Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/408

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Cowper
402
Cowton

poems,’ &c. (by W. Bull), Newport Pagnel, 1801. 8. ‘Adelphi, a Sketch of .... John Cowper, transcribed .... by J. Newton,’ 1802. 9. ‘Latin and Italian Poems of Milton, translated by W. Cowper,’ 1808 (with illustrations by Flaxman; published by Hayley for the benefit of Cowper's godson, W. C. Rose). 10. ‘Cowper's Milton’ (published by Hayley, with an introductory letter to Johnson, in 4 vols.; it includes the translation of Andreini and Cowper's notes and translations from Milton), 1810. 11. ‘Poems in 3 vols., by J. Johnson’ (some new pieces in vol. 3), 1815. 12. ‘Poems, the early productions of W. Cowper .... by James Croft,’ 1825 (the poems to Theodora). Hayley says these satires are in a copy of Duncombe's ‘Horace,’ printed in 1750. Cowper also contributed sixty-seven hymns to the Olney Collection, 1779; two translations from ‘Horace’ to Duncombe's ‘Horace’ (1757–9); Nos. 111, 115, 134, and 139 to the ‘Connoisseur;’ two papers to the ‘Gent. Mag.’ (on his hares, June 1784, and on translating Homer, August 1785), and a review of Glover's ‘Athenaid’ to ‘Analytical Review’ Feb. 1789.

[Hayley's Life of Cowper appeared (2 vols.) in 1803. A third volume in 1804 contained the correspondence with Unwin and Newton, communicated by Johnson. A volume called 'Supplementary Pages' and 'Yardley Oak,' hitherto unknown (1806), gives the correspondence with Bagot. A second edition, in 4 vols. 8vo, appeared in 1806, where the additional materials are arranged in their proper places; others in 1809 and 1812. The first editions are called 'Life and Posthumous Works,' the last two ' Life and Letters.' Hayley's correspondence with Lady Hesketh, now in the British Museum (Addit. MS. 30803 A, B), shows that he wrote under great restraint. His enforced reticence and natural looseness of style make the narrative indistinct. A short Memoir by Johnson (Cowper's cousin) is prefixed to his Collection of Cowper's Poems in 3 vols. (1815). A Memoir of the Early Life of W. Cowper, written by himself, published in 1816, gives the full accounts of his first periods of insanity. Private Correspondence of William Cowper with several of his intimate friends, &c., by J. Johnson (1824), 2 vols., gives letters which had been omitted by Hayley from the correspondence published in 1803 (vol. iii. of the 'Life,' &c.) Poems, the early productions of W. Cowper, &c, with preface by James Croft, gives some anecdotes by Lady Hesketh, the editor's aunt. A complete edition of Cowper's Works by Southey, with a memoir, 15 vols. (1834-7), gives many additional letters and is nearly exhaustive. It is reprinted in Bonn's Standard Library. A rival edition by the Kev. T. S. Grimshawe (Johnson's brother-in-law) appeared in 1835 in 8 vols.; the Life is Hayley's revised. Grimshawe was able to insert the correspondence published by Johnson in 1824; Southey, whose publishers could not acquire the copyright, evaded the difficulty by quoting a great number of the letters in his Memoir. The last volume contains the remaining letters, the copyright having apparently been acquired in the interval An excellent Life by John Bruce was prefixed to the Aldine edition in 1865. A list of Cowper's letters (1799 in number) by Bruce is in the Addit. MS. 29716. The Life by the Rev. W. Benham, prefixed to the Globe edition, gives all the latest information. Some important facts have been made known by the Rev. Josiah Bull in his Memorials of (his grandfather) the Rev. W. Bull (1764); the Sunday at Home for 1866 (xiii. 347, 363, 378, 393); and in John Newton ... an Autobiography from his Diary and other unpublished sources, published by the Religious Tract Society (1869). The last contains a brief commentary by Cowper on the first chapter of St. John's Gospel. The collection of Cowper's Letters to Unwin and Rose is in Addit. MSS. 21154 and 21556.]

L. S.

COWPER, WILLIAM, D.D. (1780–1858), archdeacon, born at Whittington, Lancashire, 28 Dec. 1780, took holy orders in 1808, held for a time a cure of souls at Rawdon, near Leeds, but having obtained the post of colonial chaplain left England for Sydney, where he landed on 18 Aug. 1809. There he held the benefice of St. Philip's. He was long connected with and chiefly concerned in organising the Australian branches of the Bible Society, the Religious Tract Society, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and the Benevolent Society. He paid a brief visit to England in 1842. On his return to Australia he was appointed archdeacon of Cumberland and Camden (1848). In 1852 he acted as Bishop Broughton's commissary during the absence of that prelate in Europe. His example and influence helped to raise the tone of society in the colony. He died on 6 July 1858. His son was Sir Charles Cowper [q. v.]

[Times, 6 Sept. 1851, col. 9; Heaton's Australian Dict. of Dates.]

J. M. R.

COWTON, ROBERT (fl. 1300), Franciscan, was educated at the monastery of his order at Oxford, and then at Paris, where he became doctor in theology of the Sorbonne. The only positive date in his life is given in an entry in the register of the bishop of Lincoln (ap. Tanner, Bibl. Brit. p. 204), which states that on 26 July 1300 he was licensed to receive confessions in the archdeaconry of Oxford, whereas all the biographers give his ‘floruit’ as 1340. Bale states that he was ultimately raised to the archbishopric of Armagh, but this is a mistake. Cowton is said