at the Hyde Park Hotel, Hyde Park Place, London in February 1824[18].
‘Captain Bowles’ was recorded leaving the Hyde Park Hotel for Italy in late October 1824.[19]
On 26 February 1825 he was at Pisa in Italy, and was introduced by Count Metaxa, a law student, to the family of Francis Daniell, who had also served in the Peninsular War as Commissary-general, before settling in Italy and marrying a local woman named Maria. One of the Daniells’ daughters was Charlotte Augusta, then aged 18 years and 4 months. After five or six days Bowles asked to marry her; he claimed to be 35 and unmarried, with no objection to a catholic marriage, but wished to wait until he received some letters from England about a law suit; he later admitted he was married, but separated from and currently divorcing his wife. However, on the night of 3 April 1825 they eloped together.[20]
He joined the 32nd (Cornwall) Regiment of Foot as a lieutenant on 8 April 1825.[21]
In July 1825 he was found with Charlotte Augusta Daniell at 33 Somerset Street, Portman Square by the girl’s aunt, who took a Bow Street police officer with her as she had heard that Bowles was a violent man; the first time she went, Bowles was away at the races. He said his divorce had already cost £1500, if successful he would marry Charlotte but if not he would settle £110 a year on her, or £1000 when she was 21.[22]
C.P. Bowles, Esq. was noted as arriving at the Hyde Park Hotel, from Devonport, in December 1825.[23]
In March 1826 he purchased a captain’s commission in the 26th (Cameronian) Regiment of Foot, then stationed in Ireland.[24] He received the rank as of 8 April[25] but retired on 29 June 1826[26].
Meanwhile, on 10 March 1826, Miss Daniell gave birth in Italy to their illegitimate daughter[27]; nevertheless, Bowles was granted a divorce from his wife in April 1826 at the Prerogative Court of Dublin, on the grounds of adultery by her.[28]
In November 1826 he was arrested over unpaid bills; one Jeremiah Mather stood bail, who was himself later indicted for perjury.[29] Mather was found guilty as a ‘straw bail’ in the Court of the King’s Bench and sentenced to two months imprisonment, followed by seven years transportation.[30]
On 18 December 1826 he was tried at the Court of Common Pleas in the Guildhall, for Breach of Promise to marry and seduction of Charlotte Augusta Daniell. The prosecution maintained that “the unfortunate plaintiff had fallen victim to the seductive arts of a man much more matured in life than she was”, while the defence could only mitigate that “the defendant was a military man, who are a class of beings who are not quite so conscientious in matters of this kind, perhaps, as they should be”. The Lord Chief Justice, presiding, thought that was “most certainly a gross libel on the officers of the British army, whose honour, integrity, and gallantry were known all over the world” and thought it “most abominable that one officer should go to the house of another, and seduce his daughter.” It was noted that Bowles “seemed to be living in a profuse manner”; the jury found for the plaintiff, and Bowles was fined £1500 in damages.[31]
Following the running of the St Leger in September 1827, a newspaper report suggested that losses of at least £100,000 were still owing, with several people struggling to raise funds, and one insinuated defaulter: “One person, however, is gone, and that, we fear, irretrievably; he tottered on the Derby and Oaks, but paid, and got fresh credit. Those who suffer by him now will think of the old saying, “that those who play at Bowles must expect rubbers.””[32] In a letter in response, a ‘Friend to the Absent’ stated that “The gentleman who is alluded to left England, by the advice of physicians, above a year ago, and has been ever since on the Continent in a hopeless state of health, by reason of frequent haemorrhage from wounds received at the storming of Badajos.”[33]
In November 1829 his ex-wife offered a reward of ten pounds for intelligence of his whereabouts (described as Charles Probey Bowles, late Captain in 26th Regiment, and late of the Combe, Dublin), together with information of any clandestine marriage of his, and a further £5 for the whereabouts of two of their children.[34] Bowles replied that he was living with his children at 30 Rue Nauve de la Ferme des Mathurins, Paris.[35]
He married secondly, perhaps in France about 1830, Mary Ann Clarke, daughter and namesake of the Duke of York’s former mistress.[36]
From 1830 to 1834 he took legal action against the bank of Orr and Goldsmid in France, and in 1835 at the Exchequer Court, Equity Chamber in Westminster.[37]
In 1831, at the time of a son’s baptism, he was living at Belvedere House, Christchurch, Hampshire (now in Dorset);[38] another son was baptised in 1832 at Ryde on the Isle of Wight.[39]
In about 1832 he bought the Old Park estate, near Ventnor on the Isle of Wight[40], but had sold it again by 1835.
