page_title: Cowane's Hospital
section_title: John Cowane
hierarchical_section_title: Cowane's Hospital / John Cowane
caption_attribution_description: English: Stirling, John Cowane's house, St. Mary's Wynd
context_page_description: Cowane's Hospital is a 17th-century almshouse in the Old Town of Stirling, Scotland. It was established in 1637 with a bequest of 40,000 merks from the estate of the merchant John Cowane. Subsequently converted for use as a Guildhall the building is considered by Historic Scotland to be "a rare survival of 17th century burgh architecture and one of the finest buildings of its kind in Scotland." It was listed at category A in 1965. The gardens are also seen as a "rare survival" of an institutional garden of the 17th century, and were included in the national Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in 2012. The hospital is located on St John Street, between the medieval Church of the Holy Rude and the 19th-century Old Town Jail.
context_section_description: John Cowane was descended from a family of Stirling merchants who had been trading with the Dutch since the early 16th century. The Cowanes exported fish, coal and wool in exchange for luxuries such as prunes, saffron and spices which were supplied to the royal court of James V at Stirling Castle. John Cowane also ventured into money lending, invested in shipping, and was a substantial landlord in the burgh. He served on the town council, was elected Dean of Guild in 1624, and sat in the Parliament of Scotland from 1625–1632. He never married, though in 1611 he was fined £6 for fathering a child out of wedlock: the mother was also fined and forced to do public penance. Cowane lived on St Mary's Wynd, in the building which still bears his name. John Cowane's house, though ruined, was purchased and preserved in 1924 by the trust he established.
  On his death in 1633, Cowane was a wealthy man. He left sums of money to numerous charitable causes, including 500 merks to the Church of the Holy Rude. The largest bequest was the 40,000 merks which he left for the establishment of a hospital.  This was intended to provide for "twelve decayed guild brethren", that is, elderly members of the Merchant Guildry of Stirling who could no longer support themselves. The establishment of a hospital, or almshouse, would allow them to live rent-free in their old age. In the 1630s a merk was worth two-thirds of a Scots pound, and was equivalent to one English shilling. The hospital was to be managed by a trust, overseen by Patrons who were drawn from the town council, the guilds, and kirk ministers.
caption: John Cowane's House, St Mary's Wynd
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-W320", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2012:04:01 07:44:37", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2314", "Image XPKeywords": "[77, 0, 101, 0, 105, 0, 107, 0, 108, 0, 101, 0, 32, 0, 66, 0, 105, 0, 110, 0, 0, 0]", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 3, 0, 0, 0]", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "1/96", "Thumbnail YResolution": "1/96", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "9794", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6204", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/160", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "160", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:04:01 07:44:37", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:04:01 07:44:37", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "23/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "283/50", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1024", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "768", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "9620", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Landscape", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4140"}