204
COCK—COCKBURN.
following he was promoted to the command of the Nimrod sloop-of-war, and, on 23 Jan. 1806, he was removed from the Melville to the Acting-Captaincy of the Jason 32, his commission for which bears date 23 April, 1806. Being off the coast of Surinam, he took, 27 Jan. 1807, La Favorite French national ship, mounting 16 long 6’s and 13 12-pounder carronades, with a complement of 150 men;[1] and, in Dec. following, he assisted in reducing the Danish West India islands. His next appointment was, 25 Oct. 1808, to the Ethalion 38, in which ship he shortly afterwards had a slight encounter with the French 40-gun frigate Amphitrite, and creditably served at the capture of Martinique and the Saintes in 1809.[2] Having been on half-pay for two years, Capt. Cochrane, on 31 Aug. 1812, obtained command of the Surprise 38, and, continuing in that frigate until Aug. 1815, captured, 16 Jan. 1813, the Decatur American privateer, of 12 guns and 82 men, and was in the Chesapeake during the attacks on Washington and Baltimore, and in the operations on the coast of Georgia. While subsequently commanding the Forte 44, from 28 June, 1820, until the close of 1824, he served on the Halifax and West India stations, accompanied George IV. to Scotland, and brought home a large amount of specie from Vera Cruz and the Havana. He attained the rank of Rear-Admiral 23 Nov. 1841, and, on 21 July, 1842, hoisted his flag in the Agincourt 72, as second in command on the East India station, where, from the return home of Sir Wm. Parker in 1845 until 1847, he held the chief direction of naval affairs. The Rear-Admiral appears during that period to have avenged in a very condign manner a breach of faith made in regard to the slave-trade by some of the Borneo chiefs.[3]
Sir Thos. Cochrane was knighted, 29 May, 1812, as proxy for his father at his installation as a K.B.; and was nominated a C.B. 18 April, 1839. He received, 16 April, 1825, the appointment of Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the island of Newfoundland and its dependencies, which he continued to hold for several years; and in 1839 he was returned to Parliament for the borough of Ipswich. The Rear-Admiral married, 6 Jan. 1812, Matilda Ross Wishart, eldest daughter of the late Lieut.General Sir Chas. Ross, Bart., by whom (who died in 1839) he had issue two sons and two daughters. Of the former, the second, Charles Stuart, is an officer in the Army. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.
COCK. (Lieutenant, 1811. f-p., 20; h-p., 31.)
Robert Cock entered the Navy, 19 May, 1796, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Thalia 36, Capt. Lord Henry Paulet, under whom, in the Mediterranean, he witnessed the capture of several privateers, and, on 10 Sept. 1797, of the French national corvette L’Espoir of 16 guns. He removed, in June, 1798, to the Montagu 74, Capts. John Knight and Robt. Cuthbert, employed on the same, the Home, and West India stations; became Midshipman, 23 June, 1802, of L’Immortalité 36, Capt. Edw. W. C. R. Owen; and, from March, 1803, until the receipt of his commission, 1 Aug. 1811, served, at home and in the Mediterranean, latterly as Master’s Mate, on board the Utrecht, flag-ship of Vice-Admirals John Holloway and Philip Patton, Regulus 44, Thunderer 74, Capts. Wm. Lechmere, John Stockham, and John Talbot (in which ship he bore a part in Sir Robt. Calder’s action, the battle of Trafalgar, and the destruction of the Turkish squadron in the Dardanells), Aurora 28, Capts. Geo. Fras. Seymour and John Duer, Namur 98, flag-ship of Hon. Henry Edwin Stanhope, and Quebec 32, Capt. Chas. Sibthorpe John Hawtayne. His subsequent appointments were, 28 Oct. 1811, to the Mosquito sloop, Capts. Chas. Bell and Jas. Tomkinson, and, 4 May, 1814, to the Dasher 16, Capt. Wm. Henderson, on the Leeward Islands station. Since May, 1816, Lieut. Cock has been on half-pay. Agents – Coplands and Burnett.
COCKBURN, P.C, G.C.B., F.R.S., M.P. (Admiral of the Red, 1837. f-p., 33; h-p., 32.)
The Right Honourable Sir George Cockburn, born in London, is second son of the late Sir Jas. Cockburn, Bart., M.P. for Peebles, by his second wife, Augusta Anne, daughter of the Rev. Fras. Ayscough, D.D., Dean of Bristol, and Preceptor to King George III. He is brother of Major-General the present Sir Jas. Cockburn, Bart., G.C.H., who formerly held in succession the appointments of Under-Secretary of State, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Curaçoa, Governor of the Bermudas, and Paymaster of the Royal Marines – also, of the Rev. Wm. Cockburn, Dean of York, who married Elizabeth, sister of the Right Hon. Sir Robt. Peel, Bart., M.P. – and of his Excellency Alex. Cockburn, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at Columbia. Sir George is grand-nephew of the first Lord Lyttleton, and cousin of the present Rear-Admiral John Ayscough.
This officer entered the Navy, 12 March, 1781, as Captain’s Servant (under the auspices of Admirals Sir Joshua Rowley and Lord Hood), on board a frigate, then commanded by Capt. Bartholomew Sam. Rowley. His name was afterwards borne on the books of the William and Mary yacht, but he did not go to sea until 1786; in the course of which and of the following year we find him cruizing on the Home station in the Termagant 18, Capt. Rowley Bulteel. In Jan. 1788 he joined the Ariel 14, Capt. Robt. Moorsom, with whom he sailed for the East Indies, where for several months he was very profitably employed in surveying. Returning home, in 1791, with the same officer, in the Princess Royal Indiaman, Mr. Cockburn next served, in the Channel and Mediterranean, as Midshipman, and Master’s Mate of the Hebe 38, Capt. Alex. Hood, and Romney 50, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Sam. Cranston Goodall. Having passed his examination 3 June, 1791, he was appointed, in 1792, Acting-Lieutenant of the Pearl 32, Capt. Geo. Wm. Augustus Courtenay, and, on 27 Jan. 1793, was confirmed in the Orestes 18, Capt. Lord Augustus Fitzroy. On 28 April following he became ninth Lieutenant of the Britannia 100, bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral Wm. Hotham, but removed in June, as tenth, to the Victory 100, flagship off Toulon of his patron Lord Hood, from which, on attaining, in quick rotation, the post of First-Lieutenant, he was promoted to the command, 11 Oct. in the same year, of the Speedy sloop. As a reward for his skill and perseverance in maintaining the blockade of Genoa during a gale, which dispersed every other ship of a squadron stationed off that port, Capt. Cockburn was appointed, 20 Jan. 1794, Acting-Captain of the Inconstant 36, and on 20 of the following month was officially posted into the Meleager 32, which latter frigate he commanded in the hostilities against Corsica, and as one of Hotham’s repeaters in the actions of 14 March and 13 July, 1795. He was afterwards employed for 12 months in vigorous co-operation with the Austrian troops in Piedmont, and during that period obtained the hearty acknowledgments of the immortal Nelson for his conspicuous zeal, ability, and courage on various occasions, but more especially for the great support and assistance he afforded that hero in running in under the batteries of Larma on 31 May, 1796, and capturing six of the enemy’s armed vessels.[4] Being transferred, 19 Aug. following, to the command of the Minerve, of 42 guns and 286 men, Capt. Cockburn, who remained in that ship until paid off in Feb. 1802, continued to pursue his gallant career with intense ardour, either conducting in person, or assuming a prominent part in, a train of the most important achievements. He was first employed in blockading Leghorn; and, on next hoisting the broad pendant of Commodore Nelson, again acquired the admiration of the latter
