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Archiver > Scotch-Irish > 1999-12 > 0946265366


From: Mac McCutchan <>
Subject: Re: BOWMAN lookup
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 1999 22:29:26 -0500


As Virginia Beck has indicated, the surname Bowman doesn't appear in
Bell's Scots-Irish Surnames book (my earlier version is titled "The Book
of Ulster Surnames). This indicates that it isn't among the 500 most
commonly occurring surnames in Ulster. The name was there, however.
Hanna's "The Scotch-Irish", volume 2, includes a census of babies born
in Ulster in 1890, by Surname. There were 11 Bowman babies born in
Ireland in that year. Of these, 8 were born in Ulster, with the
concentration of them being in counties Antrim and Down.
Black's "The Surnames of Scotland" indicates the name has been in
Scotland since at least 1328. It was common on the west coast (in
Glasgow in 1550, Stirling in 1592). So it seems at least possible that
the surname found its way to Ulster, in relatively small numbers during
the Ulster Plantation, beginning in about 1610.
The Scotch-Irish Bowmans also clearly found their way to America.
In addition to the Bowmans Robert Heilig mentioned in his message of
12/26/99, I ran across the following: Volume 1 of Hanna's book
identifies an Abraham Bowman who was a Colonel of the Virginia Line in
the Revolutionary Army in 1777; and a Captain Bowman who was serving
under General Washington in the first North Carolina Regiment in 1778.

Mac McCutchan

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