Cowper

Houses
The Cowper family had become established Chester merchants by the mid-17th century. The New British Traveller (1819) described the family as follows:


 * The Cowpers of Chester descended from Thomas a younger son of the Cowpers of Strode in Sussex who was one of the gentlement of the bed chamber in August 1498. Before the end of the year he married lsabella daughter and heiress of Richard Goodman Esq then Mayor of Chester. Their descendants have ever since continued in Chester and have repeatedly represented the City in Parliament served in all the offices of the Corporation &c The last male heir of this family died in July 1788 and on the death of his widow the house and estate descended to a branch of the Cholmondeleys who are related to the Cowpers by marriage.

Overleigh, one of the two small rural estates which comprised the Domesday territory of Lee, lay south-west of Handbridge, athwart the road to Wales. Leofwine's single virgate there had been granted by 1086 to Hugh de Mara. Whether by descent or some other means, it evidently passed to the barons of Mold, for c. 1230 Robert of Mold granted it to the abbot and monks of Basingwerk (Flints.). In 1462 the convent leased it for 100 years to Elis ap Deio ap Gruffudd, whose descendant, Matthew Ellis (d. 1574), a member of Henry VIII's bodyguard, bought it in 1545 from the Crown's grantees after the Dissolution. The timberframed mansion and chapel of the Ellis family were destroyed in the siege of Chester, and after the Restoration a new brick house was built by Thomas Cowper (d. 1695), who had acquired the estate partly through descent and partly through purchase. In the later 17th and 18th century Overleigh Hall remained the home of the Cowpers, a prominent Chester family, who included aldermen, a city recorder, and a celebrated local antiquarian. After improvements by the last, Dr. William Cowper (d. 1767), the hall was inherited in 1811 by Charles Cholmondeley of Vale Royal and let to a tenant. Purchased in 1821 with an estate of 135 a. by Robert, 2nd Earl Grosvenor, the house was demolished in 1830 to make way for a new entrance to the Eaton estate.

The New British Traveller (1819) described the property as follows:


 * The ancient manor house was of timber and very spacious was demolished during the siege of Chester. The present mansion was not erected untill after the Restoration and it since received considerable additions. It contains a good Library and a great number of old portraits particularly some valuable ones of the Cromwell family of which the principal are the following mentioned in an inventory in the Library: Oliver Cromwell, uncle and godfather to the Protector aet 84 1646; Lady Elizabeth Cromwell first wife of Sir Oliver and daughter of Sir Henry Bromley, Lord Chancellor; Colonel Henry Cromwell aet 60 1616; Colonel John Cromwell second son of Sir Oliver; William Cromwell fourth son of Sir Oliver; Major John Hettley painted in a large wig; Sir Thomas and Lady Hettley Dr Sparks MD and Mr Manley.

As we shall see, the potraits present an interesting puzzle.

Thomas Cowper (1670-1718)
Having been admitted to the freedom of Chester in 1696, Cowper was returned for the borough in January 1698, but made little impact upon the records of the Commons, though in February 1698 he assisted Peter Shakerley in attempts to expedite payment of arrears due to Chester for the quartering of invalids in the borough. On 19 May Cowper was granted an indefinite leave of absence, thereby marking the end of his Commons career, since at the 1698 election he stood aside to allow the election of Shakerley. Cowper died on 13 Aug. 1718 and was buried five days later at St Peter’s, Chester, with Shakerley and Sir Richard Grosvenor, 4th Bt.†, serving as two of the coffin bearers.

William Cowper (1701-1767)
COWPER, WILLIAM, M.D., antiquary, was the third son of the Rev. John Cowper, M.A., of Overlegh, Cheshire, by Catherine, daughter of William Sherwin, beadle of divinity and bailiff of the university of Oxford. He was baptised at St Peter's, Chester, on 29 July 1701, was admitted a student at Leyden on 27 Oct. 1719, and probably took his doctor's degree in that university. For many years he practised as a physician at Chester with great reputation. In 1745 he was elected mayor of Chester. He died at Overlegh on 20 Oct. 1767, and was buried at St. Peter's, Chester. He married in 1722 Elizabeth, daughter of John Lonsdale of High Ryley, Lancashire, but had no issue.

Cowper, who was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, published anonymously ‘A Summary of the Life of St. Werburgh, with an historical account of the images upon her shrine (now the episcopal throne) in the choir of Chester. Collected from antient chronicles and old writers, by a Citizen of Chester,’ Chester, 1749, 4to. This work is said to have been stolen from the manuscripts of Mr. Stone. He was also the author of ‘Il Penseroso: an evening's contemplation in St. John's churchyard, Chester. A rhapsody, written more than twenty years ago, and now (first) published, illustrated with notes historical and explanatory,’ London, 1767, 4to, addressed, under the name of M. Meanwell, to the Rev. John Allen, M.A., senior fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and rector of Tarporley, Cheshire. In this work Cowper takes a view of some of the most remarkable places around Chester distinguished by memorable personages and events. He was an intelligent antiquary and preserved many valuable manuscript collections of Williamson and others which would otherwise have perished. He also left several works of his own compilation relative to the ancient history of Cheshire and Chester. These manuscripts, which are frequently quoted by Ormerod, the Cheshire historian, were preserved in the family archives at Overlegh. They consist of various small volumes, most of the contents of which are fairly transcribed into two larger ones, containing memoirs of the earls of the palatinate and the bishops and dignitaries of the cathedral, lists of city and county officers, and a local chronology of events. In his Broxton MSS. he takes Webb's ‘Itinerary’ as the text of each township, adds an account of it transcribed from Williamson's ‘Villare,’ and continues the descent of property to his own time. He also wrote a small manuscript volume, entitled ‘Parentalia,’ containing memoirs of the Cowper family, and the account of the siege of Chester, which is printed in Ormerod's ‘Cheshire,’ i. 203 seq. This description of the siege had been printed twice previously at Chester (in 1790 and 1793), but with considerable alterations.

