William Cowper (doctor)

William Cowper
William Cowper
	Arms of Cowper: Azure, on a bend engrailed, Or, between two wolf's heads erased, Argent, three cross crosslets, Gules
Born	Overleigh Hall, Cheshire
Baptised	29 July 1701
Died	12 October 1767 (aged 66); Overleigh Hall, Cheshire
Resting place	St Peter's Church, Chester; 53°11′25″N 2°53′30″W / 53.1904°N 2.8918°W
Education	St Mary Hall, Oxford; Brasenose College, Oxford;
Occupations	Physician; Antiquarian;
Office	Mayor of Chester
Term	1754–1755
Predecessor	Edmund Bolland
Successor	John Page
Spouse	Elizabeth Lonsdale
Parents	John Cowper; Catherine Sherwin;

William Cowper FSA (baptised 29 July 1701 – 12 October 1767) of Overleigh Hall, Cheshire, was a British physician and antiquarian.^[2]

Life

Cowper was the third son of the Reverend John Cowper (1671–1718), MA of Overleigh Hall, Cheshire, by Catherine, daughter of William Sherwin, beadle of divinity and bailiff of the University of Oxford. He was baptised on 29 July 1701 at St Peter's Church, Chester.^[2]

He matriculated from St Mary Hall, Oxford on 24 October 1714 and subsequently attended Brasenose College as a resident commoner from January 1717 to December 1718, although a manuscript biography among his papers claims he studied at Brasenose for four years.^[2] After leaving Oxford he studied medicine in Paris and London and it is very probable that he was awarded his medical degree in Paris.^[2] In 1754 he was elected mayor of Chester.^[3]

He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. He published anonymously A Summary of the Life of St. Werburgh, with an historical account of the images upon her shrine (now the episcopal throne) in the choir of Chester. Collected from antient chronicles and old writers, by a Citizen of Chester, Chester, 1749. This work is said to have been stolen from the manuscripts of Mr. Stone. He was also the author of Il Penseroso: an evening's contemplation in St. John's churchyard, Chester. A rhapsody, written more than twenty years ago, and now (first) published, illustrated with notes historical and explanatory, London, 1767, addressed, under the name of M. Meanwell, to the Rev. John Allen, M.A., senior fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and rector of Tarporley, Cheshire. In this work Cowper takes a view of some of the most remarkable places around Chester distinguished by memorable personages and events.

He was an intelligent antiquarian and preserved many valuable manuscript collections of Williamson and others which would otherwise have perished. He also left several works of his own compilation relative to the ancient history of Cheshire and Chester. These manuscripts, which are frequently quoted by George Ormerod, the Cheshire historian, are preserved in the family archives at Overleigh. They consist of various small volumes, most of the contents of which are fairly transcribed into two larger ones, containing memoirs of the earls of the palatinate and the bishops and dignitaries of the cathedral, lists of city and county officers, and a local chronology of events. In his Broxton MSS he takes William Webbe's Itinerary as the text of each township, adds an account of it transcribed from Edward Williamson's Villare Cestriense, and continues the descent of property to his own time. He also wrote a small manuscript volume, entitled Parentalia, containing memoirs of the Cowper family, and the account of the siege of Chester, which is printed in Ormerod's Cheshire, vol. 1, pp. 203 etc. This description of the siege had been printed twice previously at Chester (in 1790 and 1793), but with considerable alterations.

Cowper was a guardian of the Foundling Hospital in London.^[4]

Overleigh Hall

The Hall, to the west of what is now the modern district of Handbridge, was built by Thomas Cowper (d. 1695), who had acquired the estate partly through descent and partly through purchase. William Cowper made improvements to the property, which in 1811 was inherited by Charles Cholmondeley (1770–1846), third son of Thomas Cholmondeley of Vale Royal Abbey and rented to a tenant. In 1821, along with 135 acres (55 ha) of land, it was bought by Robert Grosvenor, 1st Marquess of Westminster and demolished in 1830 to allow construction of a new entrance to the Eaton Hall estate.^[5]

Personal life and death

Cowper married Elizabeth, daughter of John Lonsdale of High Ryley, Lancashire, in 1722, but had no issue. He died at Overleigh on 12 October 1767, and was buried at St. Peter's Church, Chester.

References

^ Ormerod, George; Helsby, Thomas (1882). The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester: Compiled from Original Evidences in Public Offices the Harleian and Cottonian Mss. Parochial Registers Private Muniments Unpublished Ms. Collections of Successive Cheshire Antiquaries and a Personal Survey of Every Township in the County ; Incorporated with a Republication of King's Hale Royal and Leycester's Cheshire Antiquities. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). George Routledge and Sons. p. 375. OCLC 223243317.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Knowles, Phil (23 September 2004). "Cowper, William (bap. 1701, d. 1767)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6512. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ Barrow, J. S.; Herson, J. D.; Lawes, A. H.; Riden, P. J.; Seaborne, M. V. J. (2005). "Mayors and Sheriffs of Chester". In Thacker, A. T.; Lewis, C. P. (eds.). A History of the County of Chester. Vol. 5. Pt. 2. pp. 305–321 – via British History Online.
^ Foundling Hospital (London, England) (1768). A List of the Governors and Guardians, of the Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young Children. p. 15.
^ Barrow, J. S.; Herson, J. D.; Lawes, A. H.; Riden, P. J; Seaborne, M. V. J. (2005). "Manors and estates in and near the city". In Thacker, A. T.; Lewis, C. P. (eds.). A History of the County of Chester. Vol. 5 Pt. 2. pp. 322–330 – via British History Online.

Attribution:

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cooper, Thompson (1887). "Cowper, William (1701–1767)". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 12. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 394.

[1] Ormerod, George; Helsby, Thomas (1882). The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester: Compiled from Original Evidences in Public Offices the Harleian and Cottonian Mss. Parochial Registers Private Muniments Unpublished Ms. Collections of Successive Cheshire Antiquaries and a Personal Survey of Every Township in the County ; Incorporated with a Republication of King's Hale Royal and Leycester's Cheshire Antiquities. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). George Routledge and Sons. p. 375. OCLC 223243317.

[ODNB-2] Knowles, Phil (23 September 2004). "Cowper, William (bap. 1701, d. 1767)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6512. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

[3] Barrow, J. S.; Herson, J. D.; Lawes, A. H.; Riden, P. J.; Seaborne, M. V. J. (2005). "Mayors and Sheriffs of Chester". In Thacker, A. T.; Lewis, C. P. (eds.). A History of the County of Chester. Vol. 5. Pt. 2. pp. 305–321 – via British History Online.

[4] Foundling Hospital (London, England) (1768). A List of the Governors and Guardians, of the Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young Children. p. 15.

[5] Barrow, J. S.; Herson, J. D.; Lawes, A. H.; Riden, P. J; Seaborne, M. V. J. (2005). "Manors and estates in and near the city". In Thacker, A. T.; Lewis, C. P. (eds.). A History of the County of Chester. Vol. 5 Pt. 2. pp. 322–330 – via British History Online.

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