The Sun.
London, England, 1853-08-23 00:00:00

DEATH OF SIR GEORGE COCKB URN.

One of the oldest officers in the British service
has quitted this world, having lived with so much
honour and worn so many distinctions that his name
has long been venerated in every circle of society
where political consistency and professional emi-
nence are rewarded with esteem, affection, and
fame. Sir George died on the 19th of this month,
at Leamington, in the 82d year of his age. From
that excellent and elaborate work O'Byrne's Naval
Biography, we give underneath an outline of the
life and services of Sir George Cockburn, and to
this statement nothing need be added so tar as re-
lates to his career afloat ; and even the concluding
paragraph of Mr. O'Byrne's interesting notice sup-
plies a summary of his Parliamentary life. Still,
the habitués of the House of Commons remember
something more of Sir George ; it is not forgotten
that even among legislators he displayed knowledge
and talents beyond the limits of his profession.
During 14 years he had a seat in Parliament, re-
presenting in the course of that period Portsmouth,
Weobly, Plymouth, and Ripon. For 17 years he
had a seat at the Board of Admiralty, and was the
Parliamentaryorgan of that department throughout
a great part of that period. When the head. of the
board happens to be a peer, and the secretary a
gentleman of no great experience, the Parliamen-
tary duties of the Admiralty necessarily devolve
upon the senior naval lord. It is well known that
Mr. John Wilson Croker, so celebrated as a secre-
tary to the board, had retired from public life long
before the last accession to power of Sir Robert
Peel ; but Sir George Cockburn held in that
Government the responsible position of senior
naval lord, discharging all its functions, especi-
ally those of a Parliamentary character, with
great credit to himself and to his Ministerial
chief. His name will descend. to posterity not
only as a man who in his time, and according to
his degree, held an important rank among the
lawgivers of England, but as a man associated
with Nelson—often in victory, never in defeat ;
as a man who frequently overcame not only
a European enemy, but contended successfully
with American seamanship and valour. The resto-
ration of peace, in 1815, naturally excited in his
mind a wish for that continued enjoyment of do-
mestic happiness to which sailors rarely attain, and
probably at the same time called forth that honour-
able desire of civil distinction which was gratified
by Parliamentary success, and adorned with official
dignity. In the early part of the peace, however,
important professional duties devolved on him, for
he was appointed to a command at the Cape, and
he conveyed Bonaparte to St. Helena. To say
that his public life has been consistent, is to assert
that which no one doubts. It will be as readily
admitted that his professional career commanded
the gratitude of his country and excited the admi-
ration of his brethren in arms ; but it may not be
be extensively known, though it is quite as true,
that in all the relations of official and private life
he enjoyed the esteem and regard of the society in
which men of his eminent reputation are usually to
be found. The following is Mr. O'Byrne's spirited
and complete summary of Sir George Cockburn's
career : - - -

" The Right Hon. Sir George Cockburn, born in Lon-
mdo.np.
,isfosrecoPnedebsloons.ofbtyhehliasteseSoiorndJawmffeso,CoAcukgbnusrnta, Bietanrnte.:
daughter of the Rev. Francis Ayscough, D.D.,. Dean of
Bristol and Preceptor to King George 111. He is brother
of Major-General the present Sir James Cockburn, Bart.,
G.C.H., who formerly held in succession the appointments
of Under-Secretary of State, Governor and Commander-
in-Chief of Curacoa, Governor of the Bermudas, and Pay-
master of the Royal Marines ; also of the Rev. William
Cockburn, Dean of York, who married Elizabeth, sister of
the Right Hon. Sir R. Peel, Bart, M.P., and of his Excel-
lency Alexr. Cockburn, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary at Columbia. Sir George is grand nephew
of the first Lord Lyttelton, and cousin of the present
Rear-Admiral John Ayscough. This officer entered
the navy March 12, 1781, as captain's servant (under
the auspices of Admirals Sir Joshua Rowley anti Lord
tliveli inch:ma
Hood), on board a frigate, then oiiiinanded by Captain
Bartholomew Samuel Rowley.. His name was afterwards
borne on the books of. the William and Mary yacht, bu't, he
did not go to sea until 1786, the course of
following year we find him cruising endstoaf-
tion, in the Termagant, 18, Captain Rowley Bulteel. In
the
January, 1783, he joined the Ariel, 14, Captain iobert
Moorsom, with whom he sailed for the East Indies where
for several months he was very
same profitably employed
in in sur-
veying. Returning home, 1791, with the
in the Princess Royal, Indianian, Mr. Cockburn next
served in the Channel and. Mediterranean, as midshipman
and master's mato of the Hobe, 38, Captain Alexander
Hood ; and Romney, 50, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Samuel
Cranston Goodall. Having passed his examination, June
3, 1791, he was appointed in 1792 Acting Lieutenant of the
Pearl, 32, Captain George William Augustus Cotuteuily,

and on January 27, 1793, was confirmed in the Orestes, 18,
Captain Lord Augustus Fitzroy. On April 28, following,
he became ninth lieutenant of the Britannia, 100, bearing
the flag of Vice-Admiral William Hotham, but removed in
June, as tenth, to the Victory, 100, flag-ship off Toulon,
of his patron, Lord Hood, from which,' on
quick rotation, the post of FirstaLieutenant, attaining, in
pro-
moted to the command, October 11, in the
sameewyeasresaerv,
persever-
ance the Speedy, sloop. As a reward for his skill, during
and
ance in maintaining the blockade of Genoa
which dispersed every other ship of a squadron statinaect7alfef
