Sir John Stepney Cowell-Stepney, 1st Baronet,
KH (1791–1877) was a British
soldier
A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a Conscription, conscripted or volunteer Enlisted rank, enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an Officer (armed forces), officer.
Etymology
The word ''soldier'' deri ...
,
landowner and
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, ...
. He was the elder of the two sons of General
Andrew Cowell (d. 1821), originally of
Coleshill, Buckinghamshire
Coleshill (formerly Stoke) is a village and civil parish within Chiltern district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is south of Amersham and north of Beaconsfield.
History
The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'Coll's hill', th ...
, and his wife Maria Justina (d. 1821), youngest daughter of Sir Thomas Stepney, 7th baronet of
Prendergast,
Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire ( ; cy, Sir Benfro ) is a county in the south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and the rest by sea. The county is home to Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. The Park oc ...
, and
Llanelly House
Llanelly House (also spelled Llanelli House) is one of the most notable historic properties in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, Wales—an excellent example of an early-18th-century Georgian town house. It had been described as "the most outstandin ...
,
Carmarthenshire
Carmarthenshire ( cy, Sir Gaerfyrddin; or informally ') is a county in the south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. The county is known as ...
. He was known as
ohn Ohn is a Burmese name, used by people from Myanmar. Notable people with the name include:
* Daw Ohn (1913–2003), Burmese professor in Pali
* Ohn Gyaw (born 1932), Burmese Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1991 to 1998
* Ohn Kyaing (born 1944), Bur ...
Stepney Cowell until he inherited the Stepney family's estates in 1857 under the terms of the will of his uncle, Sir John Stepney, 8th baronet, when he changed the family's name to Cowell-Stepney .
Military career and personal life
Cowell joined his father's regiment, the
Coldstream Guards
The Coldstream Guards is the oldest continuously serving regular regiment in the British Army. As part of the Household Division, one of its principal roles is the protection of the monarchy; due to this, it often participates in state ceremonia ...
, and fought in the
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spai ...
at
Fuentes de Oñoro
Fuentes de Oñoro is a village and municipality in the province of Salamanca, western Spain, part of the autonomous community of Castile-Leon. It is located from the provincial capital city of Salamanca, and has a population of 1058 people. I ...
,
Ciudad Rodrigo
Ciudad Rodrigo () is a small cathedral city in the province of Salamanca, in western Spain, with a population in 2016 of 12,896. It is also the seat of a judicial district.
The site of Ciudad Rodrigo, perched atop a rocky rise on the right ban ...
,
Salamanca
Salamanca () is a city in western Spain and is the capital of the Province of Salamanca in the autonomous community of Castile and León. The city lies on several rolling hills by the Tormes River. Its Old City was declared a UNESCO World Herit ...
and
Vittoria. Cowell subsequently wrote a memoir of his experiences in the war . He fought at the
Battle of Quatre Bras
The Battle of Quatre Bras was fought on 16 June 1815, as a preliminary engagement to the decisive Battle of Waterloo that occurred two days later. The battle took place near the strategic crossroads of Quatre Bras and was contested between el ...
in 1815 but an attack of
dysentery
Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...
led him to miss the
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armies of the Sevent ...
. Peacetime postings included
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
,
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...
,
Gibraltar
)
, anthem = " God Save the King"
, song = "Gibraltar Anthem"
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and
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in 1830.
Cowell married Mary Anne Annesley at
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, on 5 July 1820. She was the daughter of the Hon. Robert Annesley, and they had one son, William Frederick Ross Cowell
Stepney
Stepney is a district in the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The district is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name appli ...
born on 31 May 1821. However, Mary Anne died at
Nice
Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative ...
on 9 November 1821. On 19 November 1823 Cowell married Euphemia Jemima Murray (d. 1874), daughter of John Murray of Glenalla, Co. Donegal and sister of General
Freeman Murray
General Freeman Murray CB (16 November 1804 – 14 April 1885) was a British Army officer who became General Officer Commanding Eastern District.
Murray was born in France, the son of General John Murray and his second wife, Canadian Maria ...
, governor of
Bermuda
)
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, song_type = National song
, song = "Hail to Bermuda"
, image_map =
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1854-9 and 1860–1. They had two sons,
ames CharlesMurray Cowell (1824–54) and
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before following his father into the Coldstream Guards. He was swiftly promoted to Colonel but was killed at Battle of Inkerman">Inkerman
Inkerman ( uk, Інкерман, russian: Инкерман, crh, İnkerman) is a city in the Crimean peninsula. It is '' de facto'' within the federal city of Sevastopol within the Russian Federation, but '' de jure'' within Ukraine. It li ...
on 5 November 1854. A large memorial to him and the other Coldstream officers killed in the battle was erected in St Paul's Cathedral; a smaller version of it was placed in Llanelli parish church .
In December 1857 Cowell inherited the substantial Carmarthenshire estates of the Stepney family, having been engaged in litigation about it for many years with the former incumbents, the Chambers family. He chose not to live in Llanelly House, which was let for commercial purposes, and he allowed the construction of many new streets, shops and houses on his land in an attempt to boost his income. He was thus largely responsible for much of the present layout of Llanelli and chose the names of many of its streets, which reflected his family's connections and careers: for example, Stepney Street, Murray Street, Salamanca Road, Glenalla Road, Inkerman Street. A somewhat eccentric and disagreeable figure (Queen Victoria detested him ), Cowell gained the nickname of ‘Old Whalebone’ .
In 1864 Stepney was briefly mentioned as a potential candidate for the parliamentary vacancy in the
, a cousin of the late member, David Morris.
Prior to the 1868 General Election, William Morris announced his retirement and Colonel Cowell-Stepney, as he had now become, was elected Liberal MP for Carmarthen Boroughs at the age of seventy-seven. He made little impact in Parliament, although he spoke out against religious education in schools and opposed electoral intimidation by other Welsh landlords .
He was the publisher of the ''Social Economist'' which published an abridged version of the ''
'' in August and September 1869.
in September 1869, where he was a delegate of the General Council.
He retired in 1874. On 22 September 1871
, a family friend, created a new baronetcy for Cowell-Stepney.
.