Genealogy Australia

An authoritative study of the Bowes family in the 18th and 19th centuries (ancestors of H.M. the Queen Mother), and of the landscape and architecture of their estate at Gibside. The history of the Bowes family has the added interest of being interwoven with that of the development and later neglect of the Gibside estate in County Durham. In 1693 Sir William Bowes of Streatham married Elizabeth Blakiston and so brought the Gibside estate into the possession of the Bowes family. Their youngest son George Bowes became the owner of Gibside and other family estates. Bowes had great energy and interests, with substantial wealth based on coal. One of his activities, perhaps the most lasting, was to develop Gibside estate.