Bowman married Elizabeth Hackney on 24 January 1854 in Adelaide. She was born 9 December 1819? in Lincolnshire, England. They had seven children: Edmund (1855-1921), Charles William (1857-1928), Walter Ingeby (1860-1861), Clarissa Eveline JAY (1861-1948), Alice Elizabeth MURRAY (1862-1928), Hubert (1863-1914) and Jessie (1865-1924).

Initially the Bowman family spent some years in Tasmania having arrived there in 1829. Edmund was the first of his family to come over to South Australia aboard the Parsee (ship) in 1839. He and his brothers, John, Thomas and William were involved in pastoral properties originally in the Dry Creek and Enfield area and later in the mid-north in properties such as Werocata, Crystal Brook and Martindale, and extending to the area which included the Wakefield county. The brothers were also involved in carting copper ore from Burra to Port Adelaide. Edmund died 14 August 1866, when he was drowned in a creek near Port Wakefield.