Bowers Family Crests
I have often received questions about Bowers Family Crests. I have some, but I am not sure of their origins, but here is a consolidation of what I know.
What what is the "true crest"? I do not believe there is a single crest for a family name, My understanding is that a family crest belongs to the family, not the surname. So there might be one Bowers with a crest emphasizing their heritage which is different than another Bowers family with a different heritage. Each generation may also modify their crest to add individual insignia and such, so it will even evolve over time.
Still, it is interesting to see various family crests. If you have one, feel free to post it here and include as much of the history of it as possible. Thanks!
-Ray
- The Bower Community Homestead has a page of Bower Heraldry at http://bowercommunity.com/homestead/heraldry.html and some crests on http://bowercommunity.com/homestead/gallery.html along with some historical information about them.
- This is a photo I took of a Bowers family crest on the front of an old photo album when I was at a family reunion in North Carolina back in July 2001. I have no clue about its origins, but if I get any additional information, I will try to post it.
- Bowers Family Crest from House of Names. I did a little searching on-line for a crest and found the following partial description from http://www.HouseofNames.com :
- Bowers Family Crest, Coat of Arms, Origin Displayed: Scottish
Spelling variations include: Bower, Bowre, Bowyr, Bowers, Bowyer, Beauer and many more. First found in Peebleshire where they were anciently seated in the old manor of Bower in the parish of Drummelzier.Some of the first settlers of this name or some of its variants were: Henry Bower who settled in Virginia in 1637; Robert Bower settled in Virginia in 1698; John Bowers settled in Virginia in 1663; Jonas Bowers settled in Virginia in 1637.
(Above is a small excerpt from our 1800 word history)
Motto Translated: To the mark.
Suggested Readings for the name Bowers: "Hill Family of Early Central Texas-Bowers, Cole, McGehee, Michel, Roessler, Shelby" by Yates Michel Hill.
Some noteworthy people of the name Bowers: Bathsheba bowers (c.1672-1718) American Quaker preacher
- Bowers Family Crest, Coat of Arms, Origin Displayed: Scottish
- The following crest with a bird on the shielf, was e-mailed to me from a guest some time ago. I have no information about its origins.
- The following is what appears to be a metal crest someone had e-mailed to me a few years ago. I have no other information on the origin.
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| crest_raybowers.jpg | 21.74 KB |
| crest_bowers_bird_web.gif | 73.79 KB |
| crest_bowers_metal.jpg | 155.89 KB |
| crest_bowers_houseofnames.gif | 21.28 KB |
Crest Update
Hi William,
I have found out some interesting information regarding the Scottish side of the Bowers family. My fiancee is also from Scottish decent and so we have being working out what tartan can be worn during our wedding. With the help of wikipedia and a Scottish friend of our we made an interesting discovery.
According to wikipedia (which may not be the best of sources but is the best we have found) the Bowers clan came into being after the Gregor clan was sent into proscription. The Bowers clan therefore became an alias for the Gregor's. Our friend then pointed out that the lions on our crest made sense as they are a representation of royalty.
We are now going to attempt to find out as much about our connection with the Gregor clan so I will add more information as i find it, Perhaps it might help you also.
Good luck with your continued searches.
Jess
Crests
Based on the info I have. The red and blue crest is for the German branch of the family (Bauer), which is indeed different from the crests shown first. This info is based on a version of the crest that I purchased from one of the herald services.
That said many of the Bowers came to England following the collapse of the German Palantine state and the immigration of those folks to Britain and America. The Palantine was located near the Pfalz and Heidelburg areas of Germany. The area was basically destroyed by Louis XIV in the first half of the 1700s. It was during this time that Bauer and its variations were Anglicised to Bowers or sometimes Bower when Queen Ann opened the area up to immigration, as did William Penn during that same period.
Family Crest
Hi,
Im Jess and my family are of very few Bowers in australia (from what we believe as we have never found anothers).
I just thought that you might want to know a little bit of information on the blue and red crest that you have on your sight. It is very rare that we see our family crest on any web site and until i saw it here on you website i had not seen it anywhere else, even my father had difficulty.
My father inherited a sheild with out family crest on it from my great grandfather. It is the blue and red crest you have here (the first one). The crest, as we have found out, is from the Scottish Bowers clan that were a sept of the Gregor clan and there for have ties with Rob Roy.
We think that because the Gregor Clan were the closest thing to royalty in Scotland before the English invaded that it resulted in the three lions in our crest, meaning that we made the bow's and arrows for the Scottish royalty.
We dont have anything but speculation but i hope that this helps.
Jess
Crest
Hi Jess, I am from South Africa and too have tried to find out more about the Bowers crest - to no avail - until your post which I find quite interesting and has set me on a different research path in this regard as I was only focussed on the English origin of Bowers and the Scottish angle puts a whole new spin on it. Thanks
Would you be able to assist me in any way - I am trying to trace my roots so to speak and have hit a bit of a wall in that the patriachs are no longer with us. Let me know if you have any information on a Matthew Attwood Bowers who arrived in Cape Town on a British Naval vessel from (from delivering supplies to St. Helena Island. He had a son - Daniel Attwood Bowers - my grandfather. I am trying to trace the origins of Matthew Attwood Bowers. Any assistance in this regard or a pointer in any direction would be appreciated.
Cheers
William Attwood Daniel Bowers