Notes |
- BIOGRAPHY
John Bowne was baptised on 9 March 1627 in Matlock, Derbyshire, England, son of Thomas Bowne and his wife Mary.
Before 1656 he went to North America as in that year, in Flushing, New York, he married Hannah Feake, daughter of Lt. Robert Feake and Elizabeth Fones.
In 1662 he was arrested on orders of Peter Stuyvesant for allowing a Quaker meeting in his and Hannah's Flushing home. Bowne was sent to Holland for trial before the directors of the Dutch East India Company, and argued his case so successfully that the Company returned him to Flushing and directly ordered Stuyvesant to extend tolerance to Quakers and other nonconformist sects.
Hannah died in 1677/1678 and John on 20 October 1695 in Flushing, New York.
The home of John and Hanna Bowne still stands today, one of the two or three oldest buildings in New York City, property of the Bowne Historical Society.
|