William Cowper, earl, an English judge born at Hertford in 1664, died in 1723. He was called to the bar in 1688, and led a company to welcome the prince of Orange. He entered parliament in 1695, and in 1705 was made lord keeper of the great seal. The next year he was raised to the peerage, and was a commissioner for the union of England and Scotland. In 1707 he was made lord high chancellor, and in this office abolished the customary gifts which had produced to the chancellors some £3,000 a year. He resigned in 1710, but was reappointed in 1714, at the accession of George I., and was efficient in the isettlement of the difficulties of 1715. In 1716 he was made lord high steward, in 1717 Viscount Fordwich, and in 1718 earl. He resigned finally in 1718, but was active in parliament as long as he lived. A story, circulated on authority of Voltaire, that he lived at the same time with two wives and defended the practice, although apparently unfounded, gave him the common nickname of "Will Bigamy." - His wife was lady of the bedchamber to the princess of Wales, afterward queen.

Her " Diary of Mary, Countess Cowper," was published in 1864.

William Cowper #1

William Cowper, an English anatomist, born in Hampshire in 1666, died in 1709. His professional life was passed in London, where he made several communications to the royal society, which appeared in the "Philosophical Transactions." In 1694 he published Myotomia Reformata, an anatomical work on the muscular system; and in 1697 the "Anatomy of Human Bodies." His name is given to the two small lobulated mucous glandules, known as Cowper's glands, connected with the membranous portion of the male urethra, directly behind the bulb. He was accused of plagiarism in using for illustrations to his work on anatomy plates belonging to the Dutch anatomist Bidloo.