On 12 February 1835 he was at 100 Gloucester Place, London, claiming to be confined with influenza; by 6 March he was at Clifton, Bristol, saying “my health obliged me to make a retreat from Town last week I am now somewhat better”[41]; on 7 May 1835 he was at 6 Park Lane, Grosvenor Gate, London.[42]
He was in Brussels in August 1836 and witnessed his daughter’s wedding to John Edward Venables Vernon of Clontarf Castle, County Dublin, at the residence of the British ambassador (Sir Hamilton Seymour).[43]
In September 1836, as Charles Proby Bowles of 18 Hanover Square Esquire, he launched Chancery proceedings against various stockbrokers.[44]
His address in January 1839 was 12 Maize Hill, St Leonard’s on Sea, Sussex.
On 18 April 1840 Bowles was gambling at the Oriental Club with George Osbaldeston, and lost £3000; he promptly paid £700, but later accused Osbaldeston of cheating, and attempted to demand large sums of money in return for his silence. This resulted in legal proceedings in 1841-3.[45][46]
In 1842-3 there was a proclamation of outlawry against Sir Henry Wyatt, “to answer Charles Proby Bowles”; no further details were given.[47]
Captain Charles P. Bowles was listed as living at his son-in-law’s Clontarf Castle estate in 1846[48]; a report in August 1853 stated that “Captain Bowles, under whose effective management of the Clontarf estate has been so rapidly developed, intends very shortly to bring under public notice its extensive mineral capacities, which are said to be of a most superior quality.”[49] (This was at the time of his daughter’s death and burial at Clontarf).[50]
He was granted administration of his son Alfred’s goods 11 September 1856.[51]
Charles Proby Bowles died at Cadiz, Spain on 6 November 1856, described as an army major aged 66.[52] Administration of the goods of “Charles Proby Bowles late of Clontarf Castle Clontarf in Ireland but at Cadiz in Spain Esquire a retired Major from her Majesty’s Army Widower deceased” was granted to his son Frederick Augustus Bowles, 26 November 1856.[53]
He is called Charles Bowles in Army Lists 1809-1814, then Charles Proby Bowles 1815-1826; he first seems to appear under the latter name at his wedding, although was still simply Charles Bowles in the newspaper announcements. It would appear that he assumed the name Proby in honour of his benefactor, although it’s unclear whether there was any kinship between them. Given the lack of any direct statement of his paternity, the possibility arises that Bowles was an illegitimate son of lord Carysfort, who did have at least one daughter out of wedlock; however, on enquiry to the present head of the family, while her existence was known to them they knew nothing of Charles Bowles.
In the light of the evidence currently available - that his mother was called Mary and lived in Dublin, and that he was stated to be 35 in 1825 and 66 in 1856 - it seems most likely that he was the Charles Bowles baptised 4 May 1789: “Carolus f. Josephi & Mariae Bowles” (son of Joseph and Mary Bowles) of Dublin.[54]
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Categories: Dublin City, Ireland | 83rd Regiment of Foot | Irish Officers in the British Army | British Army, Peninsular War | Battle of Bussaco | Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro | Siege of Badajoz | Wounded in Action, United Kingdom, Peninsular War | 32nd Regiment of Foot | 26th (Cameronian) Regiment of Foot