| AdminHistory | John Bowring was born in Exeter on 17 October 1792 and educated in Moretonhampstead. After leaving school, he entered a merchant's house at Exeter where he started to learn languages from people of different nationalities whom he met there. He showed a great aptitude for languages and learned a great many in his lifetime. In 1811 he became a clerk at Milford and Co in London. Later he started his own business and in 1819 travelled abroad for commercial purposes. Bowring was friend and adviser to Jeremy Bentham, who in 1824 founded the 'Westminster Review', a publication for philosophical radicals. Bowring was one of its first editors and wrote many of the political articles and some of the literary ones. In 1824 he issued some volumes of poetry and volumes about poetry. He travelled a great deal. In 1831 he was appointed Commissioner to investigate commercial relations between England and France. He wanted a seat in parliament and stood for election several times; he was elected for Bolton in 1841. He later travelled in China after resigning his seat. In 1854 he was knighted. He died in Exeter on 23 November 1872. |
| CustodialHistory | Part of the library of Charles Kay Ogden (1889-1957), linguistic psychologist, founder of the Orthological Institute and originator of the language system Basic English, whose interests in language systems are reflected in the subject matter of his collection, which comprised individual manuscripts and manuscript collections dating from the 14th to the 20th century. |