Walter Bowne (26 September 1770 – 31 August 1846) was the 59th Mayor of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

from 1829 to 1833. Walter Bowne was born in Flushing, Long Island,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, the son of James Bowne and his wife Caroline Rodman. He was a descendant of John Bowne who, with other fellow

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...

was part of the

Flushing Remonstrance The Flushing Remonstrance was a 1657 petition to Director-General of New Netherland Peter Stuyvesant, in which some thirty residents of the small settlement at Flushing requested an exemption to his ban on Quaker worship. It is considered a pre ...

, one of the earliest establishments of the freedom of religion in North America and one of the predecessor documents on which the

First Amendment to the United States Constitution The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws that regulate an establishment of religion, or that prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the ...

was based. He was a

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. sta ...

senator from the Southern District from 1816 to 1822, and from the 1st District 1823 to 1824. He was a member of the

Council of Appointment The Council of Appointment (sometimes also Council of Appointments) was a body of the Government of New York that existed from 1777 to 1822. History Under the New York Constitution of 1777, the Council of Appointment consisted of the Governor of N ...

at Albany from 1817 to 1820. He was Mayor of New York City from 1829 to 1833. Faced with reports of

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium '' Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting an ...

in neighboring towns in 1832, he implemented a strict quarantine policy, regulating travel to and from New York City, and restricting ships to a distance of 300 yards from port, and carriages from within 1.5 miles of the city. His attempt to prevent an epidemic failed - because it was based on the mistaken but then-accepted notion that transmission of cholera was through personal contact rather than through contaminated water and food, The actual means of transmission was not discovered until 1883. Bowne was also the first President of 7th Ward Bank of New York City. He married Eliza Southgate in 1803. They had two children, Walter Bowne, Jr., and Mary King Bowne, who married John Watson Lawrence. Bowne Park (bounded by 29th and 32nd Avenue and 155th and 159th Streets in Flushing, Queens) is named for Walter Bowne. It is the site where his summer residence stood until a fire destroyed it in March 1925.

References

$3 bill issued by 7th Ward Bank of New York

External links

* New York (state) state senators Mayors of New York City 1770 births 1846 deaths People from Flushing, Queens Businesspeople from Queens, New York Winthrop family {{NewYork-mayor-stub