Bathsheba Bowers (June 4, 1671 – 1718) was an American

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

author and preacher. Her only surviving work is the

spiritual autobiography Spiritual autobiography is a genre of non-fiction prose that dominated Protestant writing during the seventeenth century, particularly in England, particularly that of English Dissenters, Dissenters. The narrative generally follows the believer fr ...

''An Alarm Sounded to Prepare the Inhabitants of the World to Meet the Lord in the Way of His Judgments'' (1709).

Biography

Bowers was one of twelve children of Quakers Benanuel Bowers and Elizabeth Dunster Bowers, the niece of

Henry Dunster Henry Dunster (November 26, 1609 (baptized) – February 27, 1658/59) was an Anglo-American Puritan clergyman and the first president of Harvard College. Brackney says Dunster was "an important precursor" of the Baptist denomination in America ...

, first president of

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. Her parents were from England and immigrated to America, settling in

Charlestown, Massachusetts Charlestown is the oldest Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Also called Mishawum by the Massachusett, it is located on a peninsula north of the Charles River, across from downtown Bost ...

, where Bowers was born and raised. Anti-Quaker persecution prompted the Bowers family to send their four eldest daughters to

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, which had a large Quaker population. Bowers never married, though her sisters did, and the diary of Ann Bolton née Curtis, the daughter of Bowers' sister Elizabeth who lived with the Bowers family for a brief time, provides what little biographical information is known of Bowers outside of her own writing. In Philadelphia, Bowers was noted for her eccentricity. Near a spring, she built a small home that the locals called "Bathsheba's Bower" or "Bathsheba's folly" and lived as a recluse. She cultivated her garden and adopted the principles of vegetarian

Thomas Tryon Thomas Tryon (6 September 1634 – 21 August 1703) was an English merchant and writer who wrote several popular self-help books and was an early advocate of animal rights and vegetarianism. Life Born in 1634 in Bibury near Cirencester, Gloucest ...

. She professed Quakerism but had a deep argumentative and independent streak. According to Bolton, Bowers was "so Wild in her Notions it was hard to find out what religion she really was of". ''An Alarm'' was likely published in New York by Quaker printer William Bradford in 1709. In the work, she presents her life as a series of tests designed by

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

for her to overcome and outlines her spiritual progress overcoming them. While ''An Alarm'' adheres to many of the conventions of Quaker spiritual autobiographies, its tone is that of what one critic describes as "a woman always emotionally on edge". Jill Lepore of ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' writes, "The only book that year

709 __NOTOC__ Year 709 ( DCCIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 709 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe ...

written by a woman, it's twenty-two pages long, and Bowers spends a good three of them apologizing for having written it. Bowers published an unknown number of other works, including a biography. The public response, if any, to her work is also unknown. She received no attention from scholars until the late 20th century, especially after her inclusion in the '' Heath Anthology of American Literature'' (1990). When she was thirty-five, Bowers moved to

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

, where there was a growing Quaker population. According to Bolton, Bowers believed she could not die. Bolton wrote of an Indian attack: Bowers, however, eventually did die in South Carolina at the age of 46.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowers, Bathsheba 1671 births 1718 deaths American Quakers People from Charlestown, Boston American religious writers People from colonial South Carolina People from colonial Pennsylvania American women religious writers American people of English descent Clergy from colonial Massachusetts 17th-century Quakers 18th-century Quakers Women Christian religious leaders Writers from Philadelphia Writers from Massachusetts Writers from South Carolina American autobiographers Quaker writers People from colonial Boston American women non-fiction writers American women autobiographers

Biography

See also

References