Ralph Cawley (1720 – 31 August 1777) was an English clergyman and

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

academic. Cawley was born at

Farnworth Farnworth is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, southeast of Bolton, 4.3 miles south-west of Bury (7 km), and northwest of Manchester. Historically in Lancashire, Farnworth lies on the River Ir ...

(then in Lancashire, now in Cheshire) in 1720, the son of John Cawley, schoolmaster at Farnworth School and later headmaster of Wigan Grammar School. He was educated at

Brasenose College, Oxford Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the mi ...

, matriculating in 1738, graduating

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

1742,

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

1744, B.D. &

D.D. A Doctor of Divinity (D.D. or DDiv; la, Doctor Divinitatis) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity. In the United Kingdom, it is considered an advanced doctoral degree. At the University of Oxford, doctors of divinity are ra ...

1766. He was a Fellow of Brasenose 1744–1760. He was ordained deacon on 20 May 1744 and priest on 8 June 1745, both ordinations performed by

Thomas Secker Thomas Secker (21 September 16933 August 1768) was the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England. Early life and studies Secker was born in Sibthorpe, Nottinghamshire. In 1699, he went to Richard Brown's free school in Chesterfield, D ...

, Bishop of Oxford in

Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford Christ Church Cathedral is the cathedral of the Anglican diocese of Oxford, which consists of the counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. It is also the chapel of Christ Church, a college of the University of Oxford. This dual r ...

. He was appointed Rector of

Selham Selham is a small village in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It lies south of the A272 road 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Midhurst. It is mainly in the civil parish of Graffham, but partly in that of Lodsworth to the north. His ...

, Sussex, in 1755 (a college nomination), and Rector of

St Dunstan's, Stepney St Dunstan's, Stepney, is an Anglican Church which stands on a site that has been used for Christian worship for over a thousand years. It is located in Stepney High Street, in Stepney, London Borough of Tower Hamlets. History In about AD 952, D ...

in East London in 1759. He built a new parsonage at Stepney in 1763–1764, mostly at his own expense. He resigned at Stepney in 1770, on his election as Principal of Brasenose. He was elected Principal of Brasenose in September 1770, holding the office until his death on 31 August 1777. Towards the end of his life, Cawley suffered from a heart condition, for which he took

foxglove ''Digitalis'' ( or ) is a genus of about 20 species of herbaceous perennial plants, shrubs, and biennials, commonly called foxgloves. ''Digitalis'' is native to Europe, western Asia, and northwestern Africa. The flowers are tubular in shap ...

root, which greatly reduced the symptoms, relieving his breath and reducing the swelling in his legs. This story came to the attention of the botanist

William Withering William Withering FRS (17 March 1741 – 6 October 1799) was an English botanist, geologist, chemist, physician and first systematic investigator of the bioactivity of digitalis. Withering was born in Wellington, Shropshire, the son of a surg ...

, who investigated and documented the medicinal use of foxglove. (The narrative that Cawley was treated by " Mother Hutton" who then sold her recipe to Withering is fanciful, created in a marketing campaign for the

Parke-Davis Parke-Davis is a subsidiary of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer. Although Parke, Davis & Co. is no longer an independent corporation, it was once America's oldest and largest drug maker, and played an important role in medical history. In 1970 ...

pharmaceutical company in the 1920s.)

Family

On 21 April 1768, Cawley married Ann Cooper (1736–1787), daughter of Gislingham Cooper, a London goldsmith and banker resident in

Henley-on-Thames Henley-on-Thames ( ) is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England, northeast of Reading, west of Maidenhead, southeast of Oxford and west of London (by road), near the tripoint of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buc ...

. They had no children. Mrs Cawley's brother Edward Cooper was married to an aunt of

Jane Austen Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...

. In 1783, Jane Austen, aged seven, was sent with her sister Cassandra and cousin Jane Cooper to board with the widowed Mrs Cawley, in Oxford then Southampton. The arrangement ended when Jane and Cassandra contracted a serious fever: Mrs Cawley did not notify the family, but Jane Cooper did, and Mrs Austen and Mrs Cooper travelled to Southampton to bring the girls home. Mrs Cooper caught the infection and died in October 1783.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cawley, Ralph 1720 births 1777 deaths 18th-century English Anglican priests Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford Principals of Brasenose College, Oxford People from Wigan