Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Witness to the Revolution: Ashley Bowen (1728-1813)

Ship "Argo" of Marblehead Bound Home, by Ashley Bowen (1783)
Ashley Bowen, an Eighteenth Century resident of the coastal town of Marblehead, Massachusetts, was the first American maritime diarist.  His writings provide contemporary, first-hand insight into New England life in the period leading up to, during, and following the American Revolution.  His political, religious and personal writings are heart-felt and complex.  He was sympathetic to the overwhelming revolutionary fervor of the citizens of Marblehead and their grievances against the British Crown, but he was also loyal to the Anglican Church that housed his religious faith.  His journals give graphic accounts of his personal adventures, successes and failures, and his emotional inner life.

Bowen was the son of ambitious justice of the peace and almanac writer Nathan Bowen.  When the younger Bowen was twelve years old, his beloved mother died during child-birth, an event he would later describe “as the greatest part of my ruining”.  Less than a year later he was bound into an apprenticeship with a cruel ship captain who gave the boy regular beatings, treated him as a personal servant, and taught him little or nothing about running a ship.   A friend of the Bowen family who witnessed this cruelty arranged for Ashley to be released from his servitude before the term of apprenticeship was completed .

Ashley Bowen was a sailor from before he was a teen until he was in his late thirties.  He had a wide variety of duties and occupations both while at sea and while ashore.  He visited all of the major ports of the Atlantic and the Caribbean, and wrote detailed narratives about his journeys.

In 1754, the ship that he was serving on, The Swallow, was captured by pirates and he was held prisoner on the island of HispaƱola.  Bowen and his fellow prisoners were treated well by their captors, but the tropical climate took its toll.  When Bowen fell ill, he was allowed out of the prison to regain his health.  Soon after being released on this sick-leave, he found a house cat.  The cat’s owner was a wealthy island merchant, and when he discovered that Bowen had the lost cat in his care, he invited the sailor to his home for a meal and eventually arranged for his passage back to New England.

After over a quarter century as a sailor, Ashley Bowen never fulfilled his ambition of becoming a ship's captain.  As he reached middle-age he left the seafaring life and became a sail maker, a somewhat lucrative but unstable career.  He was widowed twice, married a third time, and fathered fourteen children.

Ashley Bowen lived during perhaps the most tumultuous times in American history.  He enlisted in the expedition against Quebec in 1759 and witnessed the Battle on the Plains of Abraham, and saw the French surrender Quebec to the British a few days later.  He saw epidemics sweep through Boston and Marblehead, taking the lives of many of his family and neighbors.  From 1766 until the outbreak of the American Revolution, Bowen wrote almost a daily account of his activities and life in Marblehead.

According to Bowen, the Revolution was an ill-conceived idea.  He had served in the British Army a decade and a half before, and he believed it to be an undefeatable force.  He had a strong allegiance to the Anglican Church, of which King George III was head.   Marblehead, however, had a stronger anti-British sentiment than any other community in the Colonies.  When Bowen believed that the Anglican structure in Marblehead, St. Michael’s, was threatened, he copied The Book of Common Prayer by hand, word-for-word, so that the text would survive the wrath of the angry mob.  In August of 1776 he wrote the following poem:

On Religion and Revolution
As for opinions, I confess
I never upon them laid stress
Sometimes a Whig, sometimes a Tory
But seldom steadfast in one story.
                The reason is, I’m not yet fixed
So my religion is but mixed.
Yet, most of all, I do incline
The Old Episcopalian Line:
Yet not so fixed on this head,
But I can turn my coat for bread,
Yet don’t mistake my meaning, as
If from the truth I meant to pass;
The essential parts of my opinion
Is not in any sect’s dominion
Nor will I e’er be tied to think
That in one spring I ought to drink.
In Christendom we all affect:
The Christian name in some respect:
Yet to our shame and our derision
Were full of schisms and divisions
Some are Papists, some are Prelates
Some are Quakers and some Zealots.
Some Anabaptists, some Aquarians,
Some Antinomians, some Arians;
Some are Free Willers, some Ranters:
Some Presbyterian covenanters;
Some Erskinites to gain probation:
Some Glasites, some for presentation
Though these all aim at Heaven at last
There diff’rence puts me in a gast;
To follow which I cannot tell;
Therefore I bid them all farewell;
Because I knew, that faith and love
The sphere is wherein I should move.
For sure without true Charity
None can enjoy Felicity
But Charity, now at this day
She is obliged to fly away.
Instead of which envy and hate
Contempt, resentment, and debate,
Is most in each society,
This makes me all these sects deny
Tis not in word as I do read
But Christians, must be so in-deed;
So Madam, this is all my creed.

In addition to being a diarist, Ashley Bowen was also a watercolor artist. Several of his maritime paintings are currently displayed in New England museums.  Through his prose, poetry and painting, Ashley Bowen has provided modern historians with one insightful witness’s account of the historic events and everyday life that occurred during the period of the American Revolution.



Adam Lowe Martin (son of ) – Allen Lowe Martin – Allen Littlefield Martin – Frank Martin – Elbridge Gerry Martin, Jr. – Elbridge Gerry Martin, Sr. – Ambrose Bowen Martin – Elizabeth Bowen (daughter of ) – Nathan Bowen (father of) – Ashley Bowen

9 comments:

  1. Tremendous amount of work you put into researching this Adam. Really nice job. Like the color scheme here too.

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  2. what a life! amazing how he was able to thrive in spite of the cards being stacked against him. with the luxury of hindsight, we are able to see provisions made for him. fantastic story!....b

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  3. To AJ: Thanks for checking out the blog. The research is the fun part. it always amazes me how things really do not change. The things that you write about in "KAAWK" (that's kickassadventuringwithkids.com - check it out) seem to come back to living life to the fullest and what that really means. All our challenges and victories, that we think are uniquely our own, are the same challenges and victories experienced by countless generations before us.

    To Brooke: i think that's exactly how Ashley would have put it! He had many advantages and privileges that he seemed to take for granted, like we all do, and often wrote as if he thought the fates were out to get him. He didn't achieve many of his ambitions and he faced many personal disappointments, but he had a long, healthy life that was full of adventure, and his writings and art work have survived over two centuries.

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  4. From Mei-An Tsu (on Facebook): "Adam that's amazing! Ha---my head is swimming in New England Maritime History at the moment....just finished restoring the Maritime Arts Gallery at the MFA, Boston (close to Marblehead)--also--I married a pro-sailor & so sailing on historic vessels is big part of life these days--finally--yesterday I just sent off some info the NYtimes for an piece they may write on the restoration of an 18th C glass ship model---but clearly you're links are much more direct! thanks for the facinating post"

    To Mei-An: I am definitely going to check out the Boston MFA collection and I would love to hear more about the ships that you and your husband have sailed on. I really hope that you will keep following the blog, because I know that there will be future posts that you will have insight on. And its really good to hear from you. Its been a long time!

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  5. Also a big Kickass Adventures with Kids fan as well.

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  6. To Marty: I thought you might like the poem. Right up your alley.

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  7. Mei-An Tsu (on Facebook): I'll have to check the MFA's collection of nautical drawings/paintings--I am more familiar with the boat models---the one I spent months reconstructing was very similar to Argo--strange huh? The model's provenance is still a mystery--so I bet Ashely would have been able to shed some light on the problem

    My husband Karl restores wooden boats & races one designs --mostly on the cape, miami, bermuda and newport , sometimes Europe. I am not familiar with Galway races--I'll ask him about them though-- a little different than sailing the sunfish on mtn lake!....so swimming in the wake of history was a great past time pre-kids (Lord Byron was obsessed w/ swimming, as was E.A. Poe)

    Adam Lowe Martin: I don't know if ol' Ash would have been that much help. I'm not sure he was one of the great mariners or engineers. I'm not even sure he was that skilled a diarist, poet or painter, but he was competent enough to express himself, which he did, and I think there's a big life lesson in that.
    I have read about your swimming exploits. Pretty incredible. And to think that I swam in your wake, doing laps, on all those winter afternoons! You picked great role models as far as swimming and poetry goes, but when it comes to your personal life, I hope you leave Eddie and Gordo out of the equation! I am sure you do!

    (Note: Mei-An, a friend that I grew up with in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, is an objects curator for the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. A few years ago I bought a copy of the New York Times, turned to the Arts section, and there she was on the section's front page! Check out the article at http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/29/arts/design/29mosa.html?pagewanted=all
    A truly fascinating article!)

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  8. Was Ashley Bowen a black sailor?

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