The "Cromwell" Portrait


Victorian scholar Sir Lionel Cust (director of the National Portrait Gallery from 1895 to 1909) had identified a portrait supposedly by Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543) as a likeness of Catherine Howard - 5th wife of Henry VIII.

The NPG's painting supposedly came from Overleigh Hall, near Chester (Strong, 1969, p. 41). It passed into the collection of Thomas Cowper who gained possession of the estate, in part through descent and in part through purchase, in c.1660. It then descended through the family to Thomas Cholmondeley of Condover (1793-1863). The label on the reverse of the portrait which reads T.C. probably refers to him. In c.1816 the portrait and other Overleigh pictures were removed to Condover Hall. The portrait was sold in the Cholmondeley sale at Christie’s in 1897 as ‘a Lady, in black dress’. It was purchased by the National Portrait Gallery in 1898 (while Cust was director) as "Catherine Howard", but it was only after the sale that the dealers Colnaghi and Cust identify it as Catherine.



It is believed to be based on a three-quarter-length portrait thought to be by Holbein, now in the Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio. Although the Toledo version (dated c.1540) has previously been called Catherine Howard, there is no evidence for this. It has been suggested, instead, that the sitter was, Elizabeth Seymour (1518-1568) a member of the Royalist wing of the Cromwell family who apparently once owned the picture, and sister to Jane Seymour (another wife of Henry VIII).

Elizabeth and her sister Jane Seymour served in the household of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII. In his quest for a male heir, the king had divorced his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, whose only surviving child was a daughter, Mary. His marriage to Anne Boleyn had also resulted in a single daughter, Elizabeth. The queen's miscarriage of a son in January 1536 sealed her fate. The king, convinced that Anne could never give him male children, increasingly infatuated with Jane Seymour, and encouraged by the queen's enemies, was determined to replace her. The Seymours rose to prominence after the king's attention turned to Jane. In May 1536, Anne Boleyn was accused of treason and adultery with Mark Smeaton, a court musician, the courtiers Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, William Brereton and her brother, George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford. The trials and executions of the queen and her co-accused followed swiftly, and on 30 May 1536, eleven days after Anne's execution, Henry VIII and Jane were married. Elizabeth was not included in her sister's household during her brief reign, although she would serve two of Henry VIII's later wives, Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard.

Elizabeth lived under four Tudor monarchs and was married three times. In 1531, she married Sir Anthony Ughtred, Governor of Jersey, who died in 1534. She then married Gregory Cromwell, 1st Baron Cromwell, the son of Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to Henry VIII in 1537, who died in 1551 (Gregory was aa patron of Hans Holbein the Younger). During his time in the House of Lords, Gregory Cromwell participated in several high-profile proceedings, notably the attainders of Catherine Howard on 8 February 1542, as well as Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey and Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, in January 1547. In 1547 he participated in the funeral of Henry VIII, as one of the lords carrying the canopy over the late king's coffin. On 28 February 1549 he was present in the House of Lords when the bill of attainder was passed on his wife's brother Thomas Seymour and again in January 1550 during proceedings against his brother-in-law and patron Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset. Gregory Cromwell died suddenly on 4 July 1551 of the sweating sickness at his home, Launde Abbey, Leicestershire, and on 7 July 1551 was buried in a magnificent tomb in the chapel there. His wife Elizabeth was also ill but survived.

Elizabeth married her third and last husband, John Paulet, Lord St John, the son of William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester in 1554.

The painting had been in the collection of Mr. Cromwell Bush, a descendent of Oliver Cromwell's Uncle and God-father Sir Oliver Cromwell (1566-1655) and then in the collection of Mr James H. Dunn. Sir Oliver Cromwell married firstly Elizabeth Bromley, daughter of Thomas Bromley (1530-1587), the Lord Chancellor and Elizabeth Fortescue, and had four sons and four daughters.

There are several reasons to believe that the portrait is not Catherine Howard:


 * The results of analysis by dendrochronology indicate that the last tree ring dates from 1609 which suggests that the only measurable board used for the panel came from a tree which was felled sometime between 1612 and 1644. One that basis the picture can be dated to the later seventeenth century;


 * The text on the portrait, ETATIS SVA 21, indicates that the sitter was in her 21st year, an age Catherine Howard never reached;


 * The sitter is wearing a sleeve which follows a style set by Anne of Cleves, which would date the portrait to after 6 January 1540, when Anne's marriage to Henry VIII took place.


 * The painting style and technique is not consistent with sixteenth-century workmanship. The handling is more consistent with a work of the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century.

However there is a clear problem with dates: Elizabeth Seymour (1518-1568) was long dead by the dendrochronology date of 1612-1644 and was only Elizabeth Cromwell from 1537 to 1551 (between ages 19-33).

The later Elizabeth Cromwell is also slightly problematic: Sir Oliver (her husband) died in 1655 and her father in 1587. She must have been dead by 1601 when her husband remarried.

The picture was probably a copy for the Cromwell family collection.