BOWYER, WILLIAM English printer, was born in 1663, apprenticed to a printer in 1679, made a liveryman of the Stationers' company in 170o, and nominated as one of the 20 printers allowed by the Star Chamber. He was burned out in the great fire of 1712, but his loss was partly made good by the subscription of friends and fellow craftsmen, as recorded on a tablet in Stationers' Hall, and in 1713 he returned to his White friars shop and became the leading printer of his day. He died on Dec. 27, 1 73 7.
His son, WILLIAM BOWYER (1699-1777), was born in London on Dec. 19, 1699. Educated at St. John's college, Cambridge, he entered his father's business in 1722. He became printer to the House of Commons, the House of Lords, the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries. He died on Nov. 13, 1777, leaving unfinished a number of large works and among them the reprint of Domesday Book. He wrote a great many tracts and pam phlets, edited, arranged and published a host of books, but his principal work was an edition of the New Testament in Greek, with notes.