Bowyer

Bowyer, WILLIAM, an eminent English printer and classical scholar, born in London, 19th December 1699, was educated at Cambridge, and in 1722 joined his father, William Bowyer (1663-1737), in trade. Appointed in 1729 printer of the votes of the House of Commons, he subsequently became printer to the Society of Antiquaries and to the Royal Society. In 1767 he was nominated printer of the Rolls of the House of Lords and the Journals of the House of Commons. He died 18th November 1777. Bowyer published several philological tracts, edited several volumes of Swift's works, translated Rousseau's famous but paradoxical Discourse (1751), and wrote two essays on the Origin of Printing (1774); but his chief production was an edition of the New Testament in Greek with critical and emendatory notes.