Bowles, William (1720?–1780), naturalist and geologist, was probably born in 1720 near Cork city (some sources give his birth as 1705). He studied law in London at his parents' behest, but abandoned it in 1740 to study natural history, chemistry, metallurgy, and astronomy in Paris. After travelling extensively in France and Germany, visiting mines and making a study of natural history and mineral production, he was offered the position of superintendent of Spanish state mines (1752) and later principal scientist of the museum of natural history in Madrid (1753). This was facilitated by his friendship in Paris with Don Antonio de Ulloa, who was appointed director of the museum (1753) and was later admiral of the Spanish fleet. He was asked to organise a natural history collection and set up a chemical laboratory to study platinum and its alloys. One of his first successes was the reinstatement of the famous Almadén mercury mine, which had been damaged by fire. His work on platinum brought him to refute the ideas current at the time that platinum was an alloy of iron and gold. As part of his museum research he travelled throughout Spain, observing the geology and natural history and collecting specimens. Joseph Solano, lieutenant-general of the Spanish navy, was one of his closest collaborators and often accompanied him on his travels.
In 1775 Bowles published his main work, Introducción a la historia natural, y á la geografía física de España (An introduction to the natural history and physical geography of Spain), under the name Don Guillermo Bowles. This was the first scientific description of the physical geography of Spain. It ran to two further editions (1782, 1789) and was translated into several languages. It has never been properly translated into English. Despite his shortcomings in the Spanish language (he often had to call on the assistance of his friends in translating documents), he wrote the book in a popular and ironic style. The nature of his views on many of the subjects were advanced for their time, particularly on geological processes. In places his opinions predated the published theories of the eminent British geologist James Hutton (1726–97). Assisted by friends in Paris and London, he also published short papers on Merino sheep and on Spanish locusts.
In 1909 Nathaniel Colgan (qv), an Irish naturalist and MRIA, found a secondhand copy (1789 ed.) of Bowles's book on Aston Place, Dublin, and bought it for twopence. He translated several sections of the book that were of Irish interest, including Bowles's confident assertion that the potato, brought to Spain from America, was first introduced to Ireland by Galician traders from north-west Spain, and his comments on the success of imported Irish wolfhounds in controlling wolves in northern Spain. Bowles had noted the presence of the heather Daboecia cantabrica, ‘St Dabeoc's heath’, on the mountains of Galicia, a species that also occurs in Connemara, Co. Galway. He introduced the plant to England when he sent seeds to Peter Collinson, a quaker businessman and keen botanist, who grew the seeds and set the earliest record for the cultivation of the heather (1764). On the human side he drew curious parallels between the manners and customs of the peasants of Vizcaya in the Basque region and those of Ireland; their love of fairs and dancing, resembling Irish celebrations of feast-days of patron saints, and the tradition of fist-fights at the fairs. He compared the chacoli of Vizcaya with the ‘shebeen’ of Ireland, where illicit spirits were drunk. The women of both regions showed remarkable similarities in their dress and customs.
Despite his initially negative attitude towards Spain – ‘all Spain was stupid, lethargic, poor, dirty, jealous, and melancholy’ (Reynolds, 1997) – he soon changed his mind. He stayed for twenty-eight years and was a valued member of Spanish society. Not only was he held in high regard as a scientist but was described as tall, fine-looking, kind, generous, honourable, active, ingenious, and well informed. He married Anna Regina Rustein, a German, whom he probably met on his travels in Germany. They had no children. She frequently accompanied him on his travels and they moved house so often, living on four occasions in Madrid and Bilbao, that they used to sell their furniture every time a major move was made or long trip planned. He died 25 August 1780 in Madrid and was buried in the church of San Martin. Anna was afterwards pensioned by the king of Spain. The Peruvian genus Bowlesia (Ruiz & Pavon) was dedicated to him. His notes and diaries relating to his French and German travels were retained by Joseph Nicholas de Azara (Spanish ambassasor to Rome), who wrote the foreword to his 1775 publication.