Sir James Cockburn, 8th Baronet of Langton

From Wikipedia: Sir James Cockburn, 8th Baronet

Sir James Cockburn, 8th Baronet (1729 – Thursday, 26 July 1804) was a Member of the Parliament of Great Britain for Linlithgow Burghs from 1772 to 1784 and a Director of the East India Company.

Family

He was a son of William Cockburn of Berwickshire and his wife and cousin Frances Cockburn. His paternal grandparents were Sir Alexander Cockburn, 6th Baronet and his wife Mary Ancrum. His maternal grandfather was Dr James Cockburn of Jamaica.

Alexander and Dr James Cockburn were brothers. They were both sons of Sir Archibald Cockburn, 4th Baronet and his wife Marion Sinclair.

Marion Sinclair was a daughter of John Sinclair and Isabel Boyd. Her paternal grandfather was John Sinclair (died 1649) and his wife Marion McCath[citation needed].

Career

Cockburn joined the London firm of Henry Douglas, a wealthy merchant and his future father in law. He was a commissary to the Army in Germany during the Seven Years' War and appointed Commissary General in 1762, after which he returned to London and became involved in the purchase of West Indian plantations and in East India politics.

In 1767 he was elected a Director of the East India Company (until 1769). He was re-elected in 1770 and in the following two years.

In 1772 he was also elected to Parliament to represent Linlithgow, a seat he retained until 1784. He had bought the heritable position of Principal Usher of the White Rod in Scotland in 1766.

Baronetcy

His paternal grandfather Sir Alexander Cockburn, 6th Baronet died in May 1739. Having survived his oldest son Archibald Cockburn, Alexander was succeeded by the eldest son of Archibald as Sir Alexander Cockburn, 7th Baronet.

The 7th Baronet died childless in 1745. James was his closest surviving male relative and thus succeeded his first cousin as the 8th Baronet.

Marriages and children

In 1755 James Cockburn married his first wife Mary Douglas, the daughter of his business partner Henry Douglas of Friarshaw. They had three daughters:

• Frances Cockburn.
• Harriet Jane Cockburn, who married James Nicholas Duntze, son of Sir John Duntze, Baronet
• Mary Cockburn.

His first wife died on Saturday, 5 April 1766. He remained a widower for three years. On Tuesday, 10 October 1769), Cockburn married his second wife Augusta Anne Ayscough. She was a daughter of Francis Ayscough, Dean of Bristol and Royal tutor. They had six children:

• Sir James Cockburn, 9th Baronet (1771–1852), Governor of Bermuda.
• Sir George Cockburn, 10th Baronet (1772–1853), MP, Rear-Admiral of the United Kingdom, Admiral of the Fleet and First Sea Lord.
• Sir William Cockburn, 11th Baronet (1773–1858), Dean of York, who married Elizabeth (died 1828), daughter of Sir Robert Peel.
• Alexander Cockburn (1776–1852) served as British Consul to Hamburg and the Hanse towns and later as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Württemberg and the Republic of Colombia. He married Yolande, daughter of the René Michel de Vignier de La Saline, vicomte de Vignier, of Santo Domingo.
• Sir Francis Cockburn (1780–1868), a Lieutenant-General in the Army.
• Anna Augusta Cockburn. Married Charles Hawkins, Rector of Kelston and Prebendary of York.

From Complete Baronetage 1625 to 1649 by George Edward Cokayne Volume 2 Published 1902 Page 329

VIII. 1745. Sir James Cockburn, Baronet [baronetcy created 1627], of Eyemouth, Berwickshire, cousin and heir, being 2nd [see Footnote a] but 1st surviving son of William Cockburn, of Eyemouth aforesaid, merchant, by Frances Cockburn, daughter of.James Cockburn, of Jamaica, which William Cockburn (whose will was proved 5 October 1731), was 2nd son of Alexander Cockburn, the 6th Baronet. He was born about 1729; succeeded to the Baronetcy, but to none of the family estates, [see Footnote b] 30 April 1745, being retoured heir, 3 January 1749, to his cousin Alexander Cockburn, the late Baronet.

He was Member of Parliament for Linlithgow Burghs (three Parliaments) 1772-84.

