He served as Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London early in the reign of James I of England and was named to the office of Clerk of the Parliaments in 1610.
Robert had an elder brother William (who died young), a sister Judith, and an older half-brother Henry Knyvett.
[3][7][8] His father died in 1569 or early 1570, and young Robert was placed with his uncle, Francis Bowyer, a wealthy alderman of London.
The role went to Thomas Smith, clerk of the Privy Council, who had written to the Queen's Secretary Robert Cecil "I think there is or will be one Bowyer, a suitor for the place by means of my Lord of Buckhurst, who may be well worthy, perhaps, of some other and greater preferment, but I may be bold to say (without any ill affection to the man), that he is not fit for this place, by reason of a great imperfection he hath in his speech.
He owned the Lindisfarne Gospels, which bear his signature on folio 2v (now visible only under ultraviolet light); their earlier provenance is obscure.
Bowyer spent the remainder of his years organising and preserving the Parliamentary records which he had found in a sadly neglected state.