Cockburn (surname)
Cockburn, often (or usually) Template:Pron-en, is a Scottish surname that originated in the Borders region of the Scottish Lowlands.
Family origins
The Cockburn surname first appeared in the late 12th century, when it was employed to identify individuals from a district or location called Cockburn (modern spelling). The name Cockburn has been viewed as originating from the juxtaposition of 'Cock', derived from the Old English word 'cocc' meaning 'moor-cock', 'wild bird' or 'hill', with 'burn' derived from the old word 'burna' meaning 'brook' or 'stream'[1]. There are several possible candidates for this geographical name including: a former 'Cokoueburn' district in early medieval Roxburghshire; a place called 'Calkesburne' that was mentioned in a charter from 1162-1190 that awarded the land of Hermanston in East Lothian[2]; the hill called Cockburn's Law, north of present-day Duns in Berwickshire, which was fortified in Iron Age times; and the town of Cockburnspath, originally known as 'Kolbrand's Path', on the eastern coast of Scotland.
In perhaps the first recorded mention of a Cockburn, a Petro de Cokburne witnessed a charter in the "Register of the House of Soltre" in about 1190-1220, during the reign of King William "the Lion", (1165-1214)[3]. A Robert de Cockburn is mentioned as a ‘serviens’ (servant or sergeant) in a charter, dating from 1232-1242, in which land is granted to the Chapel of St. Nicholas, next to a bridge over the River Spey in Moray[4]. The knight Sir Roberto de Cokeburn is mentioned in a charter that was prepared in Chirnside on November 4, 1261 during the reign of Patrick III, Earl of Dunbar (1248-1270)[5]. Possibly the same Sir Roberto de Cokeburne is mentioned in another charter (dated to 1269-1289) as being the constable of the royal burgh of Roxburgh[6]. A Petro de Cokburne appears as a witness in a gift of arable land in Lempitlaw, Roxburghshire in a document dating sometime between 1151 and 1274[7]. A Petro de Kokeburne (possibly the same Petro) is mentioned on a document, dated from 15 May 1285, that records the sale of land to Kelso Abbey, near Roxburgh[8]. In the mid 13th century, the landowner Johannes de Kocburn (John de Cockburn) granted land near his property at Collessie in Fife to Lindores Abbey[9].
Historically there have been many alternative spellings of the family name. Early medieval spellings included 'Cokburne', 'Cokeburne', 'Kokeburne' and other variations. In Scotland the spelling of the family name had stabilized to 'Cockburn' by the late 17th century, and this is the spelling most commonly used today in British Commonwealth countries. In the United States, the simplified spelling 'Coburn' is more widely used than 'Cockburn'. In Cumberland, England, the 'Cockbain' family emerged from Scottish Cockburn ancestors[10]. A branch of the family was established in France in the 16th century by mercenary soldiers. In 1494, a Thomas Cocquebourne was serving as an archer in the Garde Écossaise, which was the personal bodyguard of the King of France[11]. Many more Cockburn mercenaries served the Kings of France in this elite unit over the next century. Cockburn descendants in France today use the family name 'de Cockborne'. The early 17th century mercenary leader Samuel Cockburn used the spelling 'Cobron' while working for the King of Sweden. In the late 17th century, a Cockburn merchant established a German branch of the family, which adopted the surname 'Kabrun', in the Hanseatic port of Danzig[12]. A great-grandson of this Scottish-German Kabron was the wealthy merchant and renowned book collector, art collector and philanthropist Jakob Kabrun Jr. (1759-1814)[13].
The emerging technique of Y-DNA testing has proven to be useful in establishing the origins of the male line of the Cockburn family. The origin of the Cockbain family from the Cockburn family is confirmed by the very close genetic similarity of tested subjects from the two families[14]. In addition, tested Cockburns have been found to be genetically very similar to many tested members of the Dunbar family, in particular, Dunbars who are descended from the Earls of Dunbar and their Anglo-Saxon noble predecessors from Northumbria. The Cockburn men and these particular Dunbar men are all members of the recently discovered R-L257 (R1b1a2a1a1a8) haplogroup of the human male family tree. R-L257 is in turn a subclade of the haplogroup R-U106 (R1b1a2a1a1a). The distribution of R-U106 men corresponds roughly with the expected distribution of the Anglo-Saxon peoples, with relatively high densities in Frisia in the Netherlands, England, Scotland, northern Germany and Norway.
