Sir James Cockburn 6th Bt.

MP for Linlithgow Burghs 1772-1784 and speculator in land and enslaved people in Dominica c. 1765 with Sir George Colebrooke (q.v.) and John Stewart. In 1777 he was shown as the 'present proprietor' of eight lots (nos. 28-35) totalling 2415 acres in St Patrick that had originally been purchased by the Colebrook Bay Company and also as the lessee of several further lots (nos. 3, 7 and 8) all in St Patrick on Dominica. He had entered into partnership in 1760 with Henry Douglas, a London West India merchant whose daughter Mary he married. He incurred financial difficulties in the 1770s as a result of financial operations in India with Lauchlin Macleane (q.v.) and was declared bankrupt in 1781. By the time of his death, the History of Parliament states that he had resolved his financial problems.

1. His son, also James (21 March 1770-26 February 1852), succeeded him as the 7th Bt. in 1804. After education at Charterhouse (1782-88) and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he was an army officer. (Retired as Major, 1800, Major-General 1831.) Under Secretary of State 1806-7. Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Curaçao, 1807-11; governor of Bermuda 1811-1812, 1814-1816 and 1817-1819. High Sheriff of Carmarthenshire, 1847. In 1801 married Hon. Marianna, 1st daughter of George, 13th Viscount Hereford.

John Byres, References to a plan of the island of Dominica as surveyed from the year 1765 and 1773 (London, 1777); History of Parliament online: entry by Edith Lady Haden-Guest, accessed 05/09/2016.

1. R. L. Arrowsmith (comp.), Charterhouse Register 1769 -1872 (London & Chichester, Phillimore, 1974). Thanks to Catherine Smith, Charterhouse Archivist, for this reference.