{{Short description|English radical Liberal politician and journalist}} {{for|the father|Joseph Cowen (1800–1873)}} {{Use British English|date=November 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} thumb|right|200px|Joseph Cowen Jr.
'''Joseph Cowen''', Jr., (9 July 1829 – 18 February 1900)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://britishpamphlets.org.uk/collections/cowen-tracts.html|title=Cowen Tracts | Collections | 19th Century Pamphlets Online|website=britishpamphlets.org.uk}}</ref> was an English radical Liberal politician and journalist. He was a firm friend to Anglo-Jewry, and an early advocate of Jewish emancipation, regularly contributing to ''The Jewish Chronicle''.
== Early life == The son of <!-- Not knighted until 1872 -->Joseph Cowen, Snr, a prominent businessman and Member of Parliament (MP) for Newcastle upon Tyne from 1874 to 1886, he was born Blaydon, near Newcastle. Cowen junior was educated privately in Ryton and at the University of Edinburgh, where he developed an interest in the revolutionary political movements of Europe.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last= |date=2018-04-05 |title=The Blaydon Brick: Joseph Cowen |url=https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/speccoll/2018/04/05/the-blaydon-brick-joseph-cowen/ |access-date=2023-12-25 |website=Newcastle University Library: Special Collections}}</ref>
He then joined his father in the fire brick business, Joseph Cowen & Co., established at Braydon in 1828.<ref name=":0" /> Cowen numbered among his friends Mazzini, Louis Blanc and Ledru-Rollin, as well as Alexander Herzen and Bakunin. Garibaldi,<ref name="twsitelines.info">{{Cite web |title=Stella Hall, park {{!}} sitelines.newcastle.gov.uk |url=http://www.twsitelines.info/smr/5245 |access-date=2019-05-28 |website=www.twsitelines.info}}</ref> Felice Orsini and Lajos Kossuth came to visit him in Blaydon. He supported the miners and improved the lot of the working-classes by campaigning for better housing and social welfare reform.<ref name=":0" /> One area of improvement revisited again by Cowen was education: changes to the Mechanics Working-men institute were followed by a public library for Newcastle.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.the-nut.net/articles/joseph_cowen.php|title=The NUT - Joseph Cowen: a friend to the miners|first=John|last=Asher}}</ref>
In 1850 his father bought Stella Hall, a 17th-century mansion near Blaydon, which continued in the Cowen family until 1948 and was demolished in 1955.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-05-26 |title=Stella Hall |url=https://www.twsitelines.info/SMR/1694 |access-date=2023-12-25 |website=Sitelines – Tyne and Wear's Historic Environment Record |publisher=Newcastle City Council |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Demolition">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date= |title=Image: Demolition of Stella Hall, 1955 |url=http://isee.gateshead.gov.uk/detail.php?t=objects&type=browse&f=PLACE_MADE&s=Stella&record=4 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070319172523/http://isee.gateshead.gov.uk/detail.php?t=objects&type=browse&f=PLACE_MADE&s=Stella&record=4 |archive-date=19 March 2007 |website=iSee Gateshead |publisher=Gateshead Council |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
== Political career == In 1874, he was elected Member of Parliament, succeeding his father, who had held the Newcastle seat as a Liberal since 1865.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Cowen, Joseph|volume=7|page=346}}</ref> [[File:Joseph Cowen, Vanity Fair, 1878-04-27.jpg|thumb|"Joe": caricature by Spy published in ''Vanity Fair'' in 1878]] A radical on domestic questions when elected, Cowen was also a sympathizer with Irish Nationalism,<ref name="ncl.ac.uk">{{Cite web|url=http://www.ncl.ac.uk/library/special-collections/exhibitions/current-and-past-exhibitions/very_truly_yours/politics/cowen/|title=Exhibitions}}</ref> In speech, dress and manner he identified himself with the coal miners of North East England. According to Dilke he spoke with a distinctive Tyneside burr. To the consternation of Liberal operatives, Cowen vigorously supported Disraeli's foreign policy, and in 1881 opposed the Gladstonian settlement with the Boers.<ref name="EB1911"/>
On 13 July 1876, he joined John Bright in introducing Joseph Chamberlain into the Commons as the new MP for Birmingham.<ref>Jenkins, R, (1958) "Dilke: A Victorian Tragedy"</ref>
Short in stature and uncouth in appearance, Cowen was unusual for wearing a soft hat in parliament, breaking with convention.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=August 2010 |title=Some Traditions and Customs of the House |url=https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/commons-information-office/g07.pdf |journal=Factsheet G7 General Series |publisher=House of Commons Information Office |volume= |issue= |pages=7 |issn=0144-4689}}</ref> His individuality first shocked and then by its earnestness impressed the House of Commons; and his sturdy independence of party ties, combined with a gift of rough but genuine eloquence (of which his speech on the Royal Title Bill of 1876 was an example), rapidly made him one of the best-known public men in the country.<ref name="EB1911"/>
