The Bowles of Myddelton House

See also The Bowles of Myddelton House Family Tree

Myddelton House

This story continues from The Bowles Family of London Printers page.

In 1799 the London printer/publisher Henry Carrington Bowles married Anne Garnault, a member of a wealthy Huguenot family connected to the New River Company.  She inherited Bowling Green House in Enfield, Hertford from her brother Daniel Garnault in 1809.  The Bowles tore the old house down and built a new home beside it.  Myddelton House, named in honor of Sir Hugh Myddelton was completed in 1818.  see Sir Hugh Myddelton and the New River Company

Unfortunately, only two of Henry and Anne's five children had children to continue the line and both were daughters thus ending the direct male Bowles of Myddelton line.  Their daughter, Anne Sarah, who inherited the house, married Edward Treacher and had a son, Henry Carrington Treacher who in his turn assumed the name Henry Carrington Bowles Bowles (not a typo) in 1852 in order to meet the inheritance requirements for Myddelton House as a Bowles.  Thus the line continued in a succession sense but not in the genetic male line. 

Henry Carrington Bowles Bowles was a Justice of the Peace for Middlesex county and was also the last Governor of the New River Company.  Two of his sons were noteworthy:

Henry Ferryman Bowles was a Justice of the Peace for Middlesex county, the Member of Parliament for Enfield, Middlesex from 1889-1905 and then again from 1918-22 and was the Major of the 7th Battalion Rifle Brigade.  In 1895 Henry Carrington bought the nearby 17th century mansion called Forty Hall for his son who later gained the title of 1st Baronet Bowles of Forty Hall, Enfield.  Henry Ferryman Bowles also only had daughters to pass his name on to so his son-in-law Eustace Parker assumed the additional surname of Bowles by Royal License in 1920.  Their grandson, Andrew Henry Parker-Bowles married Camilla Shand in 1973; they were divorced in 1995 and Camilla went on to marry Prince Charles.  It should be noted that Camilla Parker-Bowles is actually a Shand and the Parker-Bowles themselves while being the hereditary holders of the Bowles name are actually Bowles on the maternal side only and that Bowles line actually descended from Treachers in the previous generation (as mentioned above).  The male Bowles line ended with Henry Carrington Bowles in 1830.

Edward Augustus "Gussie" Bowles inherited Myddelton House in 1918 as his older brother already occupied Forty Hall.  He kept Myddelton House much as it was left to him by his parents, installing no electricity or telephone, although he did have gas installed in the kitchen.  Gussie was a member of the Royal Horticultural Society Council and has been described as "the greatest amateur gardener of this country, and the most distinguished botanist and horticulturist serving the Royal Horticultural Society".  He developed the gardens at Myddelton House into one of the finest examples of an English County Garden in England.  He also bred several new varieties of flowers and wrote several books about plants.  In 1968 the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority purchased the house and gardens and use Myddelton House as their headquarters.

The Gardens at Myddelton House

William Augustus Bowles - American explorer

Despite many claims on the Internet, William Bowles has no documented connection with ancestors of the Enfield branch.  

Wikipedia article