John Cowell

London brandy merchant, who appears also to have lent money to, and acted as consignee for, Jamaican slave-owners. Father of John Welsford Cowell (q.v.) and brother of George Cowell (q.v.).

1. Will of John Cowell of Water Lane City of London [and of Park Crescent...Marylebone] proved 19/05/1824. Under the will he left his real estate and £10,000 (to be reduced by any in vivo gifts) to his only son John Welsford Cowell. He left his personalty in trust, with 3/4 of the income to his wife Elizabeth Hayne Cowell and half of the other 1/4 to his daughter Elizabeth Cowell and her heirs and half to his daughter Augusta and her heirs. If his personalty at his wife's death exceeded £20,000, then John Welsford Cowell was to have one-third in addition to his £10,000. He said that he had for some years carried on a co-partnership with his brother George Cowell as brandy merchants, and expressed his wish that his son John Welsford Cowell would follow him into the business.

2. In 1814, John Cowell had lent £2700 to William White (the nephew of William White the elder) on the Hopewell estate in Hanover, an estate already heavily indebted, and the estate was assigned to George Cowell and Felix Booth as trustees, who 'by their agents, entered into the possession and management of the Hopewell estate, and consigned the produce from it to [John] Cowell upon the trusts of the deed.'

3. John Cowell also appears as trustee to the creditors of William White of Llandovery estate (q.v.), the same man as William White the elder above), for which his son John Welsford Cowell was awarded the compensation together with the adjacent Flat Point estate.

1. PROB 11/1685/289.

2. Jerome William Knapp, Reports of Cases argued and determined before the committees of His Majesty's Most Honorable Privy Council, appointed to hear appeals and petitions (London, 1831), 'White v Parnther', pp. 179-230, at pp. 189-190.

3. St Ann Slave Register 1817, T71/43 pp. 271-280.