At the bottom end of Westgate Road, at the junction with Fenkle Street, stands a statue of a man called Joseph Cowen, who lived from 1829 to 1900. When I was a child I was told that this man was connected with our family on my mother’s side, but I did not know how, nor did anyone tell me who Joseph Cowen was or why he had had his statue erected “by public subscription”. Although I loved history as a subject at school, I had no idea how to do any historical research, and to my juvenile mind, the Victorian Age was the dullest of all dull periods. Now however, researching the family history, I need to find out who this man was and how his family was connected with ours.
According to a book entitled “The Life and Speeches of Joseph Cowen MP” by Evan Rowland Jones, the COWENS originally came from Lindisfarne (the Holy Island) but settled on the banks of the Tyne some time in the latter half of the sixteenth century. Joseph Cowen’s grandfather started his working life in the factory established at Winlaton by Sir Ambrose Crowley for the manufacture of tools, utensils, chains etc. When the long wars with France came to an end (after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815) the factory at Winlaton closed, and the grandfather set up on his own. Joseph (later Sir Joseph) Cowen worked at first in his father’s forge, and became wealthy. He served as Chairman of the Commissioners for the River Tyne, was elected Member of Parliament for Newcastle in 1865 and was knighted in 1871. His son, that Joseph Cowen whose statue stands at the bottom of Westgate Road, was elected as the Member for Newcastle upon the death of his father in 1873.
OUR COWEN ANCESTORS
The branch from which both Sir Joseph Cowen and our ancestors sprang settled at Ryton. The name figures over and over again in the Parish registers there, and also appears in the Parish Registers of Ovingham, the parish adjoining Ryton on the north bank of the River Tyne, and indeed at Hexham, further upstream. The first mention of the name that I have found at Ryton is that of Hewe COWIN, who was baptised there in 1626.
At the time of the first mention of our COWEN ancestors (1772) the parish of Ryton covered a large area and included Ryton itself, Winlaton, Stella and Greenside. It was divided into four quarters - Ryton, Winlaton, Crawcrook and Chopwell, each with its own Churchwarden. One of the Cowens was possibly a churchwarden, for the name John COWINS appears over and over again as a witness to many marriages for a period of about twenty years from 1761.
The Parish Registers began in 1581 and are complete, although I have not examined all of them yet. Pevsner’s "Buildings of England" describes RYTON as "the prettiest village on Tyneside, high on a wooded bank, providing a handsome setting to the church spire". That church, the Church of the Holy Cross in which our ancestor and those of Sir Joseph Cowen were baptised and married, still stands. It was built in the Early English style (1190-1250), and is described in Pevsner as "a venerable building of possibly the thirteenth century".
JAMES COWEN:
James COWEN is the earliest of our COWEN ancestors whose name we know."Matthew and Ann twins of James Cowen, Crawcrook Mill” were baptised on October 11, 1772. Matthew died almost immediately, and when another son was born in 1775, James and his wife (whose name we do not yet know) decided to give him the name Matthew again. The entry of baptism for this child, our five times great grandfather is as follows:
| June 11 1775: | Matthew son of James Cowen | Crawcrook. |
Another child was born to James and his wife in 1777, a younger sister for Matthew, and she was baptised Hannah on December 28 of that year. Curiously enough, she married into the same family as did Matthew. She married John RUTHERFORD at Ryton on 20 January 1795. We are continuing our researches to try and find James’s marriage and the name of his wife.
MATHEW COWEN, the elder:
Matthew Cowen married Eleanor Rutherford at Ryton when he was about twenty-three or twenty-four years old. The entry in the Parish Register is as follows:-
| 4 May 1799: | Matthew COWINS, bachelor and Elenor RUTHERFORD, spinster. | Wit. Thomas Ward and Andrew Penman. |
Their first two children, both boys, were baptised at Ryton, first James on July 13 1800, and second William on September 19 1802.
Another son, our ancestor Matthew COWEN, was baptised at Longbenton. The entry of his baptism is as follows:-
| June 16, 1805: | Matthew COWANS (born March 18) | 3rd son of Matthew COWANS, Labourer, native of Ryton, by his wife Eleanor RUTHERFORD, native of Simondburn. |
It is clear therefore that Matthew and Eleanor moved from Ryton sometime between 1802 and 1805. We do not know the reason for their removal, but there was quite a flight from the land at that time, and it seems to Longbenton in particular. The Vicar at Ovingham carefully noted all the removals from his parish to Longbenton over the period from 1753 to 1812. These removals may have been brought about because coalmines were opening and heavy industries were developing: in short, the industrial revolution was beginning.
At the end of the eighteenth century, LONGBENTON was a small village near what is now Four Lane Ends, with dwelling houses for the working people set along the north side of Whitley Road. The parish itself however was quite large: it covered Weetslade, Killingworth, Little Benton, and Walker. For the most part it was open moorland, with several small pits and some farms. Our early COWEN forefathers worked on the land, and in the 1841 Census Matthew himself was still described as an agricultural labourer, but he may have tried coalmining or one of the associated industries in the early years of the nineteenth century before returning to his original calling.
The church in which the younger Matthew was baptised is still there, situated about a mile to the north of the village, halfway to Killingworth (St. Bartholomew, Station Road, Longbenton). The church had been built in 1790 replacing the earlier Church of St. Andrew which dated back to 820 AD. We have traced two more children born to the elder Matthew and Eleanor: John baptised June 3, 1811 and Mary Ann baptised August 1, 1814. Both of these children were baptised at St. James’s, Blackett Street, Newcastle. Possibly Matthew and Eleanor moved from the Parish of Longbenton into Byker before John’s birth in 1811.
It is certainly true that by 1841 Matthew and Eleanor were living in Byker. The 1841 Census shows him aged 66, living with Eleanor aged 60 at St. Anthony’s Pottery.
MATTHEW COWEN, the younger:
Their son Matthew, a blacksmith, also lived with his wife and family at St. Anthony’s - the younger Matthew married Ann BRUCE at All Saints Church Newcastle on 25 December 1827. By 1841 they had five children - Jane aged 12, Thomas 9, Matthew 7, Robert 5, and James 3.
In 1851 both branches of the family were still living at St. Anthony’s - Matthew by then said to be 75 and Eleanor 72 with the younger Matthew and seven of his children, the eldest Jane probably being married by then. Their grandson Thomas, our great great grandfather, was by then aged 19, and was described as a carpenter.
We have not yet found where and when Eleanor was born -according to the census entry she was born at Faistone, and there are several RUTHERFORDs in the parish registers there. The baptism entry of her third son says she was born at Simondburn, however, and so far we have not found those records to search them. She died at St. Anthony’s, Byker, aged 79 on 17 February 1858. Matthew died aged 85, at Bigges’s Main, in December 1859.
In 1861 our three times great grandfather, Matthew then said to be 55, was living at 5 Alma Terrace, Byker with Ann, aged 53, four of their children and a lodger.
THOMAS COWAN:
Thomas COWAN, our great great: grandfather, the second child of Matthew and Ann, was baptised at All Saints on 1 January 1832. He married Sarah STEELE at All Saints’ Church, Newcastle upon Tyne on 30 March 1856.
The 1861 Census shows Thomas and Sarah living at Ropery Walk, Byker with three of their children, Ann aged 4, Sarah aged 2, and Thomas, aged 2 months. Thomas is described as a “ship’s carpenter”. Next door to them his brother Matthew was living with his wife and family.
The 1871 Census showed Thomas and Sarah living at 11 Ropery Row, Byker (said to be a public house) with four of their children and Sarah’s brother Samuel Steel, described as an iron moulder. At number 19 Ropery Row, Thomas’s brother Matthew was living with his wife Elizabeth and their children.
By 1881 Thomas and Sarah COWEN, with three of their children were living at 48 Church Street, Walker. Next door, at number 50 lived their eldest daughter, with her new husband (see below) . Ten years later. (1891 Census) shows Thomas and Sarah (aged 59 and 54 respectively) still living there with their youngest son Thomas, still unmarried at the age of 30. By 1901, Sarah a widow of 65 was still living at 48 Church Street, Walker, with her unmarried son, two of her brothers Samuel and Jim, and a granddaughter Sarah COWANS aged 10.
The eldest daughter, our great grandmother Ann (born 5 September 1856) married Michael Bell MASTERMAN on 12 May 1880. It was probably she who in talking to her grandchildren (one of whom was my mother) told the story of the connection with the famous Sir Joseph Cowen and his son Joseph Cowen MP. We have her portrait, taken at about the turn of the twentieth century with her husband and all her children. There is I think a likeness between Ann and Joseph Cowen MP.
Continue on Masterman page.
Some Websites about Joseph Cowen MP:
Cowen Tracts
Cowan Statue
The Cowen Trophy
Joseph Cowan the Elder,
father of Joseph Cowan MP.
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NOTES: 1841 Census HO 107 820 Reel 3
1851 Census HO 107/2408 Folio 215 * a2T2...
1861 Census RG 9/3833 Fo1io~j
1871 Census RG 10/5107 Folio 41 and 42
1881 Census RG 11/5~85 Folios 8 and 9
1891 Census RG 12/4231 Folio 135
1901 Census RG 13/4806 Folio 155
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