church of England. In fact, he was making tentative contact with the Jesuits in the early 1730s. Through the royal physician Thomas Goodman, Bower obtained a recommendation to Lord Aylmer, who wanted a classical tutor. He was for several years on close terms with Aylmer and was introduced to his connections, including George Lyttelton, who became a loyal friend. He took on a tutoring post, the education of the son of a Mr. Thompson, of Cooley, Berkshire; he switched after a year to Aylmer's household. Bower was reconciled to the Catholic church in 1744 by the Jesuit, Philip Carterest. This reconversion was preceded by negotiations of over a decade, and financial arrangements. Bower, however, soon again grew dissatisfied with his situation. He began a correspondence with Father Sheldon, the Jesuit provincial; and he received back his invested funds on 20 June 1747. On the death of Francis Say, keeper of Queen Caroline of Ansbach's library (10 September 1748), Bower obtained the place through the interest of Lyttelton with the prime minister Henry Pelham. The next year (4 August 1749), he married a niece of Bishop William Nicolson, a daughter of a clergyman of the Church of England. This lady had a fortune, and a child by a former husband. He had already been engaged in a treaty of marriage, which did not take effect, in 1745. In April 1754 Lyttelton appointed him clerk of the buck-warrants. Death Bower died on 3 September 1766, and was buried in St Marylebone Parish Church's churchyard. The epitaph on his tomb describes him as "a man exemplary for every social virtue, justly esteemed by all who knew him for his strict honesty and integrity, a faithful friend, and a sincere christian". He bequeathed all of his property to his wife, who attested that he died a Protestant (London Chronicle, 11 October 1766). Works While he resided with Lord Aylmer, Bower wrote Historia Literaria, a monthly review that appeared from 1730 to 1734. During the following nine years (1735–1744), he was employed on the Universal History, to which he contributed the history of Rome. He was paid to revise its second edition. On 25 March 1747 Bower issued proposals for printing by subscription his History of the Popes. He explained that researches designed to vindicate papal supremacy had had the opposite effect on him. He presented the first volume to the king 13 May 1748.