O'wen, Lewis, an English theologian and writer, was born in Merioneth Count3' in 1572. After passing some time with the Jesuits in Spain, he left them to re- enter the world, and was ever after a bitter opponent of the society. He ^vrote The Rnnniny Register, recoi'ding a true Relation of the State of the Enylish Colleges, Semi- naries, and Cloysters of all foreign Parts (Lond. 1626); the most curious parts of it are to be found in Restituta, i, 141 : — The Unmasking of all Popish Monks, Friars, and Jesuits (ibid. 1628, 4to) : — Speculum Jesuiticum, or the Jesuit's Looking-glass (ibid. 1629, 4to) ; reprinted in Ed- ward Sandys's Furopw Speculum. See Chalmers, Gen- eral Biog. Diet. ; Hoefer, Nouv, Biog. Generale, xxxviii, 1005 ; Hook, Eccles. Biog. s. v. (J. N. P.)
Owen (or Owings), Richard, was the first na- tive American Methodist preacher, though for many years he acted only as a local preacher. He was con- verted under the preaching of Robert Strawbridge, in Baltimore Co., Md., and is described as " a man of a re- spectable family, of good natural parts, and of consider- able utterance, plain in his dress, plain in his manners, industrious and frugal." He was long the most effective co-laborer of Slrawbriilge, travelling the country in all directions, foiuiding societies in Maryland and Virginia, and opening the way for the coming itinerants. He thus secured the pre-eminence of being the first native stand- ard-bearer of the Jlethodistic movement in the west- ern hemisphere. Owen's temperament was congenial with that of Strawbridge, whose missionary activity he emulated, and whose funeral sermon he preached. Though burdened witli the cares of a large family, he often left wife and children and a comfortable living, and went without recompense into distant parts to pub- lish the Gospel. In 1772 he was with Strawbridge sta- tioned in Frederick Co. His name was printed in the
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Mimites, but it is not said that he was received into the travelling connection until 1785. At the time of his death he had been preaching fifteen or sixteen years, and was stationed in Fairfax Co. He died at Leesburg in 1787. See Bennett, Memorials of Methodism in Vir- ginia, p. 240; Stevens, Hist, of the M.E. Church, vol. i (see Index in vol. iv).
O^wen, Robert, a noted socialist and philanthro- pist, was born at Newton, Montgomcrj-shire, North Wales, in 1771. His parents were poor, but they gave him a good elementary education. Until he was four- teen he was emplo3'ed in drapers' shops in his native town and at Stamford. He then procured a situation in London, where he showed such talents for business that at eighteen he became a partner in a small cotton- mill. He was successful in this enterprise, and then removed to the Chorlton jNIills, near Manchester, where he was equally prosperous. In 1801 he married the daughter of David Dale, a manufacturer of Glasgow, who had established in 1784 a cotton-factory near Lan- ark, now New Lanark, on the banks of the Clyde. In this factory not only cotton -spinning, but other con- nected branches of the manufacture were carried on, and at one time as many as 4000 persons were settled there in connection with it. Shortly after his marriage, Owen sold the Chorlton Mills and undertook the man- agement of New Lanark. The latter establishment had been a centre of disorder and immorality ; but the incessant labors and the paternal administration of the new proprietor made a raiiid change in affairs. The little colony established at Lanark prospered both ma- terially and morally. As a commercial speculation it was in a high degree successful : but the most remark- able feature was the benevolent care with which Mr. Owen attended to the welfare of the persons employed and to the education of their children. He here in- troduced many improvements, since adopted in other schools, so as to make instruction at once attractive and useful, and founded, if not the first, one of the earliest of the infant schools. Besides the ordinary routine of education, the children — of whom there were at one time 600 — were tauglit various practical arts, and were instructed in singing and dancing, care being also taken of their health by buikling well ventilated school-rooms and providing for active exercise. The reputation of the establishment spread rapidly; it was visited by per- sons of rank and influence, giving to Lanark a Euro- pean celebrity. In 1812 he imblished his New View of Sociefi/, or Essays on the Formation (f Human Charac- ter, and afterwards a Book of the New Moral Wo7-ld, in which he developed a theory of modified communism. See SociALTSM. The unfavorable reception which his system received among the English clergy induced him in 1823 to relinquish his connection with New Lanark and to betake himself to the United States. About 1824 he purchased from a Pennsylvania (ierman colony, under Frederick Kapji, a tract of land on the Wabash, in Posey Co., Indiana, and founded the settlement of New Har- mony, where he endeavored to carry his theory of the co-operative system into effect. Largely composed of vagabonds and adventurers from all nations, this col- ony proved an utter failure, and Owen returned to Eng- land in 1827. In this year an attempt was also made to effect an establishment in consonance with his new view of society at Orbiston, in the parish of Bothwel), Lanarkshire. It was intended to purchase 1200 acres of land, and to erect a parallelogram to accommodate 1200 persons. A large sum of money was raised, but the expenses so greatly exceeded the estimates that not more than a fourth of the purposed parallelogram was built; but it had a theatre, lecture-room, and school- rooms. Less than 200 persons were collected ; the la- borers were to work on the co-operative system, but were not all paid alike, nor did all fare alike. They took their meals in a common hall, but at four different tables, the charge for the total weekly l)oard varying from 14s. to 10*'., 7*-., and 5«. Gd. Including English Vll.-I I