I think James Bowie in this is the James Buie in post #8, though of course it doesn't show whether he was related to my George:
The Annual Register 1761
The following very melancholy accident lately happened at Elgin in Scotland: One Harvie, a journeyman dyer, having bought of William Fraser, merchant, some gunpoweder, Harvie, to try the powder, loaded a pistol in the shop, with an intention to fire it. At the very instant he was about to fire, one James Finlay came into the shop, and called out to him to stop, as he knew a barrel of gunpowder was just by them; but his alarm unhappily came too late; the pistol flashed in the pan, and a spark flew into the cask, which contained about forty pounds weight, and which instantly blew up, and brought down the whole tenement. Finlay and Harvie were miraculously preserved, but Fraser the owner of the shop was killed by the explosion, which burst out at the door and windows, and carried the lintel stones of both to the opposite side of the street. The most shocking part of this fatal affair was, that Laurence Calder, merchant, James Bowie, maltman, James Grant, taylor, John Adam, and James Ross, being in the shade at the door of the shop, were carried off with such impetuosity, that Bowie and Grant were dashed to pieces, and killed against the walls of the houses on the opposite side of the street. They were found quite dead, and almost naked, their cloaths being almost entirely burnt off them. Calder was found alive, in the most dismal condition... he expired in a few hours. Ross is yet alive, but his recovery uncertain. It can hardly be accounted for, how Finlay and Harvie were preserved within the shop; but certain it is, they too likewise must have perished, had not the town's people, at the hazard of their lives, from the broken and tottering walls, dug them from beneath the rubbish, and in that manner saved their lives.
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