Cowley, John Lodge (1719 - 1797)

John Lodge Cowley (1719 - 1797) was an English cartographer, geologist and mathematician. John Cowley was a professor of mathematics at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, London, for a number of years between 1761 and 1773. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in April, 1768. His mathematical methods were famous, but he was also an important geographer as well as Royal Geographer to King George II. He specialized in maps that depicted the counties of the United Kingdom from which arose his most famous work, Counties of England. Cowley published several maps often in conjunction with Emanuel Bowen, engraver. Among his more notable works are superb engravings representing the constellations drawn on glass globes created by Thomas Heath. He also, in his capacity of Royal Geographer, published an important rutter of the Windward Passage to the benefit of English plantation trade in the West Indies. Cowley taught geometry to subscribers of the St. Martin's Lane Academy, a drawing school established by William Hogarth and John Ellys. He died in Walworth, Surrey, and was survived by a daughter, Mrs. Johnstone, who inherited her father's passion for cartography.