Thomas Bowen work with and for his father Emanuel Bowen, one of the leading 18th-century map and printsellers and engravers in London. The Bowens prided themselved for printing accurate, up-to the-minute maps: A Correct Map of the Ottoman Empire, c. 1758; North America from the Best Authorities, c. 1760; A New and Correct Map of the countries twenty miles around London, 1770; A New and Complete System of Geography, 1777-79.