Robert Bowyer

Robert Bowyer (c. 1560–1621) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1601 and 1610.

He served as Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London early in the reign of James I of England and was named to the office of Clerk of the Parliaments in 1610. He is notable for his Diary, which records much of the detailed proceedings of Parliament between 1605 and 1607. a London merchant whose memorial was in St Olave Jewry.

Life and career

Bowyer was the second son of William Bowyer, Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London and his wife Agnes, daughter of Sir John Harcourt (d. 1566) of Oxfordshire and Staffordshire, the widow of John Knyvet of Ashwellthorpe, Norfolk. Robert had an elder brother William (who died young), a sister Judith, and an older half-brother Henry Knyvett.

His father died in 1569 or early 1570, and young Robert was placed with his uncle, Francis Bowyer, a wealthy alderman of London. He received his BA from Oxford in 1579 and continued his studies briefly at Clifford's Inn before entering the Middle Temple in 1580. The role went to Smith, and Bowyer was given the reversion of the position (which he took up after Smith's death in December 1609).

In 1599 Buckhurst succeeded William Cecil as Lord Treasurer, and by that time Bowyer was in service as Buckhurst's secretary, a position he probably held until the Lord Treasurer's death in 1608. Under the Lord Treasurer's patronage Bowyer was elected Member of Parliament for Steyning in 1601. Near the end of his first term, it was recorded that he "swooned upon a sudden, and was again recovered within a quarter of an hour. It was said he had a spice of the falling sickness".

Thomas Smith died in December 1609, and Bowyer was sworn Clerk of the Parliaments on 30 January 1610, resigning his seat in Commons. He soon brought Elsynge on to assist him in the Lords. He and Elsynge continued to serve as joint Keepers of the Records in the Tower until 1612. Bowyer spent the remainder of his years organising and preserving the Parliamentary records which he had found in a sadly neglected state.

Bowyer died 15 March 1621 and was buried at St Dunstan-in-the-West on 16 March. He died unmarried, leaving his books and papers to Henry Elsynge who succeeded him as Clerk of the Parliaments. His will was proved 22 November 1622.

Works

Bowyer's diary of his years in the Commons was published as The Parliamentary Diary of Robert Bowyer, 1606–1607, edited by David Harris Willson, University of Minnesota Press, 1931. It was reprinted by Ogden Press in 1971.

Bowyer and Elsynge's official notes as Clerks of the Parliaments were published as Notes of the Debates in the House of Lords Officially Taken by Robert Bowyer and Henry Elsing 1621, 1625, 1628, edited by Frances Helen Relf, Royal Historical Society, London, 1929.