 Cockburn History
The name derives from a
location near Duns in Berwickshire. The Cockburns
were ancient vassals of the Earls of March and
ancestors of the Cockburns of Langron, Ormiston
and Clerkingron. David II con-ferred the barony
of Carriden in West Lothian on Sir Alexander de
Cock-burn and Alexander Cockburne was Keeper of
the Great Seal of Scotland. Admiral Cockburn
conveyed Napoleon to his exile on St Helena.
The Cockburns supported Mary,
queen of Scots, and their castle at Skirling in
Midlothian was demolished in 1568 as a result.
Lord Cock-burn, the famous nineteenth-century
judge and antiquary in Edinburgh's 'Age of
Enlightenment', had his home at Bonaly Tower,
Colinton on the outskirts of the capital.
|
