STOWER (WEST), a parish in the hundred of REDLANE, Sturminster division of the county of DORSET, 5 miles (W.) from Shaftesbury, containing 205 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, annexed to the vicarage of Gillingham, in the archdeaconry of Dorset, and diocese of Bristol. The church is dedicated to St. Mary. William Watson, M. D., author of some theological productions, was a native of this place, where, though he regularly graduated as a physician, and was distinguished for knowledge of his profession, he practised as a quack.