Bowmanville is a community of approximately 60,000 people located in the Municipality of Clarington, Durham Region, Ontario, Canada. It is approximately 75 km (47 mi) east of Toronto, and 15 km (9.3 mi) east of Oshawa along Highway 2. Bowmanville was first incorporated as a town in 1858, but later incorporated with the neighbouring townships of Clarke and Darlington in 1974 forming the Town of Newcastle, which was renamed in 1994 to the Municipality of Clarington. Bowmanville is part of the Greater Toronto Area.

In 1794, John Burk and his family arrived 1-mile (1.6 km) west of Barber's Creek (now Bowmanville Creek) on the beach of Lake Ontario, attracted to Canada when John Graves Simcoe proclaimed that all males over 18 who settled in the country would receive 200 acres (81 ha) of land. Burk purchased land and began to clear the forest in an area that would become Bowmanville.

Mills were built first on Barber's Creek (now called Bowmanville Creek), including Vanstone's Mill, which still stands today at the present-day intersection of King Street and Scugog St. More mills were built on nearby Soper Creek. One of them still stands and houses the municipality's Visual Arts Centre, which has been designated as an architecturally protected historical building.

Burk later sold his land to Lewis Lewis. Lewis opened the first store in what was then called Darlington Mills. Charles Bowman (for whom the town was eventually named) purchased the store around 1824. He then established the settlement's first post office. Its first postmaster, Robert Fairbairn, ran the post office from 1828 to 1857. Bowmanville incorporated as a town in 1858.

By 1866, the town of Bowmanville had a population of about 3,500 in the township of Darlington, County Durham, on the north shore of Lake Ontario. A station of the Grand Trunk Railway was located there. The town possessed a good harbour, and extensive water power potential in its vicinity. The surrounding country was fertile.

The success of the Vanstone Mill, fueled by the Crown's land grant program, led to rapid expansion of the Bowmanville settlement in the early years of the 19th century. Under the generous yet discriminating eyes of wealthy local merchants such as John Simpson and Charles Bowman, small properties were sold to promote settlement and small business. The town developed a balanced economy; all the while gradually establishing itself as a moderate player in shipping, rail transport, metal works and common minor business (including tanneries, liveries, stables and everyday mercantile trade in commodities).

By the time of Confederation (1867), Bowmanville was a vital, prosperous and growing town, home to a largely Scots-Presbyterian community with all manner of farmers, workers, and professionals making the town their home. It had local economic stability and accessible, abundant land available for the construction of housing. The town soon supported several new churches, each designated to house Free and Auld Kirk, Anglican and Nonconformist congregations, including the Bible Christian Church, later to be a major stream of Canadian Methodism.

At present, St. John's Anglican Church. St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, St. Paul's United Church and the impressively ornate Trinity United Church (site of an old Auld Kirk church) still serve the community. All of these edifices, appropriately, lie on or are in close proximity to present-day Church Street.