COWLEY, ABRAHAM, seventh and posthumous child of Thomas Cowley, St. Michael Le Querne, London, citizen and stationer; b. 1618; adm.; Min. Can. 1630; KS; author, Poetical Blossoms, dedicated to his schoolmaster Lambert Osbaldeston (qv) and published 1633; while in College he also wrote Love’s Riddle, a pastoral comedy, not published until 1638; failed to obtain election to either university 1636; Trinity Coll. Cambridge, adm. pens. 21 Apr 1636, scholar (by dispensatory letter from King) 14 Jun 1637; his Latin play, Naufragium Joculare, was played before the University by members of Trinity Coll. 2 Feb 1638; BA 1639/40; MA 1643; Minor Fellow, Trinity Coll., from 30 Oct 1640; ejected by Parliamentary Visitors 1644 and went to Oxford, taking up residence in St. John’s Coll.; went abroad 1646; employed in diplomatic services by exiled Royalist court; returned to England as Royalist spy 1656; author, Miscellanies, 1656; MD Oxford 2 Dec 1657 (incorp. Cambridge 11 Jul 1664); withdrew to France, but returned at Restoration; applied for Mastership of Savoy 1661, unsuccessfully; one of original fellows of Royal Society; his works were first published in a collected form in 1668, when Several Discourses by way of Essays in Prose and Verse appeared for the first time; some hitherto unpublished Verses on the Happy Birth of the Duke of York are printed in the Elizabethan, v, 54-5, viii, 281; d. 28 Jul 1667, and buried in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey. DNB.
COWLEY, WILLIAM; b.; adm. (aged 12) Sep 1750 (Hart's); in school list 1754.
Cownie, Ivor Thomas William, son of W. B. Cownie, of Muswell Hill, Middlesex; b. July 29, 1895; adm. Sept. 23, 1909 (H); left Dec. 1912; served in the 28th Batt. of the London Regt.; obtained a commission in the R.G.A. July 7, 1916; Lieut. Jan. 7, 1918; 17 May 1980.
COWPER, EDWARD, second son of James Cowper, Lincoln’s Inn and Essex; b.; adm.; KS 1676; elected to Trinity Coll. Cambridge, adm. pens. 19 Jun 1680, aged 17, scholar 22 Apr 1681, matr. 1681; adm. Middle Temple 23 Jan 1682/3; buried 14 Jul 1688.
COWPER, WILLIAM, son of John Cowper (qv), and his first wife; b. 15 Nov 1731; adm. Apr 1742 (Playford's); left 1749; articled to a solicitor 1750-2; adm. Middle Temple 29 Apr 1748, called to bar 14 Jun 1754; fell in love with his cousin Theodora, but the marriage was forbidden by her father; contributed verses to various papers; a member of the Nonsense Club, chiefly composed of Westminster men who dined together weekly; migrated to Inner Temple, adm. there 17 Jun 1757; owned chambers Inner Temple 1757 - still 1781; a Commissioner of Bankrupts (occurs in annual lists 1758-65); Clerk of Journals, House of Lords c. May - Nov 1763; the stress brought on by his acceptance of the appointment caused a suicide attempt and nervous breakdown; an inmate of Nathaniel Cotton’s private lunatic asylum at St. Albans, Dec 1763 - Jun 1765; lived with the Unwins at Huntingdon 1765-7 and subsequently with Mrs Unwin at Olney, where he was employed by the Rev. John Newton as a sort of lay-reader and district visitor; composed hymns, a number of which are printed in Newton’s Olney Hymns, 1779; became engaged to Mrs Unwin; again deranged 1773-5 and for part of that time a guest in Newton’s house; occupied himself in gardening and writing verse; published Anti-Thelypthora, 1781, an anonymous attack on the defence of polygamy written by his cousin Martin Madan (qv) in the previous year; published Poems, Feb 1782; wrote the famous ballad of John Gilpin, first published in The Public Advertiser, Nov 1782; began translating Homer 1784; published The Task, 1785; removed to Weston, Nov. 1786; again became insane 1787; published his translation of Homer, 1791; undertook to edit Milton; removed in 1795 to East Dereham, Norfolk, where Mrs Unwin died in the following year; a complete edition of his works was published in 15 vols. by Robert Southey (qv) in 1834-7; Cowper’s schooldays, to which he frequently refers in his correspondence, were probably the happiest days of his life, and his recollections of them afforded him much pleasure; he appears to have enjoyed playing cricket and football; his favourite friend was Sir William Russell, Bart. (qv), but he was “much intimate” with Walter Bagot (adm. 1739/40, qv); he had a “particular value” for Warren Hastings (qv), to whom he addressed some lines on his impeachment, and he showed his friendly feeling for Robert Lloyd (qv) in the verse epistle which he addressed to him in 1754; his poem Table Talk contains an interesting allusion to the custom in his time of awarding pieces of Maundy Money for a good copy of verses (lines 507-11); d. unm. 25 Apr 1800. Memorial window in baptistery of Westminster Abbey. DNB.
