Person:John Cochran (31)

Sir John Cochran, Kt.

• Paul, James Balfour. Scots Peerage^S2

Sir John Cochran of that Ilk, Knight, was born about 1604 and educated at Glasgow, where he took an M. A. degree in 1623.^S2

He entered the army and saw service in Ireland, where he acquired some land through his marriage. On his return to Scotland he became an active Covenanter, and in 1639-40 was engaged at the sieges of Carlaverock and Threave. At this time he is mentioned as Colonel Cochrane of that Ilk. In 1641 he took an active share in the organization of the plot known as the Incident, on the failure of which the officers of Colonel Cochrane were dismissed, and he himself was summoned to appear before Parliament. But the matter ended in his being released without bail on the petition of Hamilton and Argyll – the very men against whom the plot was directed.^S2

The following year (1642) Colonel Cochrane resigned his Scottish estates to his next brother William, and King Charles sent him to Holland to solicit help in men and money for the royal cause. After his visit there he proceeded with the English Ambassador to Denmark, where they were both ‘evill entreated and put in prison.’ On being set at liberty he resumed his military duties, and was placed by Prince Rupert in command of Towcester. He next appears at the Royalist headquarters (Oxford), where he signed the ‘Solemn League and Covenant’ in company with Montrose, Crawford, Traquair, and many others. After another visit to Holland, Colonel, now Sir John Cochrane, proceeded as British Envoy to the King of Denmark. Sir John Cochrane was most successful in raising money for the Court, and it was a noteworthy achievement that when the news of the execution of Charles I. spread like wildfire through Europe and the Czar of Russia chased the British Envoy from his Court, and the Ambassador to France was compelled to leave the country, Sir John Cochrane, then British Minister to the Hamburg Senate, remained, and secured acknowledgment of the sovereignty of Charles II. and a public audience for himself as his envoy.^S2

In 1650 Sir John Cochrane was prohibited by the Scottish Parliament from returning to his own country. In 1652 Lady Cochrane was in prison in England (probably for assistance given by her to some of her husband’s undertakings). She was discharged 26 February with an allowance for prison charges ‘L5 for present relief,’ with a pass for Sir John Cochrane to return to England, which he did in the following year. Until 1657 his name constantly occurs in various political negotiations. He was living in 1657, but it is uncertain whether he witnessed that culmination for which he worked so hard – the Restoration of 1660. The probability is that he did not do so. He married in Ireland Grace Butler, said to have been a cousin of the Duke of Ormonde, but is not known to have left issue.

1.   Sir John Cochran, in Lundy, Darryl. The Peerage: A genealogical survey of the peerage of Britain as well as the royal families of Europe.

   Sir John Cochrane was the son of Alexander Cochrane and Elizabeth Cochrane.1 He married Grace Butler.1 He died, without issue.1
   He fought in the English Civil War, as a Royalist.1 In 1642 he resigned his estates to his brother William.1

2.   Paul, James Balfour. The Scots peerage: founded on Wood's edition of Sir Robert Douglas's ‘Peerage of Scotland’ containing an historical and genealogical account of the nobility of that kingdom, with armorial illustrations. (Edinburgh: D. Douglas, 1904-1914)
   Vol. 3, Pages 334 to 368.

   Cochran of Dundonald