​COWELL, Benjamin, jurist, b. in Wrentham, Mass., in 1781; d. in Providence, R.I., 6 May, 1860. He was graduated at Brown in 1803, studied law, and settled in Providence. He was a clerk of the Federal courts, and for a time chief justice of the court of common pleas. In 1850 he published a volume of history, entitled “The Spirit of '76.”