Dr. David Sovereign Bowlby

He was a physician and a politician, elected for Office from 1857-1861, in the Berliin (later re-named Kitchener), Waterloo Region, Ontario. David Street, in Kitchener, is named in his honour.

Son of Adam Bowlby and Elizabeth Sovereign; husband of Martha Esther (Murphy) Bowlby; father of 2 Bowlby children who died in infancy, Janie Elizabeth, Emma A., Dr.-Mayor George Herbert, Grace Esther, and David Shannon.

David Sovereign Bowlby and Martha Esther Murphy married on 1 July 1856 in Montreal, Ile de, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

The Bowlbys are a well known United Empire Loyalist family in Norfolk, Brant and Waterloo Counties, in Ontario, Canada.. Their ancestor, Richard Bowlby of Nottinghamshire, England, left New Jersey in 1783, after the Revolutionary War, settling in Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, Canada. His son, New Jersey-born Richard Bowlby, Jr., married a niece of Josiah Wedgwood (a British pioneer in fine pottery). Adam Bowlby, son of Richard Bowlby, Jr., was born in 1792. In the war of 1812 he was in charge of a company of coast guards, in Nova Scotia; as a veteran of this war, he was a pensioner for life. At the close of the war, and with renewed tide of settlement to Upper Canada, he joined his uncle, Thomas Bowlby, in Norfolk County, Ontario. Adam Bowlby married Elizabeth Sovereign, and became a landholder and farmer; the couple had a family of five sons, Alfred, William, David S., Ward H., and John W. and one daughter who married Col. Walker Powell who was later named adjutant general in Ottawa. Adam Bowlby lived in his later years with his son, Dr. D. S. Bowlby, at whose house in Berlin (later re-named Kitchener), Ontario. Adam died in 1883.

David Sovereign Bowlby, third son of Adam Bowlby, born in the Township of Townsend, Norfolk County, on 5 Sept 1826, died on Christmas morning, in Rome, Italy, in 1904. He'd been educated at Upper Canada College, and at Toronto University; he pursued further studies in his chosen profession at the Toronto School of Medicine, as well as at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, in New York, where he attained his second degree of M.D., in 1853.

Dr D.S. Bowlby set up practice, for a short time in Paris, Ontario. In October, 1853, he arrived in Berlin, now Kitchener, to fill a temporary position for his cousin, Dr. J. W. Sovereign; he decided to remain there. His skill and care rapidly won for him a large practice, extending in cases to driving distances of fifteen to twenty miles, and he may well be said to have been for many years the leading physician and surgeon of the county. He was the ideal old time family doctor, skilled, sympathetic and forceful, effecting immediate improvement in his patients by the simple act of his calm and competent appearance. He was the County jail surgeon and a coroner for many years.

Dr. Bowlby took active interest in public life; as member of the village council of Berlin for five years, 1857 and 1859 to 1862 inclusive, as member for many years, and chairman for twenty five years, of the Board of Trustees of the Berlin High School, and in other capacities. The prosperity of the High School was largely due to his wise counsel and foresight. He was for many years chairman of the Reform Association of North Waterloo, and in the Dominion election of 1882 contested, unsuccessfully, the riding. He was first president of the old Berlin Club, now called the Lancaster Club. At the time of his death Dr. Bowlby was the oldest member of St. John's church, of which he was for many years warden, and delegate to the synod. He was president of the local branch of the Upper Canada Bible Society.

In his later years Dr. Bowlby had bouts of bronchitis, so often spent his winters in the south. In 1904, an attack coming on at the beginning of winter, he decided to spend some months in Sicily. Mrs. Bowlby accompanied him. He died in Rome, a few days after landing in Italy. His ashes were returned to Canada and were interred in Kitchener's Mount Hope Cemetery.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: May 22 2017, 14:18:19 UTC