FOWLER, John (fl.1720-1748) — London
Mathematical instrument-maker. Known for a pocket globe of about 1730, possibly related to earlier globes by Charles Price and John Senex (see BME 2011). Fowler is recorded in Price advertisements for his sea-atlas, a part-work issued in sheets, as one of the retailers, for example, of the “chart for the British Channel” in Jun 1727, with his name engraved on the companion chart of the North Sea. Also made and sold instruments for gauging, surveying, slide-rules, sundials, compasses, garden thermometers, etc., and sold mathematical books.
Born about 1697, the son of Thomas Fowler, gardener of Middlesex. Apprenticed to Samuel Saunders in 1712. Free (Masons) 1720. Active in the vicinity of the Royal Exchange from at least 1727, he disappears from local land tax records after 1748 and has not been further traced. There is a trade-card or advertisement in the Science Museum.
The Globe, Sweeting’s (Swithin) Alley, by the Royal Exchange — 1727-1738
The Globe, by the Royal Exchange — 1739-1748
Apprentice: Henry Gregory 1 (see BME 2011) 1732.
Calvert. Clifton. Hodson (1984). Webster.