Robert Benson Bowman

As well as publishing a range of popular books, Bowman was a business partner of the ironmaster Lowthian Bell and an amateur botanist.

He was a keen amateur botanist all his life, and a long time member of the Natural History Society of Northumberland.

In 1834, he set up in business as a bookseller, like his father, in partnership with Currie, buying the established bookshop at 32 Collingwood Street.

They sold books on art, natural history, theology and general subjects, branching out into publishing, and also acting as a depot for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

[1] Bowman published a variety of books locally at 12 Nuns' Lane, Newcastle, including the Victorian chapbook "Life of Jack Sheppard, the Notorious House and Gaol Breaker", twenty-three "Penny Histories" and nineteen "Penny Song Books".