William Cowherd

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates William Cowherd (1763 – 24 March 1816) 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.

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.

Bible Christian Church

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Christ Church chapel, Salford

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. It is noted that he asked his congregation in a sermon preached on 18 January 1809, to refrain from eating meat which culminated in the founding of the Vegetarian Society in 1847.

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".

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.

Publications

• 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

• Christian vegetarianism

External links

• Vegetarian roots: The extraordinary tale of William Cowherd by Karen Millington, BBC (17 December 2012)