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COCKBURN, JOHN, of Ormiston,
the Father of Scottish husbandry, was born in the latter part of the
seventeenth century. His father, Adam Cockburn, of Ormiston, (in East
Lothian,) held the eminent office of Lord Justice Clerk after the
Revolution. His mother was lady Susan Hamilton, third daughter of John,
fourth earl of Haddington. So early as the days of the reformation, the
family had distinguished itself by its zeal in behalf of liberal
institutions and public liberty. The laird of that day maintained an
alliance with the English reformers, when hardly any other Scottish
gentleman dared to oppose the tyranny of Beatoun; and it was in his house
that the celebrated George Wishart was found, previous to his being
brought to trial and burnt. From that period, down to the Revolution, the
Cockburns of Ormiston were invariably on the liberal side of the question.
The subject of this memoir inherited all the patriotism of his race, and
in the lifetime of his father, in his capacity as a member of the last
Scottish parliament, took an active interest in accomplishing the union.
He was the first representative of East Lothian in the parliament of Great
Britain, and continued to be elected to that distinguished place in all
the successive parliaments, till 1741. Mr Cockburn, at one period of his
parliamentary career, held the post of lord of the Admiralty.
It was not, however, in a
political career that this great man was destined to gather his chief
laurels. At the close of the 17th century, on account of the religious and
civil broils which had so long distracted the country, the condition of
agriculture in Scotland was at a very low ebb. The tenantry, so far from
being able to make any improvement, were too poor in general even to stock
the lands they occupied. Fletcher of Salton, who published a treatise on
the affairs of Scotland, in 1698, describes their situation as abject and
miserable; and Lord Kaimes, in still stronger language, declares, that,
before the union, they were so benumbed with oppression, that the most
able tutor in husbandry would have made nothing of them. By a
short-sighted policy, the landlords in general had no other princip1e than
to force as much from the soil for every passing year as they could. The
tenants were so much disheartened, that it was difficult to let a farm,
and none were taken upon leases of more than five years. But, even if
other circumstances had been more favourable, there was such a rooted
prepossession in favour of old systems, and so much ignorance of the science
of agriculture, that improvement was almost hopeless.
Lord Ormiston, father of Mr
Cockburn, had made an attempt so early as 1698, to break through the old
system of short leases. He then granted Robert Wight, eldest son of
Alexander Wight, one of his tenants in Ormiston, a lease of the farm of Muirhouse,
now Murrays, to endure for eleven years. Mr Wight
accordingly commenced enclosing his fields, a process heretofore quite
unknown in Scotland. In 1713, lord Ormiston granted to the same person a
lease of a neighbouring farm, to endure for nine years.
John Cockburn, who became
possessed of the estate about the year 1714, immediately entered upon a
much more extensive system of improvement. He had marked, with extreme
concern, the supine condition of Scottish husbandry, which his
parliamentary visits to England had enabled him to contrast with the more
fortunate condition of that country; and with an enlarged liberality of
soul, which scorned all his own immediate interests for the sake of
ultimate general good, he began to grant long leases of his farms upon
exceedingly small rents. As an instance it may be mentioned, that he
granted to Robert Wight a new lease of the Murrays farm for thirty-eight
years, from 1718, at a rent of £750 Scots, or £62: 10: 0 sterling, and
upon paying £1200 Scots, on £100 sterling, by way of fine or grassum, at
the expiration of that term, a renewal thereof for other nineteen years,
and so on from one period of nineteen years to another in all time coming:
a degree of liberality which speaks more strongly than any thing else
possibly could, for the backward state of agriculture at the time. But the
enterprising spirit of Mr Cockburn did not rest here. In giving long
leases he had enabled his tenants to make the improvements he wished; but
still it was necessary to teach them how these improvements should be
conducted. For this purpose he brought down skilful persons from England,
who introduced the culture of turnips, rape, and clover; and at the same
time he sent up the sons of his tenants to study agriculture in the best
cultivated districts of the south. Experiments were likewise made of the
effects of enriching the land by flooding. Turnips were sown upon the
estate so early as 1725, and Alexander Wight, one of his tenants, was
probably the first man in the island who sowed them in drills, and
cultivated them with the plough. The culture of this valuable root was
brought by him to such perfection, that, in 1735, a turnip of his raising,
weighing 34 3/4 lbs, was carried to Edinburgh, and hung up in John’s
Coffee-house as a show.
