View source for John Cowell 1554-1611

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===[[name::John]] [[name::COWELL]]  [[date of birth::1554]]-[[date of death::1611]]===

====Biographical Note====
Born at [[place of birth::Ernsborough, Devon]].  BA [[education::King’s College, Cambridge]] 1575, MA 1578, LL.D 1584 (he was persuaded to study civil law by [[crossreference::Richard Bancroft 1544-1610|Richard Bancroft]], then [[occupation::bishop|Bishop]] of [[location::London]]).  Member of [[organisations::Doctors’ Commons]], 1590.  Official [[occupation::principal]] to [[associates::the archdeacon of Colchester]] 1602, [[occupation::vicar-general]] to Bancroft (as [[occupation::Archbishop of Canterbury]]) 1609.  He was involved in various legal duties in [[location::London]] and [[location::Cambridge]], and also pursued an academic career, as [[occupation::regius professor]] of civil law at [[organisations::University of Cambridge|Cambridge]] from 1594, [[occupation::Master]] of [[education::Trinity Hall, Cambridge|Trinity Hall]] from 1598, and [[occupation::Vice-Chancellor]] 1603-04.  He published [[book title::''Institutiones juris Anglicani'']] in [[date of publication::1605]], and a [[author::law dictionary]], [[book title::''The interpreter'']] in [[date of publication::1607]].  This caused controversy with Parliament and other areas of the legal establishment, partly because Cowell was seen to overstate the absolute power of the monarch; [[associates::James I]] formally suppressed the book, in order to keep the peace, despite his private sympathies for Cowell’s theories.  ''The interpreter'' was reprinted numerous times during the 17th and 18th centuries.

====Books==== 
Cowell’s will included a list of ca.20 [[subject::law|legal]] titles, many noted as being “in my studie at [[location::London]]”, to be given to [[beneficiary::King's College, Cambridge|King’s College]].  The remainder of his [[bequest::books]] were to be given to [[beneficiary::Trinity Hall, Cambridge|Trinity Hall]], except that any already held by the College should be held back by his executors, for the use of his [[beneficiary::nephew]] [[family::John Allen]], then a [[occupation::student]] at [[education::Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge]] (MA and [[occupation::fellow]] 1611, d.[[date of death::1626]]).  Trinity Hall library was built and fitted out with seats and lecterns for chained books during Cowell’s Mastership, though the work may have been started during the time of his predecessor ([[associates::Thomas Preston]], 1585-98); it was also during Cowell’s time that a significant gift of [[bequest::books and manuscripts]] was given to the [[beneficiary::Trinity Hall, Cambridge|College]] by [[crossreference::Robert Hare]], in [[date of bequest::1604]].  

====Sources==== 
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*Cowell’s will, Cambridge University Vice-Chancellor’s Court, 1611. 
*Crawley, C. ''Trinity Hall'', 1976. 
*Dale, A. W. W. (ed), ''Warren’s book'', 1911. 
*Jayne, S. ''Library catalogues of the English renaissance''. Godalming, 1983.
*Levack, Brian P. [https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/6490 "Cowell, John (1554–1611), civil lawyer."] ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. 
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