He married firstly, Monday, 31 March 1755, Mary Douglas, said to be daughter of Henry Douglas, of London, brother of Sir James Douglas, 1st Baronet [1786]. She died at Bristol, Hotwells, Saturday, 5 April 1766. He married secondly, 10 July 1769, Augusta Anne Ayscough, daughter. of Francis Ayscough, D.D., Dean of Bristol, by Anne Lyttelton, daughter of Sir Thomas Lyttelton, 4th Baronet [1618]. He died Sunday, 22 July 1804 or Thursday, 26 July 1804, aged 75. His widow died Tuesday, 14 November 1837, aged 88, and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. Will proved January 1838.

[Footnote a:] His elder brother, Alexander Cockburn, survived their father, and was retoured his heir, 22 July 1732. He died unmarried, being then an officer of H.M.S. "Medway," apparently before April 1745. Administration [Admon.] 1747. He is said in Hood's "House of Cockburn" (page 102), to have died on his way to India a few months after the battle of Fontenoy (30 April 1745), aged 17. In that case he would have been entitled to the Baronetcy for a short time. This account, however, is disbelieved in Sir E. C. Cockburn's MS. pedigree (see page 327, note "c"), and he is not described as a Baronet in his administration [admon].

[Footnote b:] The Langton estates and the office of Usher had been disponed 6 May 1690, by the 4th Baronet, the then possessor, to his cousin, Sir James Cockburn, 1st Baronet [Baronetcy created 1671] of that ilk, and the amount charged on them appears in 1745 to have exceeded their value. Sir James Cockburn, 3rd Baronet [Baronetcy created 1671] of that ilk, was, 25 November 1754, retoured heir special of his father in Langton and in the office of Usher. These possessions, were finally sold by auction at Edinburgh, Thursday, 15 December 1757, being set up at about 23 years' purchase. The Barony of Langton, set up at £26,600, sold for £50,000 or £60,000; the estate of Simprim, set up at £6,784, sold for £12,200, and the office of Heretable Usher of Scotland (salary £250), set up at £5,166, sold for £6,500, the purchaser of the latter being Alexander Coutts, of London.

From The house of Cockburn of that ilk and the cadets thereof by with historical anecdotes of the times in which many of the name played a conspicuous part by Thomas H. Cockburn-Hood Published 1888 Pages 102-106

XX. Sir James Cockburn of Langton, seventh Baronet, NOTE conflicts with current 8th Baronet second son of William Cockburn of Ayton, who was not left long in peaceful possession of his ancestral lands, and the hereditary office of Ostiarius Parliamenti granted to his ancestor by King David II. [Page 103] He was retoured heir in 1755, being only fourteen years of age at the time of his cousin Sir Alexander Cockburn's death. Nevertheless, on 20 November 1747, Sir Robert Dundas, Lord Arniston [whose daughter Martha Dundasmarried Archibald Cockburn of Cockpen], gave judgment that William Cockburn of that Ilk was entitled to the sums he claimed from Sir James Cockburn and Mrs. Harlot Cockburn, and awarded to him his estates and the hereditary ushership in warrandice; and on Friday, 5 March 1756 William got sasine under precept from Chancery of the lands and barony of Langton, the lands of Borthwick, Easter and Wester Wolferland, Grueldykes, Cumledge, Burnhouses, Oxindin, Easter Winschelis, and the lands of Simprim, in warrandice also of the sasine contained in bonds granted by Sir Archibald Cockburn, second Baronet of Langton, and his son Archibald Cockburn, younger of Langton, dated 4 January 1690. The representatives of Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh, of Henry Lord Sinclair, Stewart of Grantully, Stewart of Ballechin, and Henry Rollo, had all large claims upon Langton upon other bonds given by Sir Archibald Cockburn and his son Archibald Cockburn, so the estates were all sold, with the result as given above in the words of Sir Archibald Steuart; and when Sir James Cockburn came of age, he had but his sword, and such remnants from his ancestral possessions as might revert to him from their forced sale.

On Thursday, 12 July 1759 sasine was given by William Montgomerie of Macbiehill, Advocate, of Edinburgh, to Sir James Cockburn, Baronet, Captain in the Forty-eighth Regiment, commanded by General Webb, of an annual rent from Plewlands, County Peebles. It was a curious circumstance that the last owner of [Page 104] Langton should become identified again with the county which his ancestor left four hundred years and more before, to take possession of that barony. On Thursday, 11 October 1764 he had sasine on a disposition from Patrick Home of Billie, of the lands and estate of Over and Nether Manderston, County Berwick. He was M.P. for Peebles in 1762. On Saturday, 20 November 1762 [of that year] he went with thirteen other Scotch Baronets to court, wearing their Nova Scotia badges, which has since been looked upon as a privilege thereby conceded.

