The eldest child of William Bowie and Kitty Beanes Duckett, he was born at Fairview Plantation in Prince George's County, Maryland.

[1] His maternal grandfather, Baruch Duckett left him Quarter Plantation near Collington, Maryland where he settled after leaving college as well as a sizeable number of slaves[2] After the death of his two brothers, Governor Robert Bowie in 1818 and Walter Baruch Bowie in 1832, and by purchasing the interests of his sisters, he became the owner of Fairview where he then made his home.

[1][3] In 1830, he and his uncle Walter Bowie Jr. were appointed by the Governor Thomas King Carroll as members of the Levy Court for Prince George's County.

In 1838 and 1839 he was nominated by the Democrats for the state Legislature but defeated by his cousin Thomas Fielder Bowie the Whig candidate.

[1][3] On 7 January 1854, William Duckett Bowie married his first wife's half-sister, Mary Black West.