Henry Thomas Cockburn of Bonaly, Lord Cockburn ( ; Cockpen, Midlothian, 26 October 1779 – Bonaly, Midlothian, 26 April/18 July 1854) was a Scottish lawyer, judge and literary figure. He served as Solicitor General for Scotland between 1830 and 1834.

Background and Education

His mother Janet Rannie was as sister-in-law of the influential Lord Melville, through her sister Elizabeth, and his father, Archibald Cockburn, was Sheriff of Midlothian and

Baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knig ...

of the Court of Exchequer. He was educated at the Royal High School and the University of Edinburgh. His brother, John Cockburn

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

(died 1862), was a wine merchant and founder of Cockburn's of Leith.

Literary career

Cockburn contributed regularly to the ''

Edinburgh Review The ''Edinburgh Review'' is the title of four distinct intellectual and cultural magazines. The best known, longest-lasting, and most influential of the four was the third, which was published regularly from 1802 to 1929. ''Edinburgh Review'', ...

''. In this popular magazine of its day he is described as: "rather below the middle height, firm, wiry and muscular, inured to active exercise of all kinds, a good swimmer, an accomplished skater, an intense lover of the fresh breezes of heaven. He was the model of a high-bred Scotch gentleman. He spoke with a Doric breadth of accent. Cockburn was one of the most popular men north of the Tweed."Monuments and Statues of Edinburgh, Michael T.R.B. Turnbull (Chambers)p. 53 He was a member of the famous Speculative Society, to which Sir Walter Scott, Henry Brougham and Francis Jeffrey belonged. The extent of Cockburn's literary ability only became known after he had passed his 70th year, on the publication of his biography of lifelong friend Lord Jeffrey in 1852, and from his chief literary work, the ''Memorials of his Time'', which appeared posthumously in 1856. His published work continued with his ''Journal'', published in 1874. These constitute an autobiography of the writer interspersed with notices of manners, public events, and sketches of his contemporaries, of great interest and value.

Legal and judicial career

Lord Henry Cockburn by William Brodie, SNPG

Cockburn entered the Faculty of Advocates in 1800, and attached himself, not to the party of his relatives, who could have afforded him most valuable patronage, but to the Whig party, and that at a time when it held out few inducements to men ambitious of success in life. He became a distinguished advocate, and ultimately a judge. He was one of the leaders of the Whig party in Scotland in its days of darkness prior to the Reform Act of 1832, and was a close friend of Sir Thomas Dick Lauder. He was the defence lawyer for Helen McDougal, Burke's wife, in the trial for the Burke and Hare murders, and won her acquittal. On the accession of Earl Grey's ministry in 1830 he became Solicitor General for Scotland. During his time here he drafted the First Scottish Reform Bill. In 1834 he was raised to the bench, and on taking his seat as a Judge in the

Court of Session The Court of Session is the supreme civil court of Scotland and constitutes part of the College of Justice; the supreme criminal court of Scotland is the High Court of Justiciary. The Court of Session sits in Parliament House in Edinburgh ...

he adopted the title of Lord Cockburn as a Scottish Lord of Session.Peter Beauclerk Dewar, editor, ''Burkes Landed Gentry of Great Britain – The Kingdom in Scotland, 19th ed. – volume 1'' (Wilmington, Delaware, USA: Burke's Peerage and Gentry LLC, 2001), volume 1, page 884.

Conservation

Whilst Lord Cockburn's name is usually associated with building conservation, this reputation is somewhat misplaced as his interest was very selective. In 1845 he purchased the entire estate of Bonaly, south-west of Edinburgh. He rebuilt the farmhouse in a romantic fashion, adding a tower, and renaming it Bonaly Tower. However, the rest of the village (which appears to have dated from the 17th century or older) was rased to the ground to improve views from his new house. There is no record of what became of the inhabitants of the village.

Family

Cockburn married Elizabeth Macdowall ( Glasgow, Lanarkshire, 1 March 1786 – 1857), daughter of

James Macdowall Henry Thomas Cockburn of Bonaly, Lord Cockburn ( ; Cockpen, Midlothian, 26 October 1779 – Bonaly, Midlothian, 26 April/18 July 1854) was a Scottish lawyer, judge and literary figure. He served as Solicitor General for Scotland between 1830 ...

and his second wife Margaret Jamieson, in Edinburgh, Midlothian, on 12 March 1811. As was common in the period he had both a town house and