He married first in 1755 Mary Douglas, only daughter of Henry Douglas of Friarshaw, of the ancient house of Cavers (whose brother James Douglas, afterwards of Springwood, County Roxburgh, brought home the tidings of the taking of Quebec. He was an Admiral in the Royal Navy, and was made a Baronet for distinguished services in 1786). By her he had three daughters, Mary Cockburn, Frances Cockburn, who both died unmarried, and Harriet Duntze (née Cockburn), who married in 1792 James Nicholas Duntze, second son of Sir John Duntze, Baronet. Sir James Cockburn married secondly Augusta-Anne Ascough, daughter of the Very Reverend Francis Ascough, Dean of Bristol, by his wife Anne Lyttleton, sister of the distinguished George Lyttleton, first Lord Lyttleton: and by her, who died 1837, had, besides a daughter Anne-Augusta Cockburn, five sons —

1. Sir James Cockburn, a General in the Army, succeeded as eighth Baronet.
2. Sir George Cockburn, an Admiral in the Navy, succeeded as ninth Baronet.
3. William Cockburn, Dean of York, succeeded as tenth Baronet.
4. Alexander Cockburn, Envoy-Extraordinary and Minister to Columbia, who married Yolande de Vignier, [Page 105] daughter of the Vicompte de Vignier, and by her had Alexander James Edmond Cockburn, Lord Chief-Justice of England, eleventh Baronet, and two daughters, Louise Clemence Rose Biasini (née Cockburn), who married Signor Biasini, and died at Milan 1862, and Yolande Bridget Ferrari (née Cockburn), who married Baron Pierre Francois Ferrari, an officer of the Italian army, and died in 1854.
5. Sir Francis Cockburn, Governor of Honduras, who married Alicia Sandys, daughter of the Rev. Richard Sandys, of the very ancient family of Sandys of Greythwaite Hall, County Westmoreland, by his wife Lady Frances Alicia Bennet, daughter of Charles Bennet, third Earl of Tankerville. They had no children. Sir Francis Cockburn, K.C.B., died in 1868.

Anne-Augusta Hawkins (née Cockburn married the Rev. Charles Hawkins, prebendary of York and canon residentiary. Their eldest daughter, Cecilia-Mary Baillie (née Hawkins), married the Hon. and Rev. John Baillie, canon residentiary of York; her sister, Georgiana-Augusta Yorke (née Hawkins), married James Charles Yorke, great-grandson of first Earl of Hardwicke.

Although the hereditary office so long enjoyed by the Cockburns of Langton, and attached as an appanage to that Barony, had been adjudged to William Cockburn of that Ilk along with the estates in security of his claims, and sold to Mr. Coutts, Sir James Cockburn again held it, sasine thereof being given to him on charter under the Great Seal on Friday, 12 May 1769. On Tuesday, 19 September 1769 [in same year] [Page 106] sasine was given by disposition from Alexander, Earl of Home, to Walter Scott, Writer to the Signet [Sir Walter Scott of Abbotsford's father], and on disposition from the said Walter Scott in favour of Sir James Cockburn, Baronet of Langton, His Majesty's Heritable Usher for Scotland, of the lands of Mickle Birgheame, with the teinds thereof, in the parish of Eccles, County Berwick, which property had long been possessed by the Cockburns of Cockburn; and on the same day sasine was also given by the same Walter Scott to him of "five husband lands in Birgham on disposition by Rosamond Dalgleish, daughter of the late James Dalgleish of Westwood, who had assigned the said lands to Walter Scott." So Sir James Cockburn still held some portion of the family lands in the county in which his distant ancestors first made a figure in Scotland, as well as in the county of Peebles, where his predecessors had held such extensive territories.

There was a bond of reversion to himself and his father-in-law, Henry Douglas of Friarshaw, dated Friday, 13 June 1777, the latter having given "sasine in favour of Mary Cockburn, Frances Cockburn and Jane-Harriot Cockburn, the three lawful daughters of Sir James Cockburn, and grand-daughters of the said Henry Douglas of an annual rent out of the lands of Friarshaw."

Sir James Cockburn died at Hillingdon, Sunday, 22 July 1804, and was succeeded by his eldest son, James —