Prominent Cockburns
Prominent members of the Cockburn family, given in alphabetical order, include:
- Ruth Cockburn, an IB-nerd, daughter of Styrbjörn Cockburn
- Adam Cockburn, an Australian actor and Disk Jockey (DJ)
- Sir Alexander Cockburn, the 12th Baronet Cockburn of Langton and Lord Chief Justice
- Alexander Cockburn, an Irish-American journalist
- Alison Cockburn, a Scottish poet
- Alistair Cockburn, a software methodologist
- Andrew Cockburn (ornithologist), an Australian ornithologist
- Andrew Cockburn, an Irish-American journalist
- Bill Cockburn, an English footballer
- Bruce Cockburn, a Canadian singer-songwriter
- Catherine Trotter Cockburn, a British writer
- Claud Cockburn, a British journalist
- David Cockburn, a British philosopher
- Sir Francis Cockburn, a British officer and colonial administrator in Canada
- Sir George Cockburn, the 10th Baronet Cockburn of Langton and British naval admiral
- George Bertram Cockburn, a British chemist and pioneer aviator
- Hampden Zane Churchill Cockburn, a Canadian Army officer and recipient of the Victoria Cross
- Henry Thomas Cockburn, a Scottish judge
- Henry Cockburn (footballer), an English footballer
- Hermione Cockburn,a British presenter
- James Cockburn (politician), a Canadian politician and a Father of the Canadian Confederation of 1867
- Jamie Cockburn (journalist), aspiring Scottish journalist
- John Cockburn (disambiguation), several people
- Karen Cockburn, a Canadian gymnast
- Milton Cockburn, an Australian journalist
- Olivia Cockburn, birth name of the American actress Olivia Wilde
- Patrick Cockburn, an Irish journalist
- Richard Cockburn Maclaurin, an American educator and physicist
- Sally Cockburn (physician), an Australian physician and health communicator
- Samuel Cockburn (disambiguation), several people
Cockburn baronetcies
There have been two Cockburn baronetcies in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia[15].
Fictional characters
- Damien Cockburn, a character in the film Tropic Thunder
See also
References
- ^ Norman Dixon, The Placenames of Midlothian, PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, May 1947.
- ^ Paradox of Medieval Scotland (PoMS) Document 3/416/19
- ^ Entry for Cockburn in the Internet Surname Database www.surnamedb.com
- ^ PoMS Document 3/414/4
- ^ PoMS Document 3/15/79
- ^ PoMS Document 3/277/3
- ^ PoMS Document 3/487/1
- ^ PoMS Document 3/495/3
- ^ PoMS Document 3/148/1
- ^ Henry Harrison, Surnames of the United Kingdom: A Concise Etymological Dictionary, Clearfield Co, 1996 (first published 1912-18), ISBN 0806301716.
- ^ William Forbes-Leith, The Scots men-at-arms and life-guards in France, William Paterson, Edinburgh, 1882.
- ^ Thomas A. Fischer, The Scots in Germany: Being a Contribution Towards the History of the Scot Abroad, Otto Schulze & Co., Edinburgh, 1902.
- ^ Patrick Bridgwater, Arthur Schopenhauer's English Schooling, Routledge, London, Dec. 1988, p. 270, ISBN 0-415-00743-7.
- ^ www.ysearch.org
- ^ Thomas Cockburn-Hood, The house of Cockburn of that ilk and the cadets thereof: with historical anecdotes of the times in which many of the name played a conspicuous part, Scott and Ferguson, Edinburgh, 1888
External links
- Paradox of Medieval Scotland (PoMS) database
- Cockburn Family DNA Project Website
- Dunbar Surname DNA Project
- L257 A North Sea Tribe
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