Sir Joseph Cowen
Caricature of Sir Joseph Cowen in Vanity Fair
Caricature of Cowen in Vanity Fair in 1872
Member of Parliament
for Newcastle-upon-Tyne
In office
12 July 1865 – 19 December 1873
Preceded byThomas Emerson Headlam
Somerset Beaumont
Succeeded byThomas Emerson Headlam
Joseph Cowen
Personal details
Born10 February 1800
Greenside, County Durham
Died19 December 1873(1873-12-19) (aged 73)
Stella Hall, Blaydon-on-Tyne, County Durham
Resting placeSt Paul's, Winlaton, County Durham
NationalityBritish
Political partyLiberal
Spouse
Mary Newton
​
​
(m. 1851, died)​
ChildrenFive, including Joseph Cowen
ParentJohn Cowen

Sir Joseph Cowen (10 February 1800 – 19 December 1873)[1][2] was a British Liberal Party politician and manufacturer.[3]

Family

Born in Greenside, County Durham, Cowen was the son of John Cowen. He married Mary Newton, daughter of Anthony Newton, in 1851; they had five children, including Joseph and John.[3][4]

Business career

Cowen was first apprenticed as a blacksmith in Winlaton, County Durham, at age 19, before later becoming a colliery owner, director of a shipping company, first secretary of the Blacksmiths' Friendly Society, and an original gentleman of the Four & Twenty.[4] He was a coal owner and firebrick and clay retort manufacturer, having inherited the Blaydon Burn factory, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, from his father, where he joined his brother-in-law. Later, he became a Justice of the Peace for County Durham and an alderman for Newcastle.[3]

In 1850 he bought Stella Hall, a 17th-century mansion near Blaydon.[5]

He was also a life member and chairman of the River Tyne improvement commission, helping make the river navigable for sea-going ships, for which he was knighted on 14 March 1872.[3]

Political career

Programme for an 1859 'Birth of Burns' event, held at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, with Cowen as vice-chairman (transcription)

Cowen demonstrated his political ambition early, protesting the Peterloo Massacre in 1819 and becoming an early member of the Anti-Corn Law League, as well as the National Political Union.[2]

He was elected Liberal MP with radical principles for Newcastle-upon-Tyne at the 1865 general election. While in Parliament, he advocated Church of England disestablishment and game law abolition, shorter parliamentary terms, and redistribution and equalisation of the franchise between counties and boroughs. He also refused to support Irish coercion and aided in the Cobden–Chevalier Treaty with France.[2] He held the seat until his death in 1873, when he was succeeded by his son at the ensuing by-election.[6][3]

Later life

Cowen died at his home, Stella Hall, in 1873.[3] He was buried in St Paul's Churchyard in Winlaton.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "N" (part 1)
  2. 1 2 3 Bebbington, DW (April 2009). "Unitarian Members of Parliament in the Nineteenth Century: A Catalgoue" (PDF). Transactions of the Unitarian Historical Society Supplement. 24 (3): 58.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 W.F., Rae (23 September 2004). "Cowen, Joseph". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6494. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. 1 2 3 "Cowen Family". Winlaton & District Local History Society. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  5. ↑ "The Blaydon Brick: Joseph Cowen (Jr)". Newcastle University Library: Special Collections. 5 April 2018. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
  6. ↑ Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1977). British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (e-book) (1st ed.). London: Macmillan Press. ISBN 978-1-349-02349-3.
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