Cowell, Edward B. (Edward Byles), 1826-1903

Edward Byles Cowell (1826-1903), scholar and man of letters, was born in Ipswich on 23 January 1826. He studied Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic, before training in his father's business as a merchant and maltster from 1842. He entered Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1850 (B.A., 1854), and catalogued manuscripts for the Bodleian Library. Cowell was Professor of English History at Presidency College, Calcutta, 1856-1864, and became Principal of the Sanskrit College in Calcutta in 1858. He returned to England in 1864, and became the first Professor of Sanskrit at Cambridge University, 1867-1903. He founded the Cambridge Philological Society in 1868, and became a Fellow of Corpus Christi College in 1874. Cowell died in Cambridge on 9 February 1903.

From the guide to the Edward Byles Cowell: Papers, 1854-1890, (Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives)

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