James Bowles
Gentleman Planter
(? - 1727)

In the late 1600s, new immigrants arriving in the Chesapeake with sufficient capital and strong transatlantic kin connections to high status families were quickly able to operate large tobacco plantations. The middling class was increasingly denied access to the choicest and largest tracts of land in the tidewater region due to the drastic decline in white servant labor and the dramatic growth of black slavery. Slavery was an expensive new "technology" that exacerbated the inequality of wealth between the gentry and other whites with less capital.
In 1699, James Bowles, the only son and heir of Tobias Bowles, a prominent sugar and tobacco merchant of London and Kent, came to the Maryland colony to serve as his father's factor and agent. Well educated, well connected and wealthy, Bowles began accumulating large parcels of land in St. Mary's County, including a parcel called "Bowles Preservation" that would one day be Sotterley Plantation. He served as Collector of Customs for the Potomac District, for which he received 60 pounds a year. Bowles was also a member of both the Upper and Lower House of the Maryland Council during his public career.

Around 1717, Bowles began construction of a simple single story cypress-post-in-ground clapboard frame house. In 1718, he married Jane Lowe who died shortly after delivering a child, Jane Lowe Bowles in 1720. In the early 1720s, Bowles married Rebecca Addison, daughter of the politically prominent Thomas Addison, and the very wealthy Elizabeth Tasker Addison. The small frame house underwent considerable construction with the addition of a new room, and ambitious remodeling of the existing structure. James and Rebecca had two daughters, Mary and Eleanor.

During the 1720s, Bowles constructed numerous outbuildings to accommodate a thriving plantation including a barn, dairy and meat house, an accounting house, and kitchen. He also established a reputation for being a successful planter. It appears that Bowles was growing tobacco, wheat and corn at this time, and owned 120 cattle, 114 sheep and other livestock, farm implements, 40 slaves, great quantities of building supplies, elegant furniture, expensive personal items and extensive supplies.

In 1723, The Act for the Encouragement of Learning was passed in order to provide for "liberal and pious education of the youth" of the province of Maryland. The Act stipulated that one school in each County within the Maryland Province would be erected under the discretion of the appointed Visitor for each County. James Bowles, Esquire, was nominated, appointed and named Visitor of St. Mary's County. It was his responsibility to provide for the appropriate schooling of the children of St. Mary's County. This began a long tradition at Sotterley of its inhabitants' interest in education.

In 1727, the Honorable James Bowles, Esquire, "The Builder", who served for seven years on the Maryland Council died, leaving his wife Rebecca Addison Bowles a considerable fortune. In 1729, she married George Plater II, but Bowles Preservation would remain in her legal control during their married life.