He was educated at Cowbridge and Bristol Grammar Schools, before gaining entry to St John's College, Oxford, in 1775.

[2] Nicholl built an extensive practice and on 6 November 1798 he succeeded Sir William Scott as King's Advocate and was knighted as was custom for the position.

[3] Nicholl was a staunch Tory throughout his political career and steadily opposed parliamentary reform and Roman Catholic emancipation.

In 1809 he was appointed Dean of the Arches, was admitted to the Privy Council and became a judge of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.

Bowen owned large estates within Merthyr Mawr, but they were heavily mortgaged and there were additional debts and legacies to be honoured.

Maerthyr Mawr house is a five bay, two-storey classical mansion faced in white local carboniferous limestone, with a hipped roof and a sash windows, and central single-storey porch with Tuscan columns in the north front.