Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cogan, William
COGAN, WILLIAM (d. 1774), philanthropist, son of John Cogan by Elizabeth, daughter of John Battie, was a citizen of Kingston-upon-Hull of which town he was chamberlain in 1712, sheriff in 1714, and mayor in 1717 and 1736. In 1753 he founded a charity school for twenty girls In Salthouse Lane, Kingston-upon-Hull, endowing it with stock to the amount of 2.000l., which he subsequently increased by 500l. He lived on terms of intimacy with the Wilberforces and other benevolent families. By his will he bequeathed 2,000l. in trust for apprenticing poor lads to certain trades. He died in 1774.
[Hadley's Kingston-upon-Hull, p.874; Tickell's Kingston-upon-Hull, pp. 831-8; Gent. Mag. (1856), i. 151.]