Sir John Stepney Cowell-Stepney, 1st Baronet, KH was a British soldier, landowner and politician.
Background
He was the elder of the two sons of General Andrew Cowell (d 1821), originally of Coleshill, Buckinghamshire, and his wife Maria Justina (d 1821), youngest daughter of Sir Thomas Stepney, 7th baronet of Prendergast, Pembrokeshire, and Llanelly House, Carmarthenshire. Cowell joined his father’s regiment, the Coldstream Guards, and fought in the Peninsular War at Fuentes de Oñoro, Ciudad Rodrigo, Salamanca and Vittoria.
Career
Cowell subsequently wrote a memoir of his experiences in the war. He fought at the Battle of Quatre Bras in 1815 but an attack of dysentery led him to miss the Battle of Waterloo. Peacetime postings included France, Manchester, Gibraltar and Malta.
He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in 1830.
Cowell married Mary Anne Annesley at Antwerp on 5 July 1820. She was the daughter of the Honorary
Robert Annesley, and they had one son, William Frederick Ross Cowell, born on 31 May 1821. However, Mary Anne died at Nice on 9 November 1821.
They had two sons, Murray Cowell (1824-1854) and Sir Arthur Cowell-Stepney, 2nd baronet (1834-1909).
Murray Cowell served as a page to both King William IV and Queen Victoria before following his father into the Coldstream Guards. He was swiftly promoted to Colonel but was killed at Inkerman on 5 November 1854. A large memorial to him and the other Coldstream officers killed in the battle was erected in Street Paul"s Cathedral.
A smaller version of it was placed in Llanelli parish church.
In December 1857 Cowell inherited the substantial Carmarthenshire estates of the Stepney family, having been engaged in litigation about it for many years with the former incumbents, the Chambers family. He chose not to live in Llanelly House, which was let for commercial purposes, and he allowed the construction of many new streets, shops and houses on his land in an attempt to boost his income.
He was thus largely responsible for much of the present layout of Llanelli and chose the names of many of its streets, which reflected his family’s connections and careers: for example, Stepney Street, Murray Street, Salamanca Road, Glenalla Road, Inkerman Street. A somewhat eccentric and disagreeable figure (Queen Victoria detested him ), Cowell gained the nickname of ‘Old Whalebone’.
In the 1868 general election Colonel Cowell-Stepney, as he had now become, was elected Liberal Member of Parliament for Carmarthen Boroughs at the age of seventy-seven.
He made little impact in Parliament, although he spoke out against religious education in schools and opposed electoral intimidation by other Welsh landlords. He retired in 1874. On 22 September 1871 Prime Minister Gladstone, a family friend, created a new baronetcy for Cowell-Stepney.
Membership
20th United Kingdom Parliament.