Thomas Bowers (bishop)

[2] Thomas Bowers was educated at Shrewsbury School, he matriculated on 13 June 1677, aged 17, and studied at St John's College, Cambridge as a sizar .

[2] Thomas Bowers became a deacon at Norwich in June 1682, he was ordained on 20 December 1684 and appointed vicar of Hooe on 5 January 1687.

They included questions to ascertain the state of buildings and their fittings; the population of the parish, the strength of Nonconformity and Roman Catholicism, and provide details of patronage and parochial charities.

Bowers was the first avowed Whig bishop, who was a strong supporter of the Hanoverian cause in the Chichester diocese and was the first in a series of Newcastle appointees.

[11] The bishop was as keen as Newcastle to appoint clergy who were sympathetic to their cause, and wrote to the duke, in 1723, suggesting that any men so nominated should be "worthy with unblemished characters".