James Bowser, Revolutionary Soldier

Suffolk County · dedicated 1998 · Route 337 at intersection with Driver Lane

James Bowser, a free African American born in Nansemond County about 1763, was one of many black Virginians who served in the army or navy of the United States during the Revolutionary War. He enlisted in the 1st Virginia Regiment of the Continental Line under Col. William Davies on 1 Jan. 1782 in Shenandoah County for the duration of the war. After the war ended in 1783, he returned to Nansemond County, where he lived nearby, married, and reared a large family of freeborn citizens. For his service to his country, Bowser's heirs were granted a bounty land warrant in 1834.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

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