ROUGH DRAFT

For discussion only (line of descent below is possibly incorrect)

The story of the Bowles family in Roscommon is one of a very distinguished line but with a sad and tragic end. 

see The Phineas Bowles of Roscommon Family Tree

This line arrived in Ireland when Colonel Phineas Bowles an officer in his father's (Major General Phineas Bowles) Regiment of Dragoons was sent to Ireland in 1718.  See The Bowles of Chatham, Kent for more information on Phineas Bowles Sr. who is most notable as having succeeded Samuel Pepys as First Secretary to the Admiralty.

Phineas Jr. married Alathea Maria (Mary) Hill in Dublin 1724 and through this marriage he acquired vast land holdings in Ireland.  He commanded his regiment in Ireland until 1740 and served for a term as the Governor of Londonderry.  He died in 1749 in Bath, England leaving his eldest son, William Phineas Bowles, who settled in co. Roscommon where he was a Magistrate with extensive land holdings in that area.  William Phineas died in 1760 but he left his estate in dispute.  His wife had survived him but upon her death in 1771 his younger son, Richard, inherited the Hill estates as his eldest child, another Phineas, was illegitimate.  Possibly he may have inherited some land which his father personally owned but it would have been minor holdings compared to the Hill properties.  Phineas later sued Richard's daughter for a share of the rights to the estate.   He may have eventually obtain some land in Tipperary and in Roscommon as there is a memorial of his sale of the Tipperary land in 1779 which describes him as William Phineas Bowles of Summerfield, co. Roscommon.  ref. 

He apparently settled down and raised a family as there is a reference to a William Phineas Bowles as a Bail Commissioner in Ireland in 1835 (ref: EPPI site).   He seems to have later emigrated to Australia.  The records of the Superior Court of new South Wales record that a Phineas Bowles whose father was a magistrate in co. Roscommon, Ireland was hung for the murder of his wife in 1835. ref.

His brother Richard did have one son Thomas but he left his estate to his daughter.