Life
Cockburn was the nephew of Adam Cockburn of Ormiston, Lord Justice Clerk, who had no male heir and from whom he inherited the Ormiston estate in 1735. In 1736 he laid out the "model village" of Ormiston which was set up to encourage craft industries such as brewing, distilling and weaving. However, this, and his improvements to the estate as a whole, bankrupted Cockburn, and he was forced to sell the entire estate and village to the Charles Hope, the Earl of Hopetoun.[1]
He is known as the father of Scottish husbandry.
In 1702, Cockburn became a Shire Commissioner for Haddington in the Parliament of Scotland and took an active interest in accomplishing the union.[2] He was the first representative of East Lothian in the parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain.[3] He continued to hold that seat in all successive parliaments until 1741. He was one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty.[4]
Cockburn built Ormiston Hall on his estate at Ormiston. This last Cockburn of Ormiston was an enthusiastic entrepreneur and eventually ruined himself as a result of which his estates were sold to the Earl of Hopetoun.
Cockburn died in his son's house in the Navy Office, London, England. He had firstly married Beatrix, daughter of John Carmichael, 1st Earl of Hyndford, by whom he had no issue and secondly married Arabella Rowe, the youngest daughter and coheiress of Anthony Rowe (c.1641-1704) of Muswell Hill, Middlesex, MP, with whom he had a son. His natural son, George Cockburne (d.1770), was a captain in the Royal Navy, and married Caroline, daughter of Lt-Col. George Forrester, 5th Lord Forrester[5] of Corstorphine (husband of Charlotte Rowe, elder sister of Arabella Rowe), with female issue.
