Researching John Cowley

From a farming background, Cowley was born in Navan, County Meath. He left school at the age of 13 to work on the family farm. Cowley entered the acting profession as a member of one of the touring companies that brought theatre to rural communities in Ireland up until the 1960s. In a bid to escape the impecunious life of a roving actor, he wrote to Laurence Olivier seeking a position at the Old Vic; however, Olivier politely declined.

In 1964, Cowley was chosen to play the part of Tom Riordan in RTÉ's new series, The Riordans. His performance won him a Jacob's Award in 1967 and he continued in the cast until the series ended in 1979. Tom Hickey, who played Tom Riordan's son, Benjy, described Cowley as the "central rock of The Riordans" and "the father of the whole enterprise".

Following The Riordans, Cowley returned to the stage and continued acting up to the end of his life. At the time of his death, he was rehearsing with Galway's Druid Theatre Company for their production of Brian Friel's play, Philadelphia Here I Come. He appeared in a number of feature films, including Jim Sheridan's The Field, an adaptation of John B. Keane's play, and the same director's 1997 film The Boxer.

Cowley was a passionate opponent of cruelty to animals and campaigned vigorously against hare coursing and fox hunting. He was a founder-member of the Irish Council Against Blood Sports.

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 Cartographer Royal to King George II. He specialised in maps that depicted the counties of the United Kingdom from which arose his most famous work, Counties of England. Cowley published several maps, many of minute detail, and on them often appeared his name although on others appeared the name of Emanuel Bowen acting as engraver. Another one of his works of some note, but less famous than The Counties, was A new and easy introduction to the study of geography which was published by Thomas Cox and James Hodges. The work was structured as questions and answers with decorative maps added later. His maps contained longer titles than those usually found on the standard miniature maps. John Cowley collaborated with Robert Dodsley for several years in the creation of his maps which explains why the maps were ascribed to Dodsley/Cowley. Among his works are remembered the superb engravings representing the constellation drawn on glass globes created by Thomas Heath.

He also published a number of introductory works on solid geometry incorporating fold-up figures: Geometry Made Easy (1752), An Appendix to Euclid's Elements (1758) and The Theory of Perspective Demonstrated (1765).

He taught geometry to subscribers of the St. Martin's Lane Academy, a drawing school established by William Hogarth and John Ellys.

Cowley died in Walworth, Surrey. He had a daughter called Mrs Johnstone who inherited her father's passion for science and over the years instructed many members of the British nobility in the use of globes and maps.