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Actions Displays	The Cowane Chest Remove from selection Add to selection Reproduction Download mediaDownload as zip file Object numberTEMP:2023.0005 TitleThe Cowane Chest DescriptionThe Cowane Chest is made of oak and covered in intricate carvings of thistles and extracts from the Bible. It was made in 1636 to hold the charter for the Cowan bequest. Look closely and you can see the inscription: ‘John Cowane’s Gvifte to Ye Cittie of Sterling’, with the date and the phrase ‘It is more blessyed to give then too receive.’ John Cowane was a powerful yet colourful character, who looms large in the story of our Burgh. A member of the Guildry of Stirling, he was a wealthy merchant, moneylender and landowner. He never married; when he died in 1633, he left sums of money to several charitable causes. The largest bequest was for 40,000 Scots merks – and enormous sum worth around £2,200 sterling at the time. This was for the building and support of an almshouse for elderly and infirm members of the Guildry within the burgh. Known as Cowane’s Hospital, it is Scotland’s second oldest surviving charitable trust, which today continues to help the people of Stirling. The chest itself has a remarkable history. It was carried away by the Jacobite army during their retreat north during the 1745-46 Rising. It was discovered in 1882 by Robert Stewart Shearer, Dean of Guild, who brought it home to Stirling and our collection. Object nameChest Materialoak

Reproduction

Download mediaDownload as zip file

Object numberTEMP:2023.0005

TitleThe Cowane Chest

DescriptionThe Cowane Chest is made of oak and covered in intricate carvings of thistles and extracts from the Bible. It was made in 1636 to hold the charter for the Cowan bequest. Look closely and you can see the inscription: ‘John Cowane’s Gvifte to Ye Cittie of Sterling’, with the date and the phrase ‘It is more blessyed to give then too receive.’ John Cowane was a powerful yet colourful character, who looms large in the story of our Burgh. A member of the Guildry of Stirling, he was a wealthy merchant, moneylender and landowner. He never married; when he died in 1633, he left sums of money to several charitable causes. The largest bequest was for 40,000 Scots merks – and enormous sum worth around £2,200 sterling at the time. This was for the building and support of an almshouse for elderly and infirm members of the Guildry within the burgh. Known as Cowane’s Hospital, it is Scotland’s second oldest surviving charitable trust, which today continues to help the people of Stirling. The chest itself has a remarkable history. It was carried away by the Jacobite army during their retreat north during the 1745-46 Rising. It was discovered in 1882 by Robert Stewart Shearer, Dean of Guild, who brought it home to Stirling and our collection.

Object nameChest

Materialoak