John Cockburn (Scottish officer)
Colonel John Cockburn was an officer in the Scottish Covenanter army in the late 1640s and in 1650 during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. In this capacity he led Lowland soldiers against Montrose's Scottish Royalist forces during the First English Civil War (1642-1646), when the Convenanter parliament of Scotland was allied with the English Parliamentarians against King Charles I. Colonel Cockburn led the colorfully defiant but futile Scottish resistance at Hume Castle during the Third English Civil War (1649-1651), when a Parliamentary army led by Oliver Cromwell invaded Scotland after its Covenenter government had made an uneasy alliance with King Charles II.
John Cockburn was the third son of William Cockburn of Choicelee and Sybilla Sinclair [1]. A military career would have been a common choice for a son who stood little chance of inheriting his father's property. Quite possibly Cockburn fought as a mercenary in the 30 Years War along with thousands of other Scotsmen. Many Scottish officers, such as Leven, Leslie, James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton and William Baillie, gained military experience and a strong reputation in the army of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden [2]. Thus a body of experienced Scottish soldiers became available to the Parliament of Scotland during the Bishops' Wars (1639-40) and during the First English Civil War.
The Scottish Parliament, dominated by the Covenanters, was a powerful ally of the English Parliament when armed conflict erupted in 1642 between it and the Royalist forces of King Charles I. It is unknown whether or not Cockburn served under Alexander Leslie at the Battle of Newburn during the Second Bishop's War in 1640, or under Alexander Leslie with David Leslie and William Baillie at the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644. Certainly Cockburn was given several senior commands in Baillie's Scottish Covenanter army in 1645, and so it seems likely that Cockburn was known to and well regarded by Baillie.
At the Battle at Inverlochy on 2 Feb 1645, Lieutenant-Colonel John Cockburn, of the Earl of Moray's Regiment, led a battalion of 200 Lowland militiamen that formed the left wing of the Covenanter army that was commanded nominally by the Earl of Argyll[3]. These men had been recalled recently from the Scottish campaign in northern England, where they were quite likely led by Cockburn within the Lowland infantry forces commanded by Baillie. Despite their recent military experience the Lowlanders, together with the rest of the Covenanter force, suffered a crushing defeat following an aggressive charge by the Scottish Royalists and their Irish allies. Along with a small number of Lowland officers, Cockburn retreated to the relative safety of nearby Inverlochy Castle; outside the walls the survivors of the Covenanter army were pursued and killed. The beseiged officers surrendered soon afterwards to Montrose (a former Covenanter turned Royalist) when they were given quarter in exchange for their parole that they would not oppose him later [4].
Nevertheless, by April 4 Lieutenant-Colonel Cockburn commanded the defences of Dundee when the town was assaulted and nearly captured by elements of Montrose's Royalist army. The Royalists were forced back out of the town when Covenanter reinforcements from Baillie's army arrived late in the afternoon.
On July 8 1645, Lieutenant Colonel Cockburn was governor of Stirling Castle when the Scottish royal regalia were exhibited there at the opening of a new session of the Scottish Parliament. Parliament had left Edinburgh to escape a major outbreak of plague in the capital.
On 17 January 1646, Cockburn commanded the College of Justice Horse Troop at the siege of Newark, within the Scottish Army of the Solemn League and Covenant led by Lieutenant-General David Leslie[5].
On January 14, 1647 Colonel Cockburn married his cousin Helen Cockburn, the eldest daughter and heiress to William Cockburn of Caldra[6]. The lands of his father-in-law (a staunch Scottish Royalist) were made over to him in 1648, shortly after he retired as governor of Stirling Castle. It is unlikely that Colonel Cockburn was involved in the ill-fated Scottish Engager-instigated campaign in 1648 in support of the restoration of Charles I during the Second English Civil War (1648-1649]. Cockburn's duties as governor would have kept him in Stirling, far from the fighting. He would thus have avoided the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Preston of the Scottish army led by James Hamilton.
On March 15, 1649, just six weeks after the execution of Charles I in London, the Scottish Parliament passed an act in favour of Colonel Cockburn, the former governor of Stirling Castle [7]. The act approved the prompt payment of £10,305 to clear up a debt that had been recognized as being already owed to Colonel Cockburn by an earlier act on 20 July, 1647. The act of 1649 confirms that Cockburn's paid service in the Scottish army began no later than August 1, 1644. It further confirms that he was governor of Stirling Castle from April 1, 1645 until July 1, 1647.
Colonel Cockburn returned to the service of Scotland during the Third English Civil War, when Cromwell led a Parliamentary army in an invasion of Scotland, which was then allied to the new king, Charles II[8]. In February 1651, Cockburn commanded the garrison of Hume Castle when it was beseiged by a Parliamentary force led by Colonel Fenwick. At the start of the siege, when called upon to surrended Cockburn is reported to have replied "I know not Cromwell. And as to my castle, it stands upon a rock!". After the bombardment of the castle had begun, Cockburn is supposed to have sent a note containing the following verse in Scots:
I Willie Wastle
Stand Firm in my Castle
And a' the dogs in the Toun
Shanna gar me gang doun!
However, once the resumed bombardment had breached the castle walls and rendered the castle's defence hopeless, Cockburn surrendered the castle with quarter given for its surviving defenders.
Colonel John Cockburn is believed to have died in about 1680, his wife having died before im in March 1668 [9]. He was succeeded as laird of Caldra by his eldest surviving son William Cockburn.
References
- ^ Sir Robert Cockburn of that Ilk, 9th Bt. and Harry A. Cockbburn, The Records of the Cockburn Family, T. N. Foulis, London and Edinburgh, 1913.
- ^ Alexia Grosjean, Alexander Leslie and the Scottish Generals of the Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648, Routledge, 2015.
- ^ Stuart Reid, Auldearn 1645: The Marquis of Montrose's Scottish Campaign, Osprey Publishing, Botley, Oxfordshire, UK, 2002.
- ^ James Hogg, Tales of the Wars of Montrose, revised edition prepared by Gillian Hughes, Edinburgh University Press, 2002.
- ^ Alisdair McRae, How the Scots Won the English Civil War: The Triumph of Frazer's Dragoones, The History Press, 2013, ISBN 0752498630.
- ^ Sir Robert Cockburn of that Ilk, 9th Bt. and Harry A. Cockbburn, The Records of the Cockburn Family, T. N. Foulis, London and Edinburgh, 1913.
- ^ Act 1649/1/316,The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707, the University of St. Andrews.
- ^ Sir Robert Cockburn of that Ilk, 9th Bt. and Harry A. Cockburn, The Records of the Cockburn Family, T. N. Foulis, London and Edinburgh, 1913.
- ^ Sir Robert Cockburn of that Ilk, 9th Bt. and Harry A. Cockburn, The Records of the Cockburn Family, T. N. Foulis, London and Edinburgh, 1913.'