Maria's Diary 41 and Epilogue

Chapter 41

Keep the unity of spirit,

Keep it in the bonds of peace,

So alone shall we inherit

Hope, and truth, and blessedness.

 

John Charles was the main beneficiary of Papa’s papers and his Polyglot Bible, but the rest of inherited an equal share of his gifts.   

Lewin took upon himself to write up Papa’s book, The Autobiographical Recollections of Sir John Bowering in 1877. He made no effort to produce a biography but he did express his own lack of sympathy with Papa’s views and considered it a subject of regret that a better cause of quarrel with the Chinese was not found than the Arrow Affair. 

The book was not well received, partly because of what was considered Papa’s conceit and his reputation was attacked many times in succeeding years. He was not allowed to rest in peace. 

In 1879 Justin McCathy produced his History of Our Own Times, which contained a verbose condemnation of the conduct of Papa, “who set up early for a sort of great man and whose eager self-conceit would not allow him to resist the temptation to display himself as a master spirit of those who bid the English be of good cheer and compelling inferior races to bow in the dust before her.” The family decided not to take on these attacks, partly because so many of us had reservations about his Chinese policy. 

I will try to update this diary with my siblings’ lives. 

 

Edgar  was Member of Parliament for Exeter from 1868 to 1874 and served as Vice President to the Devon Association.

Edgar is publishing much of his work about the poems and dramatic works of Johann Wolfgagn van Goethe. 

His son from the first marriage, Edgar Francis was disabled from birth, and spent most of his childhood with various of his mother’s family caring for him. He hopes to become a clergyman. His sister Margaret also spent her life with her mother’s relatives. So we don’t know either of those children very well. 

With his second wife he has Algernor and Victor.

John Charles and Mary  have John, Arthur, Charles, Mary Isabel, Humphrey, and Walter.

Lewin and Kattie have Charles, Mary Lucy, Edward, Philip, John Bellasis (who was born just after Papa died), Vincent, Francis, Wilfred and she is pregnant again. 

Frederick never married, and was very offended when one of the people who had been critical of Papa added about him, “Members of Trinity always marry their bed-makers.”  This article was about his main leisure activity.

 Climbing owes more to Frederick Bowring  than to any other man. His knowledge of the rocks of Cumberland, Wales and Dartmoor is curiously complete, and his long, lean frame and springy gait enable him to cover much ground. He was a Fellow of Trinity, Cambridge, and practised at the Parliamentary Bar, trudging daily to Lincoln's Inn and back. Among the hills he always carries a 6 foot pole and with its aid swings himself across streams with great agility. Norwegian was not in vogue in his youth, so he knew little of Scandinavian origins, but he has a sound knowledge of Welsh and gave ingenious explanations of many place-names, such as Shir-gant-maen (Shire-hundred-stone) for Sergeant Man, Huel-y-llyn (lake-mine) for Helvellyn. He also thought that Welsh bwlch (' pass ') may be concealed in some of the Bulls and Gaelic Beallach with the same meaning in some of the Bells.

He is  indifferent to weather and seldom does more to meet it than tying a sort of grey bandanna over a hat originally of hard felt, but softened by the lapse of years. His tall figure bears a long tailed morning coat, probably the same which he wore in London, and in its pockets he keeps an amazing assortment of loose field glasses, tobacco pipes, string, knives, sandwiches,

Edith is still sharing accommodation with our cousins. 

As far as Deborah is concerned in 1879 she was one of the people whose views were quoted in a book regarding women's opinions about women's suffrage. She made the important point that although she paid taxes, she was denied political representation. She also confirmed her strong opinion regarding giving the vote to women.

I will not be writing any more in this diary as I have decided to spend my time from now on with the Nuns of the Society of the Child Jesus in London. 

EPILOGUE

I am ending my Maria’s Diary story here.  There is very little in newspapers or in books or on line about her life for the next 20 years.  I do know that in the 1881 census she was listed as an Annuitant at the Religious House, in London.  In 1891 she is again back staying with Deborah, but when she died in 1899, she is living with the same group of Nuns as she was in 1881, although their address was changed. 

