605.George Bowers. Born ca 1590 in Manby, Lincolnshire. George died in Cambridge, MA on 30 Dec 1656. Occupation: planter.
George was of Plymouth by 1639. He removed to Cambridge. His will, dated 8 Nov 1656, was probated 30 Dec 1656.25
From Libby’s Knowles genealogy:26
“Mr. George^1 Bower (or Bowers), planter, was early at Scituate in the Plymouth Colony, where he was freeman 7 mar. 1636/7 and a town officer. By the spring of 1639 he had removed to Plymouth, and on 5 Mar. 1638/9 was elected constable for the whole of that town, although he did not sell his lands at Scituate or buy at Plymouth until 1640. he purchased lands at Eele River of Governor Winslow, who reserved the right of repurchase in part in case he should himself to settle there. He was soon complained of for not allowing the passage of cattle, and a committee was appointed to lay out ways through his land where they would be least prejudicial to him. In 1640 ‘John Barnes and George4 Bower,’ Richard Knowles’s nearest neighbor and his father-in-law, were given charge of procuring timber for the new Colony jail. In Jan. 1641/2 a dozen or more Plymouth men contracted for building a barque on shares, a sixteenth part each to Mr. William Bradford, John Atwood, George Bower, Edward Bangs, and others. But George Bower soon removed to Cambridge, apparently for the education of his sons. ... On 31 May 1652 he was called before the Court for voting when not a freeman of this [the Massachusetts Bay] Colony. In his will, dated 8 Nov. and proved 30 Dec. 1656, he did not mention his daughter Ruth Knowles, but bequeathed to his wife, his sons Benanuel, John, and Jerathmeel, and his young daughters, Patience and Silence.”
Check out the following sources for information on George Bower and his family:
(1) History of Cambridge Massachusetts, Paige.
(2) Pioneers of Massachusetts, Pope.
(3) Plymouth Colony, Biographical Sketches, Eugene Stratton, Ancestry Publications, Salt Lake, 1986.
Was George the son of Thomas and Iwerner (Minster) Bowers of Manby, who apparently married in 1590 at First Child, Lincolnshire?
9 Feb 1614/5 George first married Barbara Smythe in Braithwell, Yorkshire.26 Barbara died in Cambridge, MA on 25 Mar 1644.27