CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Francis S. Bowling

American judge

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ112842837 ↗
Source-derived summary

Francis S. Bowling (1916 – July 13, 1997) was a justice of the Supreme Court of Mississippi from 1977 to 1984.

Raised in Newton, Mississippi, Bowling received his undergraduate degree from the University of Mississippi and a law degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law.

He served in the U.S. Army during World War II in the Judge Advocate General department. He opened his law practice in Jackson in 1944.

Bowling served as chairman of the Mississippi Game and Fish Commission during Gov. Bill Waller's tenure. Waller also appointed him circuit judge of the 7th Judicial District, and in 1977 he was appointed to the Mississippi Supreme Court by Gov. Cliff Finch where he served until 1985.

Judicial service

After Gillespie resigned, on August 1, 1977, Circuit Judge Francis Bowling of Jackson was appointed by Governor Finch. Bowling was unopposed in the election to fill the remaining two years of the term, and he ran unopposed for reelection to a full term in 1978.

Editorial summary

“Francis S. Bowling” enters the record as american judge. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Francis, Bowling and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1916, 1997, 1977, 1984—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1916-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Francis, Bowling and American.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Francis S. Bowling” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Francis, Bowling and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q112842837. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1916, 1997, 1977 and 1984.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Francis S. Bowling”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Francis S. Bowling primary sources, Francis S. Bowling archive and Francis research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Francis S. Bowling”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Francis S. Bowling” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.