Joseph Cowen

Joseph Cowen, Jr., (9 July 1829 – 18 February 1900) 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.

The son of Sir Joseph Cowen, a prominent citizen and Member of Parliament (MP) for Newcastle upon Tyne from 1874 to 1886, was born at Stella Hall, Blaydon (demolished 1953). Cowen junior was educated privately in Ryton and at Edinburgh University, where he interested himself in European revolutionary movements. Cowen then joined his father in his Blaydon brick business, smuggling documents abroad in the consignments of bricks. Cowen numbered among his friends Mazzini, Louis Blanc and Ledru-Rollin, as well as Herzen and Bakunin. Garibaldi,Felice Orsini and Lajos Kossuth came to visit him in Blaydon. He supported the miners and improved the lot of the working-classes. One area of improvement revisited again by Cowen was education: changes to the Mechanics Working-men institute, was followed by a public library for Newcastle.

In 1874, he was elected Member of Parliament, succeeding his father, who had held the Newcastle seat as a Liberal since 1865. Joseph Cowen was at that time a strong Radical on domestic questions. He was also a sympathizer with Irish Nationalism, and one who in speech, dress and manner identified himself with the North East mining class. According to Dilke he spoke with a distinctive Tyneside burr. On 13 July 1876, he joined John Bright in introducing Joseph Chamberlain into the Commons as the new MP for Birmingham.

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