29th of the same month, he obtained the rank of Post-Captain; from which period we lose sight of him until the establishment of Sea Fencibles in the spring of 1798, when he was appointed to the command of the district between Harwich and Yarmouth, having his residence at South wold. Early in 1809, he succeeded the present Lientenant-Governor of Greenwich Hospital, as one of the Captains of that establishment; and continuing to hold that appointment, was passed over in the general promotion that took place on the 4th June, 1814.
JAMES BOWEN, Esq
One of the Principal Officers and Commissioners of his Majesty’s Navy.
[Retired Captain.]
This officer, a native of Ilfracombe, co. Devon, is descended from the ancient and respectable family of the Bowens, of Court House, in the seignory of Gower, in Glamorganshire.
About the year 1776, we find him commanding a merchant ship employed in the African, Canada, and Jamaica trade; on board which vessel, his gallant brother, the late Captain Richard Bowen, first went to sea[1]. He subsequently entered the naval service as a Master, and served as such on board the Artois frigate, commanded by the late Admiral Macbride, in the battle between Sir Hyde Parker and Admiral Zoutman, Aug. 6, 1781[2].
Some time after this event, Mr. Bowen went into the Texel in a Dutch fishing boat, closely reconnoitred the ene-
- ↑ Captain Richard Bowen commanded the Terpsichore frigate, and fell covered with wounds at the attack upon Santa Cruz, in the island of Teneriffe, July 24th, 1797 (See Vol. I. note †, at p. 391.) He had landed at the Mole head, with about fifty of his crew, stormed the battery, spiked the guns, and was proceeding towards the town, in pursuit of the fugitive Spaniards, when a tremendous discharge of grape, from some field pieces in his front, brought him to the ground, with his first Lieutenant, and many brave followers, at the moment that Nelson received the wound which caused him the loss of an arm.
Commissioner Bowen had two other brothers in the naval service; George, a Post-Captain, died at Torquay, Oct. 31st, 1817; and Thomas, who fell a sacrifice to the climate of the West Indies, when serving as a Midshipman on promotion, in the Cumberland, Captain Macbride, during the armament of 1790.
- ↑ See Vol. I. note §, at p. 175.
