Bowtell was born in the parish of Holy Trinity, Cambridge, in 1753, became a bookbinder and stationer there.
He compiled a history of the town to include the university and Barnwell Priory, keeping it by him unprinted; collected fossils, manuscripts, and other curiosities;[1] and was a member of the London College Youths.
tenor bell as many as 6,609 harmonious changes 'in the method of bob maximus, generally termed "twelve-in."'
Bowtell had no family, and dying on 1 December 1813, aged 60, he made the following important bequests for the benefit of Cambridge: £7,000.
to apprentice boys belonging to Hobson's workhouse; and his 'History of the Town' and other manuscripts, his books, his fossils, and curiosities, to Downing College.