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

. The country house was at Bonaly, on the south-west edge of Edinburgh. His large town house at 14 Charlotte Square, in the west end of the city, was designed by Robert Adam. They had five daughters and six sons: * Margaret Day Cockburn (Edinburgh, Midlothian, 24 January 1812, bap. Edinburgh, Midlothian, 25 February 1812 – 1818) (buried in St Cuthberts churchyard in Edinburgh * Jane Cockburn (Edinburgh, Midlothian, 1813, bap. Edinburgh, Midlothian, 22 July 1813 – ) * Dr. Archibald William Cockburn, FRCSE (Edinburgh, Midlothian, 5 December 1814, bap. Edinburgh, Midlothian, 23 December 1814 – Murrayfield, Midlothian, 13 January 1862), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, married at St. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh, Midlothian, on 12 March 1844 to Mary Ann Balfour (2 November 1816 – ?), and had four sons: ** Henry Cockburn (1849 – ?) ** James Balfour Cockburn (Edinburgh, Midlothian, 22 July 1851 – ?) ** Archibald Francis Cockburn (bap. Edinburgh, Midlothian, 8 November 1853 – ?) ** Moncrieff Cockburn (Edinburgh, Midlothian, 22 September 1855 – ?) * James Macdowell Cockburn (bap. Edinburgh, Midlothian, 7 March 1816 – ?) * Graham Cockburn, a daughter (bap. Edinburgh, Midlothian, 7 March 1817 – ?), married Rev.

Robert Walter Stewart Robert Walter Stewart (1812–1887) was a Scottish minister of the Free Church of Scotland and who spent much time working in Italy and served as Moderator of the General Assembly 1874/75. He helped to promote the Waldensian Church and the P ...

(later Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland) * George Ferguson Cockburn (Edinburgh, Midlothian, 31 January 1818 – 1866), married to Sarah Charlotte Bishop, and had four daughters: ** Elizabeth Frances Cockburn (1845–1925), married to Henry Charles Biddulph Cotton Raban (1837 –

Chittagong Chittagong ( /ˈtʃɪt əˌɡɒŋ/ ''chit-uh-gong''; ctg, চিটাং; bn, চিটাগং), officially Chattogram ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম), is the second-largest city in Bangladesh after Dhaka and third largest city in B ...

, Bengal, 20 March 1871), who was with the

Bengal Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million p ...

, and had one daughter: *** Catherine Charlotte Raban (Chittagong, Bengal, 12 June 1870 – 1954), married at Axebridge, Somerset, in 1893 to

Arthur Waugh Arthur Waugh (27 August 1866 – 26 June 1943) was an English author, literary critic, and publisher. He was the father of the authors Alec Waugh and Evelyn Waugh. Early life Waugh was born in Midsomer Norton, Somerset in 1866, elder son ...

(1866–1943) and had two sons,

Alec Waugh Alexander Raban Waugh (8 July 1898 – 3 September 1981) was a British novelist, the elder brother of the better-known Evelyn Waugh, uncle of Auberon Waugh and son of Arthur Waugh, author, literary critic, and publisher. His first wife was Ba ...

and Evelyn Waugh ** Isabella Graham Cockburn (c. 1848 –

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

, London, 5 January 1926), married on 31 January 1894 as his third wife to Sir

James Shaw Hay Sir James Shaw Hay (25 October 1839 – 20 June 1924) was a British colonial governor. Family He was the second son of Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Pasley Hay (1 May 1801 - 28 June 1858) and wife (married 24 February 1824) Georgette Heine Arnaud ...

(25 October 1839 – 20 June 1924), without issue ** Mary Ann Amy Macrae Cockburn ( Calcutta, 29 August 1855 – 23 April 1942), married on 6 June 1877 to Walter St. George Burke of Auberies, Bulmer, Essex, JP (27 April 1842 – 17 February 1916),

Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

in the service of the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

for Essex and for

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

, son of James St. George Burke and wife Anne Eliza Grubbe, and had issue ** Georgina Maria Joanna Cockburn, married Spencer Campbell Thomson

FFA in 1869 * Henry Day Cockburn (Edinburgh, Midlothian, 21 April 1820 – ?), married at South Yarra, Victoria, in 1857 to Mary Ann Matherley * Lawrence Cockburn (Edinburgh, Midlothian, 25 February 1822 –

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

, Victoria, 2 September 1871), a

squatter Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

, married at Brighton, Victoria, in 1859 to Annie Maria Smith, and had one son: ** Henry Cockburn ( Melbourne, 1862 – ?) * Francis Jeffrey Cockburn ( Edinburgh, Midlothian, 8 January 1825 –

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

, London, 10 July 1893), a Judge in India and with the

, and wife (Calcutta or Westbury, Tasmania, 25 January 1855) Elizabeth Anne (Eliza Ann) Pitcairn (

Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...

, Tasmania, 23 September 1831, bap. Hobart, Tasmania, 7 November 1831 – Wycombe, Oxfordshire, 1923), daughter of Robert Pitcairn (Edinburgh, Midlothian, 17 July 1802 – Hobart, Tasmania, 1868) (son of David Pitcairn and Mary Henderson) and wife (m. Hobart, Tasmania, 30 September 1830) Dorothy/Dorothea Jessy Dumas, and had five daughters and two sons: ** Helen Macdowall Cockburn (Calcutta, 14 June 1857, bap. Calcutta, 17 July 1857 – ?) ** Henry Cockburn (Calcutta, 2 March 1859 – 1927?) ** Elizabeth Pitcairn Cockburn (Calcutta, 20 March 1863, bap. Calcutta, 25 April 1863 – ?) ** Robert Pitcairn Cockburn (Bengal, 1865, bap.