Her brother John Charles  in 1872 became a companion of the Royal Albert hall. He predeceased Maria, in 1893,  but again there is very little written about his later life. Several of his children had news-worthy lives, but I don’t intend to go into that.

Her brother Edgar spent much of his last years in various private nursing homes, where he is listed as a lunatic.  However, I think he had spells where he went back to his family in between the confinements. He died in 1911. When Edgar’s wife died she left £40,356, 19.1 She lived in St George House Square, with her sons  Victor and Algernon, Edgar sometimes there, sometimes not.  In 1881 she was living with her father Lewis Cubitt, in Brighton. He died in 1883 leaving £77,900. In 1911 she was still living in St George House with her son, Algernon. 

Lewin was honoured by having an institute in Bangalore, named the Bowring Institute after him in 1889. Lewin died in 1910 leaving only £294.  Wilfred Joseph Bowirng, his son, was executor along with the solicitor, Oswin John Chalton, from Newcastle. 

Her step-mother Deborah died in 1901, and I don’t know whether there was any money left from her inheritance for Sir John’s children.  

When Edith died in about 1920, her will says she had about £7,000. That was a similar amount to what Maria had in her will.  Because their inheritance was so similar, I think it must reflect the money their father settled on them either when he married, or when he died.  I would have expected Edith to have more money, having outlived both Maria and Deborah but she didn’t. I don’t think either of them mentioned her in their wills. I wonder if Maria left her money to the convent where she had lived much of the last 20 years of her life. They did have a big building project just after her death. 

Lewin died in 1910  and Fredrick  died in 1917.  

Here is the Heraldry listing of the descendents of Sir John Bowring. 

1. John Charles Bowring b.1820 d.1893

                                                               i.      John Frederick Edward Bowring b.1867 m.1904 Mary Georgina F Hope d.1940

1.      Christopher George Arthur Bowring b.1909

                                                             ii.      Arthur Hautayne Bowring b.1870 m.1913 Lorna C Colleton

1.      Anne Hawise Colleton Bowring m.1932 Hubert Edward Buxton

a.       Robert Hugh Buxton b.1933

b.      Sara Carolyn Colleton Buxton b.1937

                                                            iii.      Sir Charles Calvert Bowring b.1872 m.1909 Ethel Dorothy Watts d.1945

1.      John Charles Bowring b.1911

2.      Humphrey Kempthorne Bowring b.1912 d.1989 Superintendent, Trinidad Police

3.      Dorothy Mary b.1910

4.      Elizabeth Anne b.1914

5.      Margaret Eleanor b.1919

                                                           iv.      Admiral Humphrey Wykeham Bowring RN CB DSO b.1874

                                                             v.      Walter Andrew Bowring CBE b.1875 m.1909 Nita Maud Howey d.1950

1.      ? Bowring

                                                           vi.      Noel Hamilton Bowring b.1880 m.1910

                                                          vii.      Mary Isabel b.1869

2. Frederick Hermann Bowring b.1823 d.1917

3. Lewin Bentham Bowring b.1824 d.1910

                                                               i.      Charles Talbot Bowring b.1864

                                                             ii.      Mary Lucy

                                                            iii.      Edward Lewis Stanislas Bowring b.1869

                                                           iv.      Philip Francis Bowring b.1871

                                                             v.      John Bellasis Bowring b.1872

                                                           vi.      Vincent Lewin Bowring b.1875

                                                          vii.      Maj Francis Stephen Bowring b.1878 m.

1.      Maj-Gen John Humphrey Stephen Bowring b.1913 m.1956 Iona Margaret Murray d.1998

a.       Son

b.      Son

c.       Daughter

d.      Daughter

                                                        viii.      Wilfrid Joseph Bowring b.1879

                                                           ix.      Ignatius William Bowring b.1880

                                                             x.      Edith Mary

                                                           xi.      Clara Mary Aloysia

4. Edgar Alfred Bowring. b.1826 d.1911

                                                               i.      Edgar Francis Bowring b.1854

                                                             ii.      Margaret Sophia

                                                            iii.      Algernon Cunliffe Bowring b.1859