Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/1142

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of Newton. Mead, and Clarke, and was elected a member of the Royal Society. He resided latterly at Florence, where he was professor of anatomy, and court antiquary. He was born in 1695, and died in 1758.—J. S., G.

COCCIA, Carlo, a musician, was born at Naples, April, 1789; the date of his death is uncertain. His father, Nicolo Coccia, was a distinguished violinist; he desired his son to prosecute the study of architecture, but the boy's fondness for music, and his fine soprano voice, induced the relinquishment of the paternal plan, and young Carlo adopted his favourite art as a profession. He sang, as a boy, in some of the Neapolitan churches; and, before the age of thirteen, produced some compositions of considerable extent. He then entered the conservatorio, where he became the pupil of Fenaroli and of Paesiello, the latter of whom took especial interest in him, which he proved, not only by the careful development of his talent, but by obtaining for him opportunities to exercise it. On the recommendation of this famous musician, Coccia was engaged as teacher in the families of the chief nobility, and was appointed accompanyist at the court concerts of Joseph Bonaparte, then king of Naples. It was through Paesiello's influence, also, that he produced his first dramatic work, an opera buffa, given at Rome in 1808; the non-success of which, far from discouraging his friend, induced him to exert himself the more to procure Coccia a second trial. At Florence he was more fortunate, and the success he there obtained was the opening of a career of rapid and extensive popularity. For some time he wrote one, two, or three operas every year, and these he composed with remarkable facility—an example of which was the entire completion of "Donna Caritea" in the interval of six days. In 1820 he went to Lisbon, where, during the next three years, he produced several works. He came to London as music director of the King's theatre in the autumn of 1823. Here he was appointed one of the professors of composition in the royal academy of music, at the opening of the institution. In London he was held in great esteem as a teacher of singing, and he obtained great credit for the discharge of his theatrical duties. He had now means of becoming acquainted with the severer style of music, which Italy had not afforded; and this was not without effect upon the character of his writings. He printed in London many detached vocal pieces, but produced no new opera until 1827, when "Maria Stuarda" was brought out with success. At the close of this season Coccia returned to Naples, and remained from that time in Italy, save during a visit to London of a few months in 1833. He continued to write operas for the several Italian capitals, but with more care, and consequently less rapidity than before. In 1836 he was instituted inspector of singing in the philharmonic academy of Turin.—G. A. M.

COCHIN, Charles Nicholas, called the Elder, a French painter and engraver, born at Paris in 1670. He abandoned painting at the age of nineteen, and devoted himself exclusively to engraving. He engraved many plates after Watteau and Lancret, and scripture subjects after Raffaelle, Le Moine, Bertin, Coypel, and others. His drawing was neat, and his execution spirited. He died in 1754.—Charles Nicholas, was his son, and is called the Younger. He was born in Paris in 1715. He produced several literary works relating to the fine arts. He executed upwards of fifteen hundred plates, remarkable for the grace of their design and the neatness of their execution. Among some of the portraits he completed are the heads of Charles Sackville, earl of Dorset, David Garrick, the Prince De Turenne, Restout the painter, Bouchardon the sculptor, &c. He died at Paris in 1790.—W. T.

COCHLAEUS, John, a divine of the Romish church, was a vehement opponent of Luther, Bucer, and Melancthon; born in 1479, near Nürnberg; died at Breslau in 1552. Among his works is one, the title of which betrays the pompous and blustering character of the author—"The Broom of Johannes Cochlaeus for sweeping down the Cobwebs of Morrison." It is a reply to Dr. R. Morrison's refutation of the tract published by Cochlaeus against the marriage of Henry VIII.—J. S., G.

COCHRANE: a noble Scottish family of great antiquity, which derived its surname from the barony of Cochrane, in the county of Renfrew. About the close of the sixteenth century the family terminated in an heiress, who married a younger son of Blair of Blair.—Her second son. Sir William Cochrane of Cowden, was elevated to the peerage in 1647 as Baron Cochrane of Dundonald, and in 1669 was advanced to the dignity of Earl of Dundonald.—(See Dundonald.)

Cochrane, Sir John, of Ochiltree, second son of this nobleman, was a distinguished patriot and presbyterian, and was the bosom friend of Algernon Sidney, Lord William Russell, and other eminent English liberals. He was in consequence deeply implicated in their plans for the exclusion of the duke of York from the throne. On the discovery of their designs, Sir John Cochrane, along with Sir Patrick Hume and other Scottish patriots, fled to Holland, where they remained until the death of Charles II. in 1685, and the consequent accession to the throne of the duke of York. Sir John then took part in the descent of the earl of Argyle upon Scotland, and by his wrongheadedness and jealousy of the earl contributed not a little to the ruin of that ill-fated expedition. On the final dispersion of the insurgents. Sir John was betrayed by his uncle's wife, tried, and condemned to death. His daughter Grizel, a young lady of eighteen, disguised in male attire, near the borders robbed the postman of the mail bags containing the warrant for her father's execution, and thus afforded time for her grandfather, the old earl of Dundonald, to open a negotiation with Father Petre, the king's confessor, and by a bribe of £5000 to procure his son's pardon.—J. T.

Cochrane, Sir Alexander Forrester Inglis, G.C.B., a distinguished British admiral, son of Thomas, eighth earl of Dundonald, was born in 1758. He entered the naval service at an early age; and after passing through the intermediate steps with distinction, obtained the rank of post-captain in 1782. At the commencement of the war with France he was appointed to the command of the Hind, and then of the Thetis, and displayed such activity and courage, that in 1793 he captured eight French privateers. In 1796, aided by the Hussar frigate, he attacked five French ships in Chesapeake bay, and captured one of the largest of them, the rest having made their escape after they had struck. In 1799 he was appointed to the Ajax of 80 guns, and having joined the fleet in the Mediterranean under Lord Keith, appointed to convoy Sir Ralph Abercromby's expedition to Egypt, he was appointed to superintend the landing of the British troops—a service which he performed with admirable skill and success. In 1804 he was elected member of parliament for the Dunfermline burghs, but lost his seat at the general election in 1806. On the resumption of hostilities with France, after the brief peace of Amiens, Captain Cochrane was appointed to the command of the Northumberland 74; and in the following year he was made rear-admiral, and pursued to the West Indies and back a French squadron which had contrived to escape from the blockaded port of Rochefort. He then joined Lord Nelson in his famous pursuit of the combined fleets of France and Spain. In 1806, along with Sir John Duckworth, he pursued and overtook a French fleet sent to relieve the town of St. Domingo; and after a severe action, captured the whole except two frigates and a corvette. For this important service Admiral Cochrane received the thanks of both houses of parliament, together with the freedom of the city of London, and a sword of the value of a hundred guineas, and was created a knight of the bath. He subsequently assisted in the reduction of the West Indian islands belonging to Denmark, and of Martinique and Guadaloupe, and in 1810 was appointed governor of this latter island and its dependencies. When war broke out with the United States in 1813, Sir Alexander was appointed to the command of the fleet on the North American station, and effectually blockaded the enemy's ports. In 1819 he was raised to the rank of admiral of the blue; and from 1821 to 1824 held the office of commander-in-chief at Plymouth. Admiral Cochrane died suddenly at Paris on the 26th of January, 1832.—J. T.

Cochrane, John Dundas, a British naval officer, surnamed "the pedestrian traveller," was the nephew of Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, and was born in 1780. At the age of ten he went to sea, and served with distinction against the French in America and in the East Indies. Resolved to make the tour of the globe on foot, he quitted London in 1820, and in the s pace of three years and two months traversed France, Germany, Finland, Russia Proper, and Siberia, sailed down the Lena as far as Yakoutik, thence travelled in a sledge drawn by dogs to Nijnei-Kolymek, traversed the country of the Tchouktchis as far as Oschotsk, and visited Kamtschatka, where he married a young lady of the country. He suffered dreadful hardships during this journey, and at one period travelled four hundred miles without meeting a living creature. His restless disposition did not allow