Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/207

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Cocks

to the Lakes,' with, biographical notes. He also assisted in the compilation of West's 'Guide to the Lakes,' and contributed to the 'Philosophical Transactions' 'An Account of an Extraordinary Appearance in a Mist near Lancaster' (Phil. Trans. (1780), lxx. 157).

[Account of the Author in Cockin's Rural Sabbath; Rev. T. Wilson's Miscellanies, ed. Raines (Chatham Society), p. lviii; Hayley's Life of G. Romney, 1809, pp. 278-9, 295-6; Gent. Mag. 1801, pt. i. p. 575.]

C. W. S.

COCKINGS, GEORGE (d. 1802), writer, had a small place under the British government at Boston, America. Returning to England he obtained the post of registrar of the Society of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce in the Adelphi. After holding this for thirty years, he died on 6 Feb. 1802. His American experiences led him to write poems and dramas, which, in respect of construction and literary style, are of the feeblest order. Some of these obtained a measure of success, and went through three or four editions in America and England. His writings include 'The Conquest of Canada, or the Siege of Quebec,' an historical tragedy in five acts, 8vo, 1766, a contemptible production without either form or significance; 'Benevolence and Gratitude,' a poem, London, 1772, 8vo; 'War, an Heroic Poem, from the Taking of Minorca by the French to the Reduction of the Havannah,' 1760, 8vo, and 2 vols. in one, including some minor poems, 2nd edit. Boston, N.E., 1762, 4th edit. 1765, and again in 1785; 'Poems on several Subjects,' London, 1772, 8vo; 'Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce,' a poem, London, 1766, 8vo, and 1769, 8vo.

[Baker, Reed, and Jones's Biographia Dramatica; Allibone's Critical Dictionary of English Literature; Gilliland's Dramatic Mirror, 1808.]

J. K.

COCKIS, JOHN. [See Coxe, John.]

COCKS, ARTHUR HERBERT (1819–1881), Bengal civilian, third son of Colonel the Hon. Philip James Cocks, M.P., who was second son of Sir Charles Somers-Cocks, created first Lord Somers of the second creation, and half brother of the first Earl Somers by Frances, daughter of Arthur Herbert of Brusterfield, co. Kerry, was born on 18 April 1819. He received a nomination to the Indian civil service, and after finishing his education at Haileybury College he went to Bengal in 1837. He soon became very popular and gave marked signs of ability, and was one of the young Bengal civilians sent to Sir Charles Napier when, after the conquest of Scinde, he asked for administrators. He gave great satisfaction to Napier, and on the outbreak of the second Sikh war in 1848 he was attached to Lord Gough's headquarters as political officer. In this capacity he showed great courage and coolness in the battle of Chillianwallah, the affair of Ramnuggur, and the battle of Goojerat, and during the latter battle he rode away from the staff and engaged in a hand-to-hand fight with a Sikh sowar, who was threatening to attack the commander-in-chief and his escort, and was wounded. Lord Gough was so pleased with this gallant action that he presented Cocks with the sword he was wearing, and for his services throughout the campaign he received the Punjab war medal. Immediately after the peace Cocks was attached to the famous Punjab commission. He was one of the most distinguished of this band of famous men, and a friend of Sir Robert Montgomery, Sir Herbert Edwardes, John Nicholson, and others, though his early retirement caused him to be less known. On 15 April 1847 he married Anna Marian Jessie, daughter of Lieutenant-general John Eckford, C.B. In 1860 he was made a C.B., and in 1863 he resigned the Bengal civil service and returned to England. During the mutiny his district had fortunately been undisturbed, so he did not gain so much credit as some of his colleagues; but his talent for administration, with the extraordinary affection he won from the natives, would have secured his promotion to high office if he had cared for it. On his retirement he settled down into a country squire; he became a J.P. for Worcestershire, and acted as captain in the Worcestershire militia from 1865 to 1872. He died at his house in Ashburn Place, London, on 29 Aug. 1881. He left three sons, of whom the eldest is (1887) heir-presumptive to the barony of Somers.

[Foster's Peerage; Times obituary notice, 2 Sept. 1883; Lady Edwardes's Memorial of Sir Herbert Edwardes.]

H. M. S.

COCKS, ROGER (fl. 1635), divine, was the author of 'Hebdomada Sacra, a Weeke's Devotion; or Seven Poeticall Meditations upon the Second Chapter of S. Matthew's Gospel,' London, 1630, small 8vo, a work which of itself plainly shows, apart from the information supplied in a rhyming preface, that 'no profest poet but a preacher wrote it.' He also published, in 1642, 'An Answer to a Book set forth by Sir Edward Peyton.' Peyton (who was a baronet, and who sat in parliament for Cambridgeshire from 1620 to 1627) had been refused the sacrament by Cocks, because he insisted on receiving it in a standing posture, and had published a vindication of his refusal to kneel, based chiefly on scrip-