My attention was caught recently by a question posed on the radio – what did a cowan do? I was intrigued – my family surname was Cowen, which my father had assumed was a variant (but better!) spelling of Cowan; Scottish in origin, but related to the Hebrew surname Cohen (a priest).
Unfortunately I had to go out, so I missed the answer given on the radio and had to look it up for myself. If asked to guess, rather than priestly, I would have supposed it was something to do with cows – someone who owned or looked after cattle, maybe. Not so at all.
Cowen, it turns out, is an obsolete spelling of cowan, and a cowan was a worker in unmortared stone, or a self-taught stonemason who had not served an apprenticeship. The term cowan / cowen could also be used to describe someone who had chosen to pass himself off as a free mason, without having gone through the induction rituals into a lodge. To be a cowan / cowen, could also mean to be an outsider or, worse, to be a sneak.
All of which rather puts paid to my theory that I had Scottish roots, with ancestors skilled in the art of herding cows. I can live with the disappointment – but maybe I won’t delve into the origins of my married surname quite yet.
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