John Cawood (d. 1846): Tory ironfounder from Leeds. He took an active interest in issues relating to the poor and in 1819 was part of a delegation sent by the Leeds Poor Law authority to inspect Robert Owen’s New Lanark mills. He later (1844) became the first chairman of the new poor law authority in Leeds. In 1819 he wrote to Southey, sending a pamphlet he had written on the condition of the poor, probably A Plain Statement, Exhibiting the Whole of What Has Been Hyperbolically Designated, The Parish Controversy (1819).