Albums: Bowes and Bigelow Family History

Home Search Search Print Print Login - User: anonymous Login Add Bookmark

Matches 1 to 1 of 1

	Thumb	Description	# Items	Linked to
1		Bowe from Finnan, Kilkenny, Ireland [Sorry my software won't see my paragraph breaks! Will email for a fix.] The Bowes family in this website were originally part of the Bowe clan in Ireland. A good number of Irish Bowe became Bowes. Our family emigrated from Finnan, Kilkenny, between the towns of Ballyragget and Castlecomer, which are north of Kilkenny city. Our earliest known ancestor, Michael Bowe, married Elizabeth Brophy in 1820 in St. John's Parish, Kilkenny city. The Bowe clan in Ireland is focused in northern and mid-Kilkenny and southern Laois to the north. There was a concentration in Kilkenny city. There were also a good number in Tipperary to the west. Even though our Bowe emigrated during the Great Famine, my research indicates they probably did not emigrate as the landless and starving Irish usually associated with that period. They were "middling" farmers, renting 26 acres from Thomas Kavanagh, Esq. who owned vast amounts of land in northern Kilkenny. Others of the Bowe clan, including some Bowe cousins in the neighboring townland of Toormore, also rented rather large amounts of land. At least one was a "strong" farmer, renting over 100 acres. These Bowe subleased sections their land. They can be considered to have been commercial farmers, producing beyond their own subsistence needs. Some, particularly the "strong" farmers, also may have been middlemen who managed the local affairs of their landlords. These arrangements are recorded in the Griffith's Valuation, a comprehensive survey of Ireland from the mid-1800s. While many of the very poor emigrated from Ireland to avoid starvation and certain death caused by the potato blight, less well known--and more likely to explain our family's emigration--is that there were also land reforms causing many others to emigrate for new opportunities. There had been a movement afoot among those who owned land in Ireland to improve their farms using more modern technology. This sometimes reduced the need for having as many workers per acre. On top of that, post-war economic changes were forcing radical change on the agricultural landscape. The Napoleonic Wars had boosted prices on grain produced in Ireland. After those wars ended in 1816, owners of land in Ireland (many of whom were absentee landlords living in England) felt economic pressure to convert their farms from tillage to pasture. Pasture also required fewer Irish workers per acre of land. Finally, Irish tenants no longer had the ability to further subdivide and sublease their land to provide sections for their sons and their families to live on. Some landowners helped pay for their Irish tenants to emigrate, but other Irish tenants had to find their own way. Some shipping records appear to match up with our immigrants, but because their names were fairly common, we can't be sure they're the same people. Once resettled west of Syracuse, the Bowes farmed land in Onondaga County. Only 2% of Irish immigrants in the late 1800s were farmers. Most lived in large cities. A document written about Lawrence Bowes by his granddaughter Margaret Sheedy indicates he was a skilled and knowledgeable farmer. His son Michael invented a potato planter, and Michael's son Urban became a chemical engineer with a patent of his own. Their interest in inventing might be traceable back to the commercial Bowe farmers in Ireland, who would have had to assist with improving their landlords' farms if they wanted to remain on them. As long as it lasted. John Bowe from Toormore also settled west of Syracuse. He and our Lawrence married Kenney sisters from Castlecomer.	17	Family: BOWES Michael/BROPHY Elizabeth (F83) BOWES Bridget BOWES Dennis BOWES Edward BOWES Lawrence BOWES Mary BOWES Michael