Thomas Bowles of London, Merchant

Thomas Bowles, Merchant of London's

Involvement in the South Seas Company

There were two Thomas Bowles who were merchants of both Bristol and London (see Two Thomas Bowles, Merchants of Bristol and London). One of them was Thomas Bowles of Hagley, Worcestershire who was a trader out of Bristol in his earlier years and later in London he was appointed the South Seas Company's first representative in Spain. (see Thomas Bowles of Hagley, Wors. in the South Seas Company) He died in 1721.

The other one was this Thomas Bowles, Merchant of London who traded with the South Seas Company after the above Thomas died in 1721.

The four ‘supercargoes’ shipping goods on the company’s ship the Prince Frederick, under Captain Whittington Williams, which sailed from England in August 1725 for Vera Cruz were Samuel Lockpox, David Patton, John Shippen and Thomas Bowles and Thomas was one of the agents who was shipping cargo on the Prince Frederick when its cargo was seized at Vera Cruz in 1727. (British Trade with Spanish America Under the Asiento 1713-1740 by Victoria Gardner Sorsby, Department of History, Universit0y College, London November 1975)