James Cocks, MP

Family and Education b. c.1685, 1st s. of Charles Cocks, M.P., of Powick, nr. Worcester by Mary, da. of John Somers of Clifton, Worcs., sis. and coh. of John Somers, M.P., 1st Baron Somers. educ. M. Temple 1702, called 1708. m. (1) Sept. 1718, Lady Elizabeth Newport (d. c.1735), da. of Richard, 2nd Earl of Bradford, s.p.; (2) 1737, Anne, da. of William Berkeley, 4th Baron Berkeley of Stratton, 1s.

Offices Held

Biography Cocks’s mother and her sister, the wife of Sir Joseph Jekyll, were coheirs of their brother, Lord Chancellor Somers, whose property carried a major interest at Reigate. His sister married Philip Yorke, later Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, whose sons represented one of the Reigate seats 1741-84. Returned himself as a Whig for Reigate in every Parliament but one from 1707 to 1747, he voted with the Government from 1715 to 1719, when he opposed the peerage bill. During Walpole’s Administration he acted with the Opposition, making his only reported speech at the end of the 1741 session in a debate on the quartering of soldiers on the civil population. After Walpole’s fall, his name does not appear in any recorded division. He succeeded to the manor of Reigate on the death of his aunt, Lady Jekyll, in 1745;1 stood down in favour of his nephew, Charles Cocks, in 1747; and died 26 May 1750.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754 Author: Romney R. Sedgwick Notes 1. W. Hooper, Reigate, 32.