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676 Augusta, Me.). He had prepared himself before leav- ing Massachusetts for the profession of medicine, and was a successful practitioner for many years. He was in public life for several successive years as representative and senator in the general court and as a member of the executive council, and he was one of the electors that chose Washington president for his second term. He held the office of judge of the court of common pleas and of judge of probate from Kennebec county, and was a delegate to the convention that framed the con- stitution of Maine. Judge Cony in 1815 founded and liberally endowed the Cony female academy in Augusta (now the Cony high-school). His daugh- ter married Nathan Weston, chief justice of com- mon pleas in Massachusetts in 1810-'20, and sub- sequently chief justice and associate justice of the supreme court of Maine in 1820-'41, and a daugh- ter by this marriage was the mother of Melville W. Puller, chief justice of the United States.

COPE, Gilbert, genealogist, b. in East Brad- ford, Chester co., Pa., 17 Aug., 1840. He was edu- cated at the Friends' select school in West Chester and at the Friends' boarding-school in Westtown, and for a few years followed farming. He is a member of the Pennsylvania historical society and of the New England historic-genealogical society, and has published " A Record of the Cope Family " (Philadelphia, 1860); "The Browns of Notting- ham'" (1864); "Genealogy of the Dutton Family" (West Chester, 1871) ; and, with J. Smith Futhey, " History of Chester County" (Philadelphia, 1881), and " Genealogy of the Sharpless Family " (1887). CORBIN, Austin, financier, b. in Newport, N. H., 11 July, 1827. He was graduated at Har- vard law-school in 1849, practised in his native vil- lage, and in 1852 removed to Davenport, Iowa, and in 1866 to New York, where he engaged in banking business, and in 1880 became president of the Long Island railroad. In 1886 he was chosen president of the Philadelphia and Reading rail- road company. Mr. Corbin is actively associated in various organizations that have for their ob- jects the development of artistic and philanthropic purposes in New York city.

CORNSTALK, Shawnee chief, b. in Mason coun- ty, Va. (now W. Va.), about 1720; d. in Point Pleasant, W. Va., in the summer of 1777. He was the chief of the Shawnee Indians, and at the bat- tle of Point Pleasant, 10 Oct., 1774, his plan of al- ternate attack and retreat occasioned the princi- pal loss of the whites. After the battle he con- vened his tribe to consult what must next be done, and, after upbraiding them for not suffering him to make peace with the settlers the day before the fight, struck his tomahawk in the post in the cen- tre of the town-house and said : " I will go and make peace." He kept his treaty with the Ameri- cans till 1777, when the Shawnees, being incited by the British, began to disturb the frontier settle- ment. One day Cornstalk appeared at Point Pleas- ant,and, summoningthe principal settlers, told them that he could make no secret of the disposition of the greater part of his tribe toward them, but that, al- though he was opposed to the British, he was afraid they would force him " to run with the stream." The council then determined to detain him as a host- age, and while in confinement he and his son were murdered by colonists in retaliation for an outrage by Indians. The governor offered a reward for the apprehension of the murderers, but without effect. Cornstalk was regarded as the ablest sol- dier among the Indians on the Virginia frontier.

COURTNEY, Frederick, Canadian Anglican bishop, b. in Plymouth, England, 5 Jan., 1837. He was educated in the Bluecoat school and at King's college. London, and, after holding pastorates in Kent, Plymouth, and Glasgow, was assistant at St. Thomas's church in New York from 1876 till 1880. He was rector in 1880-'2 of St. James church, Chi- cago, and then of St. Paul's, Boston. On 1 Feb., 1888, he was elected bishop of Nova Scotia.

COUSIN, Jean (coo-zang), French navigator, b. in Dieppe, lived in the latter part of the 15th century. His discoveries are related by Louis Estancelin in his " Recherches sur les voyages et decouvertes des navigateurs Normands en Afrique, dans les Indes Orientales, et en Amerique" (Paris, 1832), Leon Guerin in his "Les navigateurs Francais" (Paris, 1846), and Amans Alexis Mon- teil in his " Traite des materiaux manuscrits des divers genres d'histoire " (2 vols., Paris, 1835), and confirmed by the anonymous publication "Me- moires pour servir a l'histoire de Dieppe " (Dieppe, 1740), and bv Francis Parkman in his "Pioneers of France in "the New World " (Boston, 1860). Ac- cording to these authorities, in 1488, four years be- fore Columbus's voyage, Cousin, being at sea off the African coast, was forced westward by winds and currents to within sight of an unknown shore, where he presently descried the mouth of a great river (probably the Orinoco). On board his ship was one Pinzon, who, being dismissed for mutinous conduct, went to Spain, became known to Colum- bus, and accompanied him in his voyage of 1492. Cousin's discovery is also mentioned in the " Journal de l'Amerique" (Troyes, 1709) and in "Description des cotes de la mer Oceane." It is also said that a French pilot discovered America. Unfortunately, the archives of the city of Dieppe were destroyed during the bombardment of 1694, and no information is now to be obtained there about Cousin's voyage to America, a narrative of which was undoubtedly deposited in the city archives. COWEN, Esek. jurist, b. in Rhode Island, 24 Feb., 1787; d. in Albany, N. Y., 11 Feb., 1844. He was descended from John Cowen, a native of Scotland, who settled in Scituate, Mass., in 1656. His father's family removed in 1790 to Greenfield, Saratoga co. Four years afterward he removed to Hartford, Washington co., N. Y., and at sixteen years of age began the study of law, at the same time teaching during the winters. He was admitted to the bar in 1810, and began practice in Northumberland, N. Y. In 1812 he removed toSaratoga Springs, which was afterward his residence. He was reporter of the supreme court in 1821-8, and was then appointed judge of the 4th circuit. In 1835 he was appointed to fill a vacancy in the supreme court, and continued in that office until his decease. Judge Cowen's opinion in the celebrated McLeod case, in connection with the Canadian rebellion, in which were discussed the question of perfect and imperfect war and other great national principles, attracted wide attention. Of his opinions in general it has been said that " in their depth