Even while engaged in his
public duties in England, Mr Cockburn was constantly reverting in thought
to the improvements he had set on foot in East Lothian, and he carried on
a constant correspondence with his tenants respecting the progress of
their mutual plans. In some of these letters he breathes the strongest
sentiments of benevolence and patriotism. "No person," says he
to Mr Alexander Wight in 1725, "can have more satisfaction in the
prosperity of his children, than I have in the welfare of persons situated
on my estate. I hate tyranny in every shape; and shall always show greater
pleasure in seeing my tenants making something under me, they can call
their own, than in getting a little more money myself, by squeezing a
hundred poor families, till their necessities make them my slaves."
His proceedings were at
first the subject of ridicule among the more narrow-minded of his
neighbours; but the results in time overpowered every mean feeling, and
gradually inspired a principle of imitation. In 1726, he encouraged his
tenant Alexander Wight, in setting up a malting brewery, and distillery,
which soon got into repute, and promoted the raising of grain in the
neighbourhood. As a preliminary step to further improvements, he reformed
the village of Ormiston, changing it from the original mean and squalid
hamlet into a neat and well built street. He then commenced a series of
operations for setting up a linen manufactory. This he considered as one
of the staple trades of Scotland, and as the best support of the general
interest. He viewed it as intimately connected with husbandry; the land
affording an opportunity of producing the raw article to the
manufacturers; while they in return furnished hands for carrying on
agricultural works, especially in harvest, and for the consumption of its
various produce. To attain these objects, an eminent undertaker from
Ireland, both in the manufacturing and whitening of linen, was induced to
take up his residence at Ormiston; and a favourable lease of a piece of
ground for a bleachfield and some lands in the neighbourhood was granted
to him. This was the first bleachfield in East Lothian, probably the
second in Scotland— for, before 1730, fine linens were sent to Haarlem
in Holland to be whitened and dressed. It is said that this Irish colony
was the means of introducing the potato in Scotland, at least as an object
of field culture; and that valuable root was raised in the grounds on this
estate so early as 1734. Mr Cockburn also introduced some workmen from
Holland, to give instructions in the art of bleaching. He obtained, for
his rising manufactory, the patronage of the Board of Trustees, and
likewise some pecuniary aid.
About the year 1736, the
progress of agricultural improvement at Ormiston had excited so much
notice all over Scotland, that Mr Cockburn, always awake to every
circumstance which could forward his darling object, seized upon such a
notable opportunity of disseminating useful knowledge among his brother
proprietors and their tenantry. He instituted what was called the Ormiston
Society, composed of noblemen, gentlemen, and farmers, who met monthly for
the discussion of some appropriate question in rural economy, settled upon
at their former meeting, on which question all the members present
delivered their opinion. This club lasted for about eleven years, and was
of great service in promoting the views of its founder. It consisted at
last of one hundred and six members, comprising almost all the best
intellects of Scotland at that time.
Mr Cockburn was married, first,
in 1700, to the Hon. Miss Beatrix Carmichael, eldest daughter of John,
first earl of Hyndford; secondly, to an English lady, related to
the duchess of Gordon, by whom he had a son named George. It is
distressing to think that, about the year 1748, this great patriot was
obliged, probably in consequence of his spirited exertion for the public
good, to dispose of his estate to the earl of Hopetoun. He died at his son’s
house at the Navy Office, London, on the 12th of November,
1758. His son, who was a comptroller of the navy, married Caroline,
baroness Forrester in her own right, and was the father of Anna Maria,
also baroness Forrester in her own right, who died unmarried in 1808. –
Patrick Cockburn, advocate, brother of the agriculturist, was married, in
1731, to Miss Alison Rutherford of Fernilie, a woman of poetical genius,
authoress of the more modern verses to the tune of "The Flowers of
the Forest," and who died in Edinburgh, November 22, 1794.
It would be difficult to do
full justice to the merits of such a character as Cockburn of Ormiston, or
to describe the full effects of his exertions upon the interests of the
country. It may be said, that he lived at a time when the circumstances of
Scotland were favourable to improvement, as it was the first age of
re-action after a long depression. But, although the country would have
little doubt that he considerably anticipated the natural period of
improvement, and gave it an impulse much greater than was likely to be
otherwise received. On what other principle are we to account for the
immense degree to which Scotland now transcends the agriculture of England
– the country from which it so recently derived its first hints at the
art?
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