The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography - Volume II, Ann Arbor: University Microfilms (Xerox), 1967 - p. 419 & 420 Bowdoin, James, philanthropist and statesman was born in Boston, Massachusetts, September 22, 1752, the son of Governor James Bowdoin. He was graduated from Harvard in 1771, after which he spent two years in England, studying law at Oxford during the first ten months, and devoting the remainder of the time to travel. After a year at home, he again crossed the Atlantic, traveling to Italy, Holland and England. The news of the battle of Lexington recalled him to America in September, 1775. Though prevented by poor health from joining the American army, he heartily sympathized with his countrymen in their struggle for independence. Before the war closed he married a daughter of William Bowdoin, his father's half-brother and settled in Dorchester, where he engaged in literary pursuits. He became successively member of the assembly, the state senate and the state council, and in 1789 was a delegate from Boston to the Massachusetts constitutional convention. Mr. Bowdoin was for seven years a fellow of Harvard. In 1794 he made a liberal donation of money and lands to Bowdoin College, then just incorporated, and named in honor of his father, and never afterward showed a deep interest in its welfare, deeding it 6,000 acres of land in Lisbon, Me., a few months before his death, and remembering it generously in his will. In November 1804, he was appointed minister plenipotentiary to the court of Madrid, the special objects of his mission being the settlement of the limits of Louisiana, the purchase of Florida, and the procuring of compensation for spoliations of American commerce. He sailed for Spain May 10, 1805, and returned to the United States April 18, 1808, without having effected these objects. He was also associate minister to the court of France, and during his residence abroad spent two years in Paris, where he purchased many fine paintings and books, and made valuable scientific collections, afterward presented to Bowdoin College. At different periods he engaged to some extent to literary work, publishing anonymously "Opinions Respecting the Commercial Intercourse between the United States and Great Brittain" and, after his return from abroad, bringing out his translation of Daubenton's "Advice to Shepherds". He died October 11, 1811.