A 5xgreat grandmother of mine was Etheldra Bowdler, who married Thomas Cox (or Cocks) in 1736 at Rushbury, Shropshire. They had at least three children: Thomas (1747), Elizabeth (1751) and Etheldra (1753), all baptised in Eaton-under-Heywood, but the gap from the marriage in 1736 to the first child's baptism in 1747 suggests strongly that they had other children baptised elsewhere.
Etheldra Bowdler was baptised in 1711, at Longnor, Shropshire. She was the daughter of William and Etheldra Bowdler (née Acton), who were married in 1696, either at Stapleton or Longnor (the marriage being recorded in the registers of both parishes). They had seven other children baptised at Longnor: John (1697), Elizabeth (1699), Elizabeth (1703), William (1706), Joyce (1708), Francis (1713) and Edward (1716).
William Bowdler was baptised in 1666, at Longnor, the son of John and Margaret Bowdler, who had four other children: Margaret (1662), Martha (1664), John (1669) and Richard (1671). The marriage has not been traced and Margaret's maiden name is unknown.
William's father, John was baptised in 1627, also at Longnor, the son of William and Margaret Bowdler, who had three other children: Jane (1623), Elizabeth (1630) and William (1632). There is no earlier record of the family in the Longnor registers, which go back to 1586. Margaret was William's second wife, the first being Jane Burgeis (married 1615), who died in 1617, having borne him two children, Margaret (1616, possibly died 1620/1) and Francis (1617, Condover). Jane was the daughter of Robert and Margery Burgeis. William may have died in 1664, buried at Condover (all Longnor burials took place at Condover or Leebotwood).
In consideration of William's marriage to Jane and payment of £180 by William, Robert Burgeis contracted in 1615 to provide William and Jane with food and lodging at his cottage in Longnor (which was conveyed to him by Thomas Corbett of Longnor in 1610), and to provide William with a "tanne howse with tanne pittes and other necessaries" on his land at Longnor, so that William could continue his occupation of tanner. This paperwork indicates that William was a yeoman and tanner from Wallop, which is in the parish of Westbury, Salop. Unfortunately, Westbury parish registers only date from 1638 and so do not help with the earlier history of the family at Wallop. A relationship to the Bowdlers in the nearby parish of Chirbury is possible, and it is also interesting that the Bowdlers of Woolstaston, Salop, were also tanners at this time.
Bowdler is a well-researched name in Shropshire, with an active Bowdler Family History Society, but I have not yet found anyone else researching my branch of the family, and I am unable to link my patriarch William into the extensive earlier Bowdler research that exists.
Please contact me by e-mail if you think you have any interests in common with mine.