View source for Henry Cockburn, Lord Cockburn

{{Short description|Scottish lawyer, judge and literary figure (1779–1854)}}
{{other uses|Henry Cockburn (disambiguation)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
[[Image:Lord Cockburn.jpg|right|thumb|Lord Cockburn, from the etching in Crombie's ''Modern Athenians'']]
'''Henry Thomas Cockburn of Bonaly, Lord Cockburn''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|oʊ|b|ər|n}} {{respell|KOH|bərn}}; 26 October 1779 in [[Cockpen]], Midlothian – 26 April/18 July 1854 in [[Bonaly]], Midlothian)<ref>Cockburn: Thomas H. Cockburn-Hood, ''The House of Cockburn of That Ilk and the Cadets Thereof…'' (Edinburgh, 1888), p. 152.</ref> 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 a sister-in-law of the influential [[Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville|Lord Melville]], through her sister Elizabeth, and his father, [[Archibald Cockburn]], was [[Sheriff of Edinburgh|Sheriff of Midlothian]] and [[Baron]] of the [[Court of Exchequer (Scotland)|Court of Exchequer]].<ref name="EB1911">{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Cockburn, Henry Thomas|volume=6|pages=624–625}}</ref> He was educated at the [[Royal High School (Edinburgh)|Royal High School]] and the [[University of Edinburgh]].<ref name=EB1911/>

His brother, John Cockburn [[FRSE]] (died 1862), was a wine merchant and founder of Cockburn's of [[Leith]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf |title=Account Suspended |publisher=Royalsoced.org.uk |access-date=2020-02-27 |archive-date=24 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130124115814/http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Literary career==
Cockburn contributed regularly to the ''[[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 dialect (Scotland)|Doric]] breadth of accent. Cockburn was one of the most popular men north of the Tweed."<ref name="turnbull">Monuments and Statues of Edinburgh, Michael T.R.B. Turnbull (Chambers)p. 53</ref> He was a member of the famous [[Speculative Society]], to which [[Sir Walter Scott]], [[Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux|Henry Brougham]] and [[Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey|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 [[Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey|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==
[[File:Lord Henry Cockburn by William Brodie, SNPG.JPG|thumb|Statue of Lord Cockburn by William Brodie]]
[[File:14 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh.jpg|thumb|14 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, the town house of Lord Cockburn]]

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 [[UK Whig Party|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 [[British Whig Party|Whig]] party in Scotland in its days of darkness prior to the [[Reform Act 1832]], and was a close friend of [[Thomas Dick Lauder|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 [[Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey|Earl Grey]]'s [[Whig Government 1830–1834|ministry]] in 1830 he became [[Solicitor General for Scotland]]. During his time here he drafted the First Scottish Reform Bill.<ref name="turnbull"/> In 1834 he was raised to the bench, and on taking his seat as a Judge in the [[Court of Session]] he adopted the title of Lord Cockburn as a Scottish Lord of Session.<ref name="Peter Beauclerk Dewar 2001 page 884">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.</ref>

==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 razed to the ground to improve views from his new house. There is no record of what became of the inhabitants of the village.<ref>Cassells Old and New Edinburgh vol.6 Chp.38</ref>

==Family==
[[File:Henry Cockburn, Lord Cockburn, his family, David Octavius Hill and John Henning by Robert Adamson (2).jpg|thumb|Henry Cockburn, Lord Cockburn, his family, David Octavius Hill and John Henning by Robert Adamson, 1840s]]
[[File:Henry Cockburn, Lord Cockburn from "The Scottish Bar Fifty Years Ago".PNG|thumb|Henry Cockburn, Lord Cockburn by [[Robert Scott Moncrieff]]]]
Cockburn married Elizabeth Macdowall, daughter of [[James Macdowall]] and his second wife Margaret Jamieson, in [[Edinburgh]], Midlothian, on 12 March 1811. As was common in the period he had both a [[Townhouse (Great Britain)|town house]] and [[English country house|country house]]. The country house was at [[Bonaly]], on the south-west edge of [[Edinburgh]].<ref name="odnb">{{Cite ODNB|id=5771|title=Cockburn, Henry, Lord Cockburn}}</ref> His large town house at 14 [[Charlotte Square]], in the west end of the city, was designed by [[Robert Adam]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://digital.nls.uk/83400051|title=Edinburgh Post Office annual directory, 1832-1833|website=National Library of Scotland|page=38|access-date=2018-02-18}}</ref> They had five daughters and six sons:<ref name="Peter Beauclerk Dewar 2001 page 884"/>
* Margaret Day Cockburn (Edinburgh, Midlothian, 24 January 1812, bap. Edinburgh, Midlothian, 25 February 1812 – 1818) (buried in [[St Cuthbert's Church, Edinburgh|St Cuthberts churchyard]] in Edinburgh
* Jane Cockburn (Edinburgh, Midlothian, 1813, bap. Edinburgh, Midlothian, 22 July 1813 – )
* Archibald William Cockburn,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/b21465812/b21465812_djvu.txt |title=Full text of "List of fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh [electronic resource&#93; : from the year 1581 to 31st December 1873" |date=2016-10-23 |access-date=2020-02-27}}</ref> 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]] (later [[Moderator of the General Assembly]] of the Free Church of Scotland)<ref>Ewing, William ''Annals of the Free Church''</ref>
* 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]], [[Bengal]], 20 March 1871), who was with the [[Bengal Civil Service]], and had one daughter: 
*** Catherine Charlotte Raban (Chittagong, Bengal, 12 June 1870 – 1954), married at [[Axebridge]], Somerset, in 1893 to [[Arthur Waugh]] (1866–1943) and had two sons, [[Alec Waugh]] and [[Evelyn Waugh]]
** Isabella Graham Cockburn (c. 1848 – [[Kensington]], London, 5 January 1926), married on 31 January 1894 as his third wife to Sir [[James Shaw Hay]] (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|Bulmer]], Essex, JP (27 April 1842 – 17 February 1916), [[Lieutenant Colonel (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant Colonel]] in the service of the [[Royal Engineers]], [[Justice of the Peace]] for [[Essex]] and for [[Suffolk]], son of [[James St. George Burke]] and wife Anne Eliza Grubbe, and had issue
** Georgina Maria Joanna Cockburn, married [[Spencer Campbell Thomson]] [[FRSE]] FFA in 1869
* Henry Day Cockburn (Edinburgh, Midlothian, 21 April 1820 – ?), married at [[South Yarra]], [[Victoria, Australia|Victoria]], in 1857 to Mary Ann Matherley
* Lawrence Cockburn (Edinburgh, Midlothian, 25 February 1822 – [[Brighton, Victoria]], 2 September 1871), a [[Squatting (Australian history)|squatter]], married at Brighton, Victoria, in 1859 to Annie Maria Smith, and had one son: 
** Henry Cockburn ([[Melbourne]], Victoria, 1862 – ?)
* Francis Jeffrey Cockburn ([[Edinburgh]], Midlothian, 8 January 1825 – [[Brentford]], London, 10 July 1893<ref>England and Wales National Probate Calendar, 1893, p. 90: "Cockburn Francis Jeffrey of 2 Kent-avenue Ealing Middlesex gentleman died 10 July 1893 Probate London 25 August to Eliza Anne Cockburn widow Henry Cockburn esquire and Robert Henry Kinsey surgeon Effects £4019 16''s''. 4''d''."</ref>), a Judge in [[British Raj|India]] and with the [[Bengal Civil Service]], and wife (Calcutta or [[Westbury, Tasmania|Westbury]], Tasmania, 25 January 1855) Elizabeth Anne (Eliza Ann) Pitcairn ([[Hobart]], Tasmania, 23 September 1831, bap. Hobart, Tasmania, 7 November 1831 – [[Wycombe, Oxfordshire|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 (consul)|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]], 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 ([[German Empire|Germany]], c. 1875 – ?)
* Elizabeth Cockburn (Edinburgh, Midlothian, 30 June 1826 – 6 April 1908), married in Edinburgh, Midlothian, on 27 December 1848 to Thomas Cleghorn [[FRSE]] (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 [[Alec Waugh]] 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]] (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]]).<ref>Monuments and Statues of Edinburgh, Michael T.R.B. Turnbull (Chambers) p. 54</ref>

==Death and legacy==
{{unreferenced section|date=November 2012}}
[[File:Grave of Henry, Lord Cockburn, Dean Cemetery Edinburgh.jpg|thumb|left|140px|Cockburn's grave in the Dean Cemetery]]
Cockburn died on 26 April 1854, at his [[mansion]] of [[Bonaly]], near [[Edinburgh]]<ref name="odnb" /> and is buried in the city's [[Dean Cemetery]]. A statue of him by local sculptor [[William Brodie (sculptor)|William Brodie]] stands in the north-east corner of [[Parliament House, Edinburgh#Parliament Hall|Parliament Hall]].

Cockburn Street, built in the 1850s to connect the [[Royal Mile|High Street]] with the [[North British Railway|North British Railway's]] [[Edinburgh Waverley railway station|Waverley station]], is also named after him.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Harris |first1=Stuart |title=The Place Names of Edinburgh: Their Origins and History |date=2002 |publisher=Steve Savage Publishers |isbn=1-904246-06-0 |page=170}}</ref>  The building at the foot of the street, formerly the "Cockburn Hotel", bears his image in profile in a stone above the entrance.
[[File:Head of Henry Cockburn.JPG|thumb|140px|Cockburn depicted on a building in Cockburn Street, Edinburgh]]
Cockburn had an interest in [[architectural conservation]], particularly in Edinburgh, where several important historic buildings such as [[John Knox House|John Knox's House]] and [[Stay Central Hotel|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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Progressive up to a point |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/progressive-up-to-a-point/ |website=The Spectator |access-date=11 April 2025 |date=28 January 2006}}</ref>

Cockburn was played by [[Russell Hunter]] in ''Cocky'', a one-man play which was effectively a dramatisation of his memoirs, broadcast on BBC Scotland.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cairney |first1=John |title=A History Of Solo Theatre |date=May 1988 |page=80 |url=https://theses.gla.ac.uk/76820/1/10970838.pdf |publisher=University of Glasgow}}</ref> It ended with his closing speech to the jury in the Burke and Hare trial.

==References==
{{reflist}}

===Sources===
*{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Cockburn, Henry Thomas|volume=6|pages=624–625|no-icon=1}}{{PD-notice}}
*{{cite book |last1=Cockburn |first1=Henry Cockburn, Lord, 1779-1854 |author1-link=Henry Cockburn, Lord Cockburn |title=Journal of Henry Cockburn; being a continuation of the memorials of his time, 1831-1854|volume=1 |date=1874a |publisher=Edmonston and Douglas |location=Edinburgh |url=https://archive.org/details/journalofhenryco01cock/page/n7/mode/2up}}
*{{cite book |last1=Cockburn |first1=Henry Cockburn, Lord, 1779-1854 |author1-link=Henry Cockburn, Lord Cockburn |title=Journal of Henry Cockburn; being a continuation of the memorials of his time, 1831-1854|volume=2 |date=1874b |publisher=Edmonston and Douglas |location=Edinburgh |url=https://archive.org/details/journalofhenryco02cockuoft/page/n7/mode/2up}}
*{{cite SBDEL|wstitle=Cockburn, Henry|noicon=1}}{{PD-notice}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060929212854/http://tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25336-1995024,00.html Scotland's greatest Whig Romantic], [[Times Literary Supplement]], 18 January 2006
*{{UK National Archives ID}}
*https://web.archive.org/web/20121103011435/http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~battle/celeb/wilde.htm

{{s-start}}
{{s-legal}}
{{succession box |
  before = [[John Hope, Lord Hope|John Hope]] |
  title = [[Solicitor General for Scotland]] |
  years = 1830–1834 |
  after = [[Andrew Skene]]
}}
{{s-aca}}
{{succession box|title=[[Rector of the University of Glasgow]]|years=1831—1834|before=[[Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne|The Marquess of Lansdowne]]|after=[[Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby|Lord Stanley]]}}
{{s-end}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cockburn, Henry Thomas}}
[[Category:1779 births]]
[[Category:1854 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century Scottish lawyers]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish lawyers]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish memoirists]]
[[Category:Cockburn family|Henry Thomas]]
[[Category:Senators of the College of Justice|Cockburn]]
[[Category:Scottish politicians]]
[[Category:Scottish political writers]]
[[Category:Scottish biographers]]
[[Category:Whig (British political party) politicians]]
[[Category:People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Rectors of the University of Glasgow]]
[[Category:Members of the Faculty of Advocates]]
[[Category:People from Midlothian]]
[[Category:Solicitors general for Scotland]]