COX, CHARLES HENRY, son of Richard Cox, Oxford, and Mary ---; b. 16 Nov 1797; adm. Mich. 1810; KS (aged 14) 1812; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1816, matr. 25 May 1816, Westminster Student; BA 1820; MA 1822; ordained; Vicar of St. Mary Magdalen, Oxford, 7 Nov 1823; Sub-Librarian, Bodleian Library, Oxford 1826-8; Perpetual Curate, Benson, Oxfordshire 28 May 1828; Perpetual Curate, North and South Littleton, Worcs., 11 Dec 1833-45; Rector of Oulton, Suffolk, from 1845; m. 31 Jan 1837 Elizabeth, eldest dau. of Rev. Giles Haworth Peel, Vicar of Ince, Cheshire; d. 1 Oct 1850.
Cox, Edward Henry, brother of William Spiller Cox (q.v.); b. May 9, 1874; adm. as Q.S. Sept. 16, 1886; Mure scholar 1891; Capt. of the School 1892; elected to Ch. Ch. Oxon. July 1893, matric. Oct. 1893; B.A. 1897; M.A. 1900; Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, 1897; ordained 1898; Curate of All Saints, Marylebone, 1898-1900; asst. tutor London Coll. of Divinity 1900-2; Vice-Principal of St. Aidan's Coll., Birkenhead 1902-4; gave up pastoral for social work owing to ill-health, and was for twenty years secretary of the Bermondsey branch of the Charity Organization Society; accidentally drowned at Eastbourne, May 20, 1928.
COX, SAMUEL COMPTON, only son of Samuel Cox (qv); bapt. St. Andrew, Holborn 5 Jan 1758 (IGI); adm. 16 Oct 1765; KS (aged 13) 1769; elected head to Trinity Coll. Cambridge, adm. pens. 1 Jun 1774, scholar 5 May 1775, matr. Mich. 1774; BA and 11th Wrangler 1778; members’ (second) prize for Middle Bachelors 1779; MA 1781; Minor Fellow, Trinity Coll. 2 Oct 1779, Major Fellow 4 Jul 1781; adm. Inner Temple 15 May 1775, Lincoln’s Inn 20 Jan 1781, called to bar 15 Jun 1781; a Commissioner of Bankrupts 1787-98 (occurs in annual lists 1788-98); Second Justice of Carmarthen 1 Aug 1798-1804; a Master in Chancery 18 Jul 1804 - Mar 1831; Lieut. -Col., Bloomsbury Inns of Court Associated Volunteers 9 Apr 1803; Treasurer, Foundling Hospital, from 1806; left Lincoln’s Inn 6 Nov 1806; FSA (by 1831); edited the fifth edition of Peere Williams’s Reports in Chancery, 1787; m. 23 Jun 1787 Anna, youngest dau. of Percival Pott FRCS, Princes Street, Hanover Square, London, Surgeon to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital; d. 25 Mar 1839.
COX, SAMUEL, son of Samuel Cox, St. Giles, Cripplegate, London, and Judith Fox (IGI); bapt. St. Giles, Cripplegate 22 Aug 1718 (IGI); adm.; Min. Can. (aged 13) 1733; KS 1734; left 1737; adm. Inner Temple 26 Oct 1737, called to bar 12 Jun 1741; adm. Staple Inn 25 Nov. 1755; lived in Chancery Lane; concerned with William Markham (adm. 1733, qv) and Thomas Salter, a Charterhouse master, in the erection of the houses on the Terrace and the other alterations in Dean’s Yard, for which they procured an Act of Parliament; godfather to Samuel Bentham (qv) (see Bentham’s Works, x, 26-7, 28-9); m. Mary --- (IGI); d. 15 Oct 1776.
COX, THOMAS, son of Rev. James Cox, St. James’s, London, and Eleanor ---; b.; adm.; BB; KS (aged 13) 1763; elected head to Christ Church, Oxford, matr. 1 Jun 1768, Westminster Student 24 Dec 1768 - 26 Mar 1777 (expiry year of grace as Vicar of Badby-cum-Newnham); BA 1772; MA 1775; ordained; Vicar of Badby-cum-Newnham, Northants., from 11 Mar 1776; FSA 1798 [check]; m. 2 Mar 1783 Jane, eldest dau. of Robert Clavering (adm. 1737, qv); d. 3 Feb 1816.