The Ancient and Noble Family of Bowes of Streatlam Castle.

See the pedigree.

The family probably descends from a cousin of Alan the Black, Earl of Richmond who was in the service of William the Conqueror. He was Captain of the Tower of Bowes, the present Bowes Castle and leader of 500 archers.

About 1310 his descendant Sir Adam Bowes d? 1356, a  lawyer and Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, also Bailiff of Richmond 1332-1334, married The Trayne Heiress and obtained Streatlam Castle. This was the main  family seat until the 19th century and was 3 miles north east of Barnard Castle.

Other descendants were:

• Sir William Bowes  1389-1465, Governor of Berwick and Chamberlain to John Duke of Bedford, the younger brother of Henry V while he was Regent of France.
• Sir Robert Bowes 1495-1554 , Master of the Rolls .
• Sir Ralph Bowes faught at Floddenfield 1509
• Sir George Bowes 1527-1580 was Marshal of Berwick and a supporter of Elizabeth 1 at the time of The Rising of the North in 1569.
• Marjory Bowes, married John Knox.

• Sir William Bowes married Elizabeth Blakiston, the heiress of Gibside near Gateshead  in 1691. From this marriage came much of the wealth of the Bowes family as the Gibside estates lay over rich coal seams and he had a hand in developing iron works at Blaydon

His eldest son Sir William Blakiston Bowes died unmarried, but during  his life he went a long way towards rebuilding Streatlam Castle.

His youngest son George Bowes MP,  (1701-1760) married first Eleanor Verney  in 1724 who died in 1725, and secondly Mary Gilbert in 1746.

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• Their only child and daughter Eleanor Mary (1749-1800) became the heiress to the Bowes wealth and she married John Lyon, 9th E of Strathmore. A condition of the marriage settlement was that the name of the family would henceforth be Bowes-Lyon.

From this marriage is descended The present Queen Mother, Elizabeth and her daughter Elizabeth 11 Queen of England.

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