Catharine Hall Bowie (b. 1778 - d. 1856)
MSA SC 5496-14960
War of 1812 Claimant, Prince George's County, Maryland, 1828
Biography:
Catharine Hall was born April 7, 1778 to Benjamin Hall and Eleanor Murdock in Maryland.1 Catharine married John Burgess Bowie of Prince George's County on October 15, 1803.2 Catharine and John B. Bowie had the following children: Ellen, Rachel, Elizabeth, Mary, and William Bowie. The Bowie's resided at their family home Friendship.
Catharine's husband served in the War of 1812 and was appointed a Justice of the Peace by the governor.3 During this time one of the Bowie's slaves' Phil ran off with the British in 1814.4 John Burgess Bowie later died in 1821 leaving Catharine a widow. He was buried at the family home Friendship.5 Acting as administratix for her late husband, Catharine Bowie filed a claim to recieve reperations for slaves lost to the British during the War of 1812. Bowie was awarded $280 for the loss of her husbands slave man Phil.6
In the years following the war slaves continued to flee from Catharine Bowie's home at Friendship. Bowie's slave John Forrester escaped from her home in March 1829.7 A few months following John's escape, another slave Sam, also fled from Mrs. Bowie's employ.8 Bowie repeatedly ran ads in local newspapers for the return of John Forrester and Sam.
By 1850 Catharine Bowie moved from Friendship to Melwood, the home of her son William B. Bowie and his family.9 Catharine Hall Bowie died intestate May 30, 1856 at Melwood. Catharine was initially buried at Friendship, but was reintered at the St. Barnabas Episcopal Church Cemetery in Prince George's County.10 Bowie's husband John and their daughter Rachel, were also reintered from the family home to the church cemetery.11
2. Prince George's County Marriage License 1797-1817, pg. 23
3. Effie Gwynn Bowie, "Across the Years in Prince George's County", (Richmomd: Garrett and Massie, Inc., 1947), pg. 724.
4. Claim of Catharine Bowie, Prince George's County, Case No. 834, Case Files Ca. 1814-1828, entry 190, RG 76, National Archives, College Park.
5. Sargent, 50.
6. Claim of Catharine Bowie, Prince George's County, Case No. 834, Case Files Ca. 1814-1828, entry 190, RG 76, National Archives, College Park.
7. "Fifty Dollars Reward", Daily National Intelligencer, May 01, 1829.
8. "150 Dollars Reward", Daily National Intelligencer, January 08, 1831.
9. Bowie, 725.
10. Sargent, 50.
11. ibid, 47.
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