Sir John Cochrane was the son of William Cochrane, 1st Earl of Dundonald and Eupheme Scott. He married Margaret Strickland, daughter of Sir William Strickland, 1st Bt. and Margaret Cholmley, in March 1656. He died after 23 June 1707. He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Ayrshire [Scotland] in 1669. In 1683 he was suspected of complicity in the Rye House Plot, and fled to Holland. In 1685 he returned to Scotland and took part in Argyll's uprising. Sir John and his son took refuge in the house of his uncle, Gavin Cochrane of Craigmuir, whose wife Margaret Cleland was the sister of Captain Cleland, killed at Muirdykes, and out of revenge she betrayed them to the royalists, and they were conveyed to the Tolbooth of Edinburgh. He was imprisoned and his lands confiscated. In 1690 he was restored to his estates. He lived at Ochiltree, Scotland.
*Descendants of JOHN, of Dundonald, of Paisley, Scotland, who went over to Ulster in the north of Ireland circa 1680 - 1684, or before, with three of his sons: HUGH, JOHN, and JAMES, believing they would be free to follow their faith in the Presbyterian church. But this was not to be. They were not allowed to worship openly and their marriages were not honored unless done in the State Church. They were taxed heavily and had no rights in government. So they fled Ireland to save their wealth, if not their lives, and came to America, very likely before 1720. Before 1724 COCHRANS first settled on the Susquehanna river, then the frontier. Scotch Irish fighters served as a shield to Penn's Quakers.
