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Edward Cowey (9 April 1839 – 16 December 1903), often known as Ned Cowey, was a
Edward Cowey (9 April 1839 – 16 December 1903), often known as Ned Cowey, was a British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
trade unionist
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and Employee ben ...
.
Cowey was born in Longbenton
Longbenton is a district of North Tyneside, England. It is largely occupied by an extensive estate originally built as municipal housing by Newcastle City Council in the 1930s and extended in the 1950s. It is served by the Tyne and Wear Metro st ...
, Northumberland
Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey.
It is bordered by land on ...
, and began working in local coal mine
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...
s at the age of seven, opening and closing a trapdoor for fourteen hours a day. In 1858, he and his workmates were able to work together to break the written agreement of working practices, for which he was blacklist
Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist (or black list) of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list. If someone is on a blacklist, t ...
ed. He briefly worked at sea, but returned to Monkwearmouth
Monkwearmouth is an area of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear in North East England. Monkwearmouth is located at the north side of the mouth of the River Wear. It was one of the three original settlements on the banks of the River Wear along with Bisho ...
, where again he made efforts to improve working conditions.Robert Featherstone Wearmouth, ''Methodism and the Trade Unions'', p. 58
In an effort to find further work, Cowey moved to Sharlston
Sharlston is a village and civil parish situated east of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, and includes the settlements of Old Sharlston, Sharlston Common and New Sharlston. Its population at the 2001 census was 2,756, reducing to 2,663 at ...
in the West Riding of Yorkshire
The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...
in 1871, and was elected as checkweighman {{Short description, Occupation within mining, especially coal
A checkweighman (occasionally checkmeasurer or checkweigher) is a person who is responsible for weighing coal or another mined substance, and thereby determining the payment due to each ...
. There, he joined the West Yorkshire Miners' Association (WYMA), and was elected president in 1873, then served in the post again from 1876. In 1881, the WYMA merged with the South Yorkshire Miners' Association
The South Yorkshire Miners' Association (SYMA) was an early British trade union representing coal miners in the southern West Riding of Yorkshire and northern Derbyshire.
The union was founded in 1858 at the White Bear Inn in Barnsley in respo ...
to form the Yorkshire Miners' Association
The Yorkshire Miners' Association was a British trade union. It is now an integral part of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
History
The union was founded in 1881 with the merger of the South Yorkshire Miners' Association, and the ...
, and Cowey was appointed as its first president.
Cowey was also a member of the board of the Miners' National Union
The Miners' National Union (MNU) was a trade union which represented miners in Great Britain.
History
The union was founded in November 1863 at a five-day long conference at the People's Hall in Leeds. It was originally known as the National Ass ...
, and when the Miners' Federation of Great Britain
The Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) was established after a meeting of local mining trade unions in Newport, Wales in 1888. The federation was formed to represent and co-ordinate the affairs of local and regional miners' unions in Engla ...
was formed in 1889, Cowey was elected to its committee. In 1893, he was elected to the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre
A national trade union center (or national center or central) is a federation or confederation of trade unions in a country. Nearly every country in the world has a national tra ...
, where he was a prominent opponent of socialism
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
.Roy Gregory, ''The Miners and British Politics 1906–1914'', p. 104
In his spare time, Cowey was a Primitive Methodist
The Primitive Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination with the holiness movement. It began in England in the early 19th century, with the influence of American evangelist Lorenzo Dow (1777–1834).
In the United States, the Primiti ...
lay preacher
Lay preacher is a preacher or a religious proclaimer who is not a formally ordained cleric
Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presidi ...
.
References