A successful Atlantic merchant, he was financially ruined by the American Revolutionary War, and was in the 20th century revealed to be a paid informant for the British.

In the 1740s he came with his father to North America, where he established himself in the Atlantic trade based in Newport, Rhode Island.

He is frequently credited as being responsible for the introduction of the Rhode Island Greening apple as part of his merchant business and horticultural interests.

In the late 1920s, when an extensive cataloging of the papers of General Sir Henry Clinton was undertaken, correspondence was found in which Bowler was revealed to be a paid informer for the British at the same time that he was being hailed as an American Patriot.

This change of heart was apparently made in an attempt to prevent the plundering of his properties in and around Newport following the British occupation.