Ralph Cawley (1720 – 31 August 1777) was an English clergyman and Oxford academic.
[2] He was elected Principal of Brasenose[5] in September 1770, holding the office until his death on 31 August 1777.
This story came to the attention of the botanist William Withering, who investigated and documented the medicinal use of foxglove.
[2] (The narrative that Cawley was treated by "Mother Hutton" who then sold her recipe to Withering is fanciful, created in a marketing campaign for the Parke-Davis pharmaceutical company in the 1920s.
[2] Mrs Cawley's brother Edward Cooper was married to an aunt of Jane Austen.