Sir James Cockburn, 8th Baronet

Sir James Cockburn, 8th Baronet (1729 – 26 July 1804) was a Member of the Parliament of Great Britain for Linlithgow Burghs from 1772 to 1784.

He was a son of William Cockburn and his wife and cousin Frances Cockburn. His paternal grandparents were Sir Alexander Cockburn, 6th Baronet and his wife Mary Ancrum. His maternal grandfather was Dr. James Cockburn of Jamaica.

Alexander and Dr. James Cockburn were brothers. They were both sons of Sir Archibald Cockburn, 4th Baronet and his wife Marion Sinclair.

Marion Sinclair was a daughter of John Sinclair and Isabel Boyd. Her paternal grandfather was Sir John Sinclair, 1st Baronet (d. 1649) and his wife Marion McCath.

His paternal grandfather Sir Alexander Cockburn, 6th Baronet died in May, 1739. Having survived his oldest son Archibald Cockburn, Alexander was succeeded by the eldest son of Archibald as Sir Alexander Cockburn, 7th Baronet.

The 7th Baronet died childless in 1745. James was his closest surviving male relative and thus succeeded his first cousin as the 8th Baronet.

In 1755 James married his first wife Mary Douglas. She was a daughter of Henry Douglas of Friarshaw. They had three daughters:

• Frances Cockburn.
• Harrier Jane Cockburn. Married James Nicholas Duntze. He was a son Sir John Duntze, Baronet.
• Mary Cockburn.

Portrait of Lady Cockburn and her Three Eldest Sons , by Joshua Reynolds.

His first wife died on 5 April 1766. He remained a widower for three years. On 10 October 1769), Cockburn married his second wife Augusta Anne Ayscough. She was a daughter of Francis Ayscough, Dean of Bristol and Royal tutor. They had six children:

• Sir James Cockburn, 9th Baronet (1771–1852), Governor of Bermuda.
• Sir George Cockburn, 10th Baronet (1772–1853), MP, Rear-Admiral of the United Kingdom, Admiral of the Fleet and First Sea Lord.
• Sir William Cockburn, 11th Baronet (1773–1858), Dean of York, married Elizabeth (died 1828), daughter of Sir Robert Peel.
• Alexander Cockburn (1776–1852) served as British envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Württemberg and the Columbia District. Alexander married Yolande de Vignier, daughter of the Vicomte de Vignier and parented: Sir Alexander Cockburn, 12th Baronet, Lord Chief Justice of England.
• Sir Francis Cockburn (1780–1868).
• Anna Augusta Cockburn. Married Charles Hawkins, Rector of Kelston and Prebendary of York.

• Lady Cockburn and her Three Eldest Sons, National Gallery, London
• The Times, 10 April 1841, p.6 col.b, reprinted from the Cambridge Advertiser
• {Anon.] (1911) "Sir Alexander Cockburn", Encyclopaedia Britannica