William Cowherd
{{Short description|Christian minister and vegetarianism activist (1763–1816)}}
{{for|the 19th century Kansas mayor|William S. Cowherd}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox clergy
| honorific_prefix = The Reverend
| name = William Cowherd
| image = William Cowherd.jpg
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| birth_date = 1763
| birth_place = Carnforth, England
| death_date = {{Death date and given age|df=y|1816|03|24|53}}
| death_place = Salford, Lancashire, England
| church = Bible Christian Church
| other_names =
| education =
| ordained =
| writings =
| congregations = Parts of Salford
Manchester city centre
| offices_held = Christian minister
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}}
William Cowherd (1763 – 24 March 1816){{Cite ODNB|last1=Gordon|first1=Alexander|last2=Sellers|first2=Ian|date=2006-05-25|title=Cowherd, William (1763–1816), a founder of the Bible Christians (Cowherdites) and vegetarian|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-6496|access-date=2020-08-15|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/6496|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 }} was an English Christian minister and vegetarianism activist. He served a congregation in Salford known as the Bible Christian Church. Cowherd advocated and encouraged members of his then small group of followers, known as Bible Christians or "Cowherdites", to abstain from the eating of meat as a form of temperance. The Church was one of the philosophical forerunners of the Vegetarian Society founded in 1847.{{cite web |title=History of Vegetarianism - Early Ideas |url=http://www.vegsoc.org/page.aspx?pid=827 |access-date=2008-07-08 |publisher=The Vegetarian Society}}; Gregory, James (2007) Of Victorians and Vegetarians. London: I. B. Tauris pp. 30–35.{{cite web |title=The Bible Christian Church |url=http://www.ivu.org/history/thesis/bible-christian.html |publisher=International Vegetarian Union}}
Early life
After teaching philology at Beverley Cowherd came to Manchester and became curate to the Rev. John Clowes at St John's Church. Having studied the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, he like Clowes, adopted Swedenborgian doctrine and preached at the Swedenborgian church in Peter Street. He is said to have been the only man to read the Latin writings of Swedenborg in their entirety.Axon, W. E. A. (1877) Handbook of the Public Libraries of Manchester and Salford. Manchester: Abel Heywood; pp. 38–40
Bible Christian Church
File:Bible Christian Church.jpg
In 1800 Cowherd established a new congregation in Salford, building the chapel at his own expense. His chapel, Christ Church, was located on King Street, Salford, just across the River Irwell from Manchester. Believing that ministers should maintain themselves he conducted a school and practised as a physician from time to time. In 1809 he promulgated the doctrine that people should "eat no more meat till the world endeth" and abstain from alcoholic drinks.
The denomination he founded was known as the Bible Christian Church (not to be confused with the Methodist sect of the same name based in the South-west of England). His early ideas and insight into the abstinence from eating meat, provided the basis for early ideas about vegetarianism. The message was preached in the U.S. when 41 members of the Bible Christian Church crossed the Atlantic in 1817.
Cowherd is credited with being an important early advocate for vegetarianism.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/may/14/foodanddrink|title=A Mars Bar a day? No longer an option if you are vegetarian|work=The Guardian|date=2007-03-17|access-date=2008-07-08 | location=London | first=Hugh | last=Muir}} It is noted that he asked his congregation in a sermon preached on 18 January 1809,Antrobus, D., (1997) A Guiltless Feast: The Salford Bible Christian Church and the Rise of Vegetarianism, Salford City Council, Salford to refrain from eating meat which culminated in the founding of the Vegetarian Society in 1847.{{cite web|url=http://www.ely.anglican.org/parishes/camgsm/Majestas/1999/July.html|title=Majestas: July 1999|publisher=Diocese of Ely|access-date=2008-07-08 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080225034419/http://www.ely.anglican.org/parishes/camgsm/Majestas/1999/July.html |archive-date = 2008-02-25}}
Death
Cowherd died on 24 March 1816 and was buried in the Christ Church yard with the inscription at his request after Alexander Pope's verse about "He who would save a sinking land": "All feared, none loved, and few understood".{{Cite book|title = Annals of Manchester|last = Axon|first = William|publisher = John Heywood|year = 1886|location = Manchester|pages = 149|url = https://archive.org/stream/annalsofmanchest00axon#page/148/mode/2up}}
Library
Facts Authentic in Science and Religion towards a new Translation of the Bible which he had compiled was printed after his death. He left his personal library to the chapel and it was transferred to the new Bible Christian Chapel in Cross Lane. According to William Axon "It was at one time a circulating library, accessible to the public upon easy terms, but the books are not such as can be read by those who run." It was a scholar's library, strong in theology (including the London polyglott edition of the Bible, 1657), with some mystical works and books on health from the 17th century and later.Axon, W. E. A, (1877) Handbook of the Public Libraries of Manchester and Salford. Manchester: Abel Heywood; pp. 41–45
Publications
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=30pVAAAAcAAJ Select Hymns for the Use of Bible Christians]
- Facts Authentic in Science and Religion: Designed to Illustrate a New Translation of the Bible (Part 1, 1818; Part 2, 1820)
See also
Notes
{{reflist|30em}}
External links
{{DNB poster|Cowherd, William|William Cowherd}}
- [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20666581 Vegetarian roots: The extraordinary tale of William Cowherd] by Karen Millington, BBC (17 December 2012)
{{Vegetarianism}}
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Category:18th-century English Christian clergy
Category:19th-century English clergy
Category:Burials in Greater Manchester
Category:English Swedenborgians
Category:English temperance activists
Category:English vegetarianism activists
Category:People from Carnforth
Category:English Christian writers
Category:Christian vegetarians
Category:Founders of English schools and colleges