Edward Bowles
1613–1662
York Minster preacher; northern Presbyterian negotiator with the army.
Biography
Of St Catharine's Hall Cambridge, then chaplain to the Earl of Manchester through the Eastern Association campaigns of 1644-45 (Marston Moor; the second battle of Newbury). From 1645 he was settled as preacher at York Minster, where he became the principal Presbyterian voice in northern England. He was a key negotiator between the army and Parliament during the 1647 crisis and one of the parliamentary chaplains at the abortive Treaty of Newport with Charles I (1648). Strong Presbyterian, anti-Independent, but pragmatic enough that he was much used as a mediator. He died in August 1662, just before the Act of Uniformity could eject him — succeeded at the Minster by Edmund Hough.
Principal works
- Manifest Truths (1646)
- The Mysterie of Iniquity Yet Working in the Kingdomes (1643)
English Presbyterian divine
The great majority of the sitting members were English parish ministers of Presbyterian conviction. They formed the drafting core of the Assembly, manning its three standing committees and supplying most of the text of the Confession, the two Catechisms, and the Directory for Public Worship.