(1787-1855) Secretary of Church Missionary Society

William Jowett, a missionary, was the son of John Jowett of Newington, Surrey, and nephew of Joseph Jowett. He was educated by his uncle, the Revd Henry Jowett, and at St John's College, Cambridge, matriculating in 1806, graduating BA as twelfth wrangler in 1810, and proceeding MA in 1813. He was a fellow there 1811–16. In 1810 he won the Hulsean prize for an essay on the Jews and idolatry, published in 1811.

Jowett was the first Anglican clergyman who volunteered in 1813 for the foreign service of the Church Missionary Society. In 1815 he married Martha (d. 1829), daughter of John Whiting of Little Palgrave, Norfolk; they had seven children. From 1815 to 1820 he worked in the countries of the Mediterranean, and in 1823–4 in Syria and Palestine. He published Christian Researches on the Mediterranean in 1822 and on Syria and Palestine in 1825, and a considerable variety of religious treatises and memoirs. He was clerical secretary of the Church Missionary Society from 1832 to 1840, and was successively lecturer at St Mary Aldermanbury, St Peter, Cornhill, and Holy Trinity, Clapham. In 1851 he became incumbent of St John's, Clapham Rise. He died at Clapham on 20 February 1855, and was buried in Lewisham churchyard.