The Bowood circle was a loose, international group of intellectual figures and writers of the later 18th century drawn together around

Lord Shelburne William Petty Fitzmaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, (2 May 17377 May 1805; known as the Earl of Shelburne between 1761 and 1784, by which title he is generally known to history), was an Irish-born British Whig statesman who was the first ...

, Prime Minister of Great Britain in the 1780s, and named after his residence

Bowood House Bowood is a Grade I listed Georgian country house in Wiltshire, England, that has been owned for more than 250 years by the Fitzmaurice family. The house, with interiors by Robert Adam, stands in extensive grounds which include a garden designe ...

. They had in common an interest in

political reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...

. They met informally at Bowood House, or in London, and have been compared to a

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmental ...

. Proposals from the circle were aired in the ''Repository'', edited by

Benjamin Vaughan Dr Benjamin Vaughan MD FRSE LLD (19 April 1751 – 8 December 1835) was a British political radical. He was a commissioner in the negotiations between Britain and the United States at the drafting of the Treaty of Paris. Life Vaughan was born ...

, during 1788.

Terminology

Shelburne's patronage was broadly based, and not limited to this intellectual set, also called the Bowood Group. The "Shelburne circle" may have a broader reference than the inner Bowood circle. "Shelburne group" may refer to a faction of Whig Members of Parliament. Lansdowne circle, referencing Shelburne's step up in the peerage from Earl of Shelburne to Marquess of Lansdowne, may be used as a synonym of "Bowood circle". A later "Bowood circle" was that around the

3rd Marquess of Lansdowne Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne, (2 July 178031 January 1863), known as Lord Henry Petty from 1784 to 1809, was a British statesman. In a ministerial career spanning nearly half a century, he notably served as Home Secretary ...

and Nassau Senior.

Membership

Those associated with the circle included: *

Jeremy Bentham Jeremy Bentham (; 15 February 1748 O.S. 4 February 1747">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 4 February 1747ref name="Johnson2012" /> – 6 June 1832) was an English philosopher, jurist, an ...

Étienne Clavière Étienne Clavière (29 January 17358 December 1793) was a Genevan-born French financier and politician of the French Revolution. He was French Minister of Finance between 24 March and 12 June 1792, and between 10 August 1792 and 2 June 1793. ...

* * Étienne Dumont * John Dunning * Thomas Jervis * Jacques-Antoine Duroveray *

Richard Price Richard Price (23 February 1723 – 19 April 1791) was a British moral philosopher, Nonconformist minister and mathematician. He was also a political reformer, pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the French ...

Joseph Priestley Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted e ...

Samuel Romilly Sir Samuel Romilly (1 March 1757 – 2 November 1818), was a British lawyer, politician and legal reformer. From a background in the commercial world, he became well-connected, and rose to public office and a prominent position in Parliament. ...

* Charles Stanhope, Lord Mahon *

The group had some members in common with the

Lunar Society The Lunar Society of Birmingham was a British dinner club and informal learned society of prominent figures in the Midlands Enlightenment, including industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectuals, who met regularly between 1765 and 1813 ...

and the Liverpool

Roscoe circle The Roscoe circle was a loosely-defined group of reformers in Liverpool at the end of the 18th century, around William Roscoe (1753–1831), a banker, politician and abolitionist. The group had cultural interests and drew mostly on English Dissenter ...

Notes

{{reflist Age of Enlightenment