Richard Cockburn of Clerkington

Sir Richard Cockburn of Clerkington was a senior government official in Scotland during the reign of James VI.[1] He was the eldest son and heir of Sir John Cockburn of Clerkington and Helen Maitland, and was born in about 1565 in Haddington, East Lothian. He died in October 1627 in Haddington.[2]

Career

Sir Richard was the Secretary of State to James VI from 1591 to 1596. In this capacity he was directly involved in the private communications between James and Queen Elizabeth I in the final years of the queen's reign. Certainly on September 15, 1594 he was in London where he met the queen and kissed her hand; then on November 12 1594 he was sent by the English Privy Council member, Robert Cecil, a letter from the queen that he was to convey back to James.[3] In 1595 Sir Richard's trip to England to see the queen is mentioned in a letter from James to Elizabeth.[4] In 1591 Sir Richard was also admitted as a Lord of Session.[1] In May 1596 Sir Richard was replaced as Secretary of State by John Lindsay of Balcarres, one of the eight Octavians who were appointed by James in January of that same year as commissioners to reform the financial processes of the Scottish government.[5]

In 1598 Sir Richard regained the office of Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland, an inherited position that had been taken over temporarily by John Lindsay. In 1610 he was confirmed as a member in the new Privy Council and at the same time appointed to the Court of High Commission for church affairs. But in February 1626 he was removed from the bench as a result of the resolution by the new king, Charles I, that no noblemen nor officers of the state be simultaneously members of the judiciary.[1]

Private life

In about 1611 Sir Richard married his distant cousin, Margaret Cockburn, the daughter of Sir William Cockburn of Langton. The Cockburns were an important land-owning family in the Scottish Lowlands since the early part of the 14th century. The marriage brought together the wealthy Langton and politically influential Clerkington branches of that family. Sir Richard and Margaret had a daughter, born in March 1612 in Edinburgh; a son Patrick, born in March 1613 who died in infancy; and a second son Patrick who was born in November 1614. Sir Richard was succeeded as Laird of Clerkington by his son Patrick.[2][6]

Church records confirm that Sir Richard had at least seven illegitimate children, all born in Edinburgh, with one or more unrecorded women. Jeane was born in April 1599. Anna was born in March 1604. Johne was born in April 1605. Helene was born in December 1606. Richard was born in July 1608. William was born in August 1609. Issobel was born in December 1610. In 1620 Jeane married James Pringle, the 5th Laird of Torwoodlee.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Anderson, William, The Scottish Nation; or the Surnames, Families, Honours and Biographical History of the People of Scotland, vol. 1, A. Fullarton & Co., Ediburgh, 1862
  2. 1 2 Cockburn-Hood, Thomas H., The House of Cockburn and that Ilk and the Cadets Thereof, Scott and Ferguson, Edinburgh, 1888.
  3. ↑ Thorpe, Markham John, Calendar of the State Papers Relating to Scotland Preserved in the State Paper Department of Her Majesty's Public Record Office, Vol II: The Scottish Series of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts, London, 1858.
  4. ↑ Akrigg, G. P. V., Letters of James VI & I, University of California Press, Berkley, CA, 1984.
  5. ↑ Fraser, Sir William, Memorials of the Earls of Haddington, vol. 1, Edinburgh, 1889.
  6. ↑ Rogers, Rev. Charles (ed.), Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Volume 1, Second Edition, Royal Historical Society, London, 1875
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