SubSubSeries Bowyer - William Bowyer's Charity

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William Bowyer (1699-1777) was lauded as ‘the most learned Printer of the Eighteenth Century’. After entering his father’s printing firm in 1722 as a corrector of proofs, he grew the wealth of the business through acquiring lucrative copyrights and patents, such as the rights to print the votes of the House of Commons and the works of Jonathan Swift. He left a significant bequest to the Stationers’ Company, dedicated ‘for the benefit of printing’. Bowyer’s bequest had two key components. Firstly, he left a sum of money to purchase two thousand pounds at three percent. The produce and dividends thereof were to be split between three elderly printers (classed as aged sixty-three and over) chosen by the Company. They would receive payments from this dividend twice a year for the remainder of their lives. Until the marriage of his son, a further six elderly printers would be looked after in this way too. The second major part of the bequest required the purchase of one thousand pounds at three percent for one journeyman compositor. The nominated compositor must regularly attend Church, would not work on newspapers or magazines, read Latin and Greek, be over thirty-one, and preferably have attended a public school with special preference for alumni of the Merchant Taylors’ School. Until such an individual might be found, the Company was permitted to fund a close match. Acknowledging the complex conditions of his bequest, Bowyer left the Company a further 250 pounds and a small silver cup.

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