Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/345

 ii s.x. OCT. Mi9i4.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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the University printers in the new art. Among hi* useful minor inventions was the small, but powerful lens which still bears his name.

Stanhope hail never cared for luxurious living, and towards the close of his life, while continuing to spend large sums on his experiments, he allowed an astonishingly small amount for personal expenses ; in fact, he almost starved himself. He died on the 17th of December, 1816, " without having been conscious at any one moment, even at tin- last, that he was dying." He left direc- tions that his funeral should be that of a poor man, without hearse or mourning coaches ; and his remains were borne to the tomb of his an- cestors " in all the simplicity of ancient times, and interred like one of the philosophers of old."

The illustrations include two portraits of Stanhope, and four of Gillray's caricatures.

Thz Records of the Cockburji Family. By Sir

Robert Cockburn. Bart., and Harry A. Cockbum.

(T. N. Foulis, 31. 3*. net.)

ABOUT a quarter of a century ago the late Thomas Cockburn Hood brought out a history of the Cock- burn family. This was soon found to be untrust- worthy as to many facts and dates, and Sir Edward Cockburn (ob. 1903) set himself to gather materials for an authentic account which should put vexed questions straight. His work has been carried out to completion and publication in the present volume, upon which both the two authors and the members of the Cockburn family may well look with satisfaction.

The origin of the house would seeni to be fpund in the parish of Duns in Berwickshire, at a place

ille<l Cockburn. The Alexander Cockburn from whom all the principal branches of the line descend was not, however, of that Ilk, but of Langtou, an i-tatu four miles south-west of Cockburn, which he acquired by his marriage with Mariota Vipont 1# : .0. Above him looms indistinctly a Sir Ni'.'fl de CocUburn, whose property of Henderland ken from him by Edward I. and restored by Kdward II. ; below him come not only the long line of Cockburns of Langton, but also, as branches from the main stem, the Cockburns of that Ilk, of Choicelee, of Cock pen, of Caldra, of Ormiston, and of one or two other lines. The family has attained to three baronetcies, and, what is perhaps of greater interest, is one of the four Lowland families i Don-las, Dundas, and Hay are the others) who can boast a tartan.

Taken as a whole, this is the record of a vigorous stock well able to hold, and even to extend, its own a<* it passes and spreads from one generation to the \\> do not like the total picture any the r the fact that here and there a Cockburn is iminil exercising the business of a merchant, though our authors seem a little inclined to be apologetic alx>ut it. The more diversified the circumstances with which we see a stock grappling, the better idea can we form of its capacities, and the greater also is its interest.

The most widely known of the Cockburns of Lumton i> no doubt the tenth and last baronet, I.oni Chief Justice of England, who died unmarried in Issn. \\' e have here a reproduction of Sir Frank Lockwood's caricature of him, and one or t\vo amusing stories in the text. That he was a l"TSon;i'_''- who was no less formidable and tenacious than brilliant is illustrated here by that story of i how he Hncd a High Sheriff 50W. for opening the

windows of a court when he had directed that they- should be closed, of which a somewhat different version appeared in our own columns at 11 S iv 169, 217, 257, 315.

One 9f the grandsons of the first baronet, a certain- Dr. William Cockburn, is to be remembered first fcr having been the "honest physician" of Swift;: secondly, as the author of sundry medical treatises ; and lastly for the circumstance that he lies buried in Westminster Abbey. Of this worthy man's- ancestry the most illustrious were perhaps the laird and his heir who fell at Flodden Field. Distinguished among the nineteenth-century Cock- burns of Langton were General Sir Francis Cockburn, Governor of Honduras, and General Sir James Cockburn, Under-Secretary of State in 1806. It may be worth while to mention that the Lady Cockburn of whom Reynolds painted the portrait now in the National Gallery was Augusta Anne Ayscough, second wife of Sir James, the sixth baronet.

The Cockburns of that Ilk descend from William,, younger son of the Cockburn of Langton who fell atFloddeu. He bought Cockburn from the Earl of Crawford in 1527, and his descendants retained it till in 1696 Sir James Cockburn, the first baronet of that line, having rashly engaged his fortune in helping his kinsman of Langton, was compelled to- sell it. Notwithstanding their being thus separated from the estate, his family are still known as of Cockburn.

Thomas Cockburn Hood, in his history of the- family, had come to the conclusion that no- baronetcy had ever been actually granted to this part of the house, and it is a curious circumstance that the patent under the Great Seal which had so long lain hidden was ultimately discovered, .and brought to him on his death-bed. The baronetcy was conferred on the unfortunate James Cockburn. whom we have just mentioned, in consideration of the fidelity and steady affection to the Stuart cause- which brought him into England to take a share in the Battle of Worcester. His son took parkin the Battle of the Boyne, fighting for King James ; and the third baronet was present at Quebec. The fourth, fifth, and sixth baronets were likewise soldiers.

The second son of the original Alexander of Langton had something of his father's fortune in that he acquired an estate by marriage, espousing Joneta Lindsay, the heiress of Ormiston, to whom upon her marriage Ormiston was handed over as dower. John Cockburn, a descendant of these, was one of the prominent Scotsmen of his day, a friend of John Knox whom he had as tutor to his son and a protector of George Wishart. It was from Ormiston Hall that Bothwell, by crafty speeches and on giving his word as a pledge of safety, lured George Wishart to his death, having persuaded Cockburn to surrender him into his charge. Cockburn's conduct in the complicated affairs between England and Scotland acting as he did in the interests of England has rather laid him open to accusations of treachery. While admitting that he acted as a member of a party bent on establishing Protestantism securely jit Scotland, it may be conceded that the tasks laid upon him were not such as most honourable men would find it pleasant to discharge.

The most distinguished of his descendants was Adam Cockburn, appointed Lord Justice-Clerk in 1692, and Treasurer of Depute (Chancellor of the