His independence (which his detractors attributed in some degree to his alleged susceptibility to Tory compliments) brought him into collision both with the Liberal parliamentary party and with the party organization in Newcastle itself, but Cowen's personal popularity and his remarkable powers as an orator triumphed in his own birthplace, and he was again elected in 1885.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="EB1911"/>
== Other interests == Cowen retired both from parliament and from public life in 1886,<ref name="ncl.ac.uk" /> professing his disgust at the party intrigues of politics, and devoted himself to conducting the ''Newcastle Daily Chronicle'' (which he had established in 1858),<ref name=":02">{{Cite web |title=Newcastle Daily Chronicle |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/titles/newcastle-daily-chronicle |access-date=2023-12-25 |website=British Newspaper Archive}}</ref> and to his private business. In this capacity he exercised a wide influence on local opinion, and the revolt of the Newcastle electorate in later years against "doctrinaire Radicalism" was largely due to his constant preaching of a broader outlook on national affairs.<ref name="EB1911"/> He served as president of the first day of the 1873 Co-operative Congress.<ref name="PDF">{{Citation|title=Congress Presidents 1869-2002 |url=http://archive.co-op.ac.uk/downloadFiles/congressPresidentstable.pdf |date=February 2002 |accessdate=2008-05-10 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528100558/http://archive.co-op.ac.uk/downloadFiles/congressPresidentstable.pdf |archivedate=28 May 2008 }}</ref>
Behind the scenes, he continued to play a powerful part in forming North-country opinion until his death. His letters were published by his daughter in 1909.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://victorianweb.org/sculpture/tweed/5.html|title="Joseph Cowen, Newcastle upon Tyne," by John Tweed|website=victorianweb.org}}</ref><ref name="EB1911"/>
== Legacy == A fine bronze statue of Cowen stands in Westgate Road in Newcastle upon Tyne.<ref>{{National Heritage List for England|num=1355328|desc=Statue of Joseph Cowen at junction with Fenkle Street|access-date=25 December 2023}}</ref>
His name lives on in The Joseph Cowen Lifelong Learning Centre, a Charitable Incorporated Organisation also based in Newcastle upon Tyne, delivering the 'Explore' lecture programme.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.josephcowen.org.uk/|title=Joseph Cowen Lifelong Learning Centre|website=www.josephcowen.org.uk}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
== Bibliography == * {{cite book|first=Joan|last= Allen| date=2007|title=Joseph Cowen and Popular Radicalism on Tyneside 1829–1900}} * {{cite book|first=E. I.|last= Waitt|date=October 1972|title=John Morley, Joseph Cowen and Robert Spence Watson: Liberal divisions in Newcastle Politics, 1873-1895|publisher=unpublished to University of Manchester, PhD Thesis.}} Copies in Manchester University, Newcastle Central and Gateshead libraries. * {{cite book|first=Evan Rowland|last= Jones|title=The Life and Speeches of Joseph Cowen, M.P|place=London|publisher=Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington|orig-year= n.d. |date=1885}} * {{cite book|first=Richard|last= Fynes|title=Miners of Northumberland and Durham|place=Newcastle upon Tyne|date= 1873}}
== External links == *{{Hansard-contribs | mr-joseph-cowen-1 | Joseph Cowen }} *{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20080501225034/http://www.leighrayment.com/ leighrayment.com]}} *[http://www.peerage.com peerage.com] *J [https://specialcollections.ncl.ac.uk/index.php/cowen-tracts oseph Cowen's pamphlet collection] at Newcastle University *[https://archive.today/20130616122251/http://www.tyneandweararchives.org.uk/DServe2/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=show.tcl&dsqSearch=(RefNo==%22DF.COW%22) Catalogue entry to the Joseph Cowen] papers at Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, archived in 2013 *[https://draperonfilm.com/2016/04/07/joseph-cowen-geordie-entrepreneur-politician-and-radical/ Joseph Cowen: Geordie Entrepreneur, Politician and Radical] at draperonfilm.com
{{S-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{s-bef| before = Sir Joseph Cowen <br /> Thomas Emerson Headlam }} {{s-ttl| title = Member of Parliament for Newcastle-upon-Tyne | with = Thomas Emerson Headlam 1874 | with2 = Charles Frederic Hamond 1874–1880 | with3 = Ashton Wentworth Dilke 1880–1883 | with4 = John Morley 1883–1886 | years = 1874 – 1886 }} {{s-aft| after = John Morley <br /> James Craig }} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowen, Joseph}} Category:1829 births Category:1900 deaths Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Category:UK MPs 1874–1880 Category:UK MPs 1880–1885 Category:UK MPs 1885–1886 Category:Presidents of Co-operative Congress