sentences:  Although Cowper was not slated to assume his new office until January 1864, Governor Francis Harrison Pierpont appointed him lieutenant governor on November 17, 1863, after the sitting lieutenant governor, Daniel Polsley, resigned.As lieutenant governor, Cowper presided over a state senate that consisted at full strength of six members, representing the districts of Accomack and Northampton Counties, Alexandria and Fairfax Counties, Elizabeth City County and the city of Hampton, Loudoun County, the city of Norfolk, and Norfolk and Princess Anne Counties.Cowper died in 1875 and was buried at Macclesfield, his family's estate at Smithfield in Isle of Wight County.