Sylhet Sylhet ( bn, সিলেট) is a metropolitan city in northeastern Bangladesh. It is the administrative seat of the Sylhet Division. Located on the north bank of the Surma River at the eastern tip of Bengal, Sylhet has a subtropical climate an ...

, Bengal, 7 December 1865 – ?), married at South Stoneham, Hampshire, in 1909 to Elinor Francis Mary Bellett (31 January 1881 – 16 September 1975), and had three sons and one daughter: *** Francis Bellett Cockburn (Brentford, London, 31 July 1910 – ?) *** Robert Waring Pitcairn Cockburn (Brentford, London, 1911 – ?), married to Jean Elizabeth Swinnerton and had one son and one daughter: **** David Charles Alexander Cockburn **** Susan Elinor Cockburn *** Henry Dundas Cockburn (Brentford, London, 1913 – 4 December 1998), Medical Superintendent at the Royal London Hospital, London *** Elinor Phyllis Cockburn (Brentford, London, 1915 – ?) ** Jane Cockburn (Bengal, c. 1868 – ?) ** Margaret G. Cockburn (Bengal, c. 1870 – ?) ** Gertrude C. Cockburn ( Germany, c. 1875 – ?) * Elizabeth Cockburn (Edinburgh, Midlothian, 30 June 1826 – 6 April 1908), married in Edinburgh, Midlothian, on 27 December 1848 to Thomas Cleghorn

(Edinburgh, Midlothian, 3 March 1818 – 18 June 1874), a practising Advocate, who rose to be Sheriff of Argyle. * Johanna Richardson Cockburn (Edinburgh, Midlothian, 14 January 1831 – 1888), married in Edinburgh, Midlothian, on 21 October 1856 to her cousin Archibald David Cockburn (Edinburgh, Midlothian, 6 September 1826 – 1886), son of John Cockburn and wife Eliza Dewar, and had issue The authors

and Evelyn Waugh, the journalist Claud Cockburn, Claudia Cockburn (wife of actor Michael Flanders) and author Sarah Caudwell were all descended from Cockburn, as are journalists Laura Flanders, Stephanie Flanders,

Alexander Cockburn Alexander Claud Cockburn ( ; 6 June 1941 – 21 July 2012) was a Scottish-born Irish-American political journalist and writer. Cockburn was brought up by British parents in Ireland, but lived and worked in the United States from 1972. Together ...

(husband of author Emma Tennant), Andrew Cockburn (husband of journalist Leslie Cockburn) and Patrick Cockburn (son-in-law of Bishop Hugh Montefiore) and actress Olivia Wilde (former wife of Tao Ruspoli).Monuments and Statues of Edinburgh, Michael T.R.B. Turnbull (Chambers) p. 54

Death and legacy

Grave of Henry, Lord Cockburn, Dean Cemetery Edinburgh

Cockburn died on 26 April 1854, at his

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word '' manse'' originally defined a property l ...

of Bonaly, near Edinburgh and is buried in the city's

Dean Cemetery The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and on ...

. A statue of him by local sculptor William Brodie stands in the north-east corner of Parliament Hall. Cockburn Street, built in the 1850s to connect the High Street with the North British Railway's Waverley station, is also named after him. The building at the foot of the street, formerly the "Cockburn Hotel", bears his image in profile in a stone above the entrance. Head of Henry Cockburn

Cockburn had an interest in architectural conservation, particularly in Edinburgh, where several important historic buildings such as

John Knox's House John Knox House, popularly known as John Knox's House, is an historic house in Edinburgh, Scotland, reputed to have been owned and lived in by Protestant reformer John Knox during the 16th century. Although his name became associated with the ho ...

and Tailors' Hall in the Cowgate owe their continued existence to the change in attitude towards conservation which he helped bring about. The Cockburn Association (Edinburgh Civic Trust), founded in 1875, was named in his honour. Cockburn was played by

Russell Hunter Adam Russell Hunter (18 February 1925 – 26 February 2004) was a Scottish television, stage and film actor. He played Lonely in the TV thriller series ''Callan'', starring Edward Woodward, and shop steward Harry in the Yorkshire Television ...

in ''Cocky'', a one-man play which was effectively a dramatisation of his memoirs, broadcast on BBC Scotland. It ended with his closing speech to the jury in the Burke and Hare trial.

References

Sources

* * * *

External links

Scotland's greatest Whig Romantic
Times Literary Supplement, 18 January 2006 * *https://web.archive.org/web/20121103011435/http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~battle/celeb/wilde.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Cockburn, Henry Thomas 1779 births 1854 deaths Henry Thomas Cockburn Scottish politicians Scottish political writers Scottish memoirists Scottish biographers Whig (British political party) politicians People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Rectors of the University of Glasgow Members of the Faculty of Advocates People from Midlothian Solicitors General for Scotland