Background
John Bowden was the son of Thomas Bowden, an officer in the British army. He was born on January 7, 1751, in Ireland where his father was serving at the time.
John Bowden was the son of Thomas Bowden, an officer in the British army. He was born on January 7, 1751, in Ireland where his father was serving at the time.
Bowden came to America in the care of a Church of England clergyman, following his father who had come here with his regiment, and for two years he was a student at the College of New Jersey (afterward Princeton).
When his father's regiment was ordered home young Bowden returned with him. But in 1770, he came back to America to carry on his studies. This time he entered King's (afterward Columbia) College and graduated in the class of 1772. He then studied for holy orders.
In 1774 John Bowden was ordered deacon by the Rt. Rev. Frederick Keppel, Bishop of Exeter, and advanced to the priesthood the same year by the Rt. Rev. Richard Terrick, Bishop of London. In the fall of this year, he returned to New York and accepted an invitation to serve as an assistant minister in Trinity Church.
During the troublous times of the Revolution he resigned his position and remained without a parish until the close of the war when, in December 1784, he became rector of St. Paul's Church, Norwalk, Connecticut. Here he remained until the fall of 1789, when the condition of his health made it imperative that he should seek a change of climate, and he accepted an invitation to take charge of the church in St. Croix in the West Indies.
He did not obtain the benefit which he had anticipated, and after a stay of about two years, he returned to this country and made his home in Stratford, Connecticut, where he established a small school. Among the Connecticut Episcopalians, who were now forging ahead under the vigorous leadership of Bishop Seabury, a movement was inaugurated as early as 1792, looking to the founding of an institution of learning within the bounds of the Diocese of Connecticut, which should be under Episcopal control, but not narrowly sectarian.
The result was the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut located at Cheshire, which opened its doors for the admission of pupils in June 1796. The constitution provided that "female education may be attended to under this institution, " and that was the policy of the school until 1836 when it became exclusively a boys' school.
For the first principal of this academy, Bowden was unanimously chosen. He accepted and took with him most of the pupils who were under his charge at Stratford.
He administered the affairs of the Academy with marked distinction and success until April 1802, when he resigned to become a professor of moral philosophy, belles, lettres, and logic in Columbia College, which position he held until his death.
When the Diocese of Connecticut was called upon to choose a successor to Bishop Seabury, who died February 25, 1796, Bowden was unanimously elected to that office, October 19, 1796. He requested that he might delay his answer until the annual convention in the following June.
At that time he signified his unwillingness to accept, the condition of his health being not the least of the reasons which governed him in making his decision.
In the defense and exposition of his cherished principles of church doctrine and government, he struck vigorous blows. These controversial pamphlets constitute, for the most part, his literary production.
He died at Ballston Spa, New York, and was buried there.
In his religious denomination John Bowden was an Episcopalian. He was chosen for the position of the first principal in the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut.
The testimony of Bowden's contemporaries is that he was a man of fine scholarship, an effective teacher, a true gentleman. He lived in times of ecclesiastical controversy when to give and take in the form of pamphlets was the recognized and orthodox mode of warfare.
Bowden was married to Mary Jervis, and one of his three sons graduated from Columbia in the class of 1813 and became a clergyman in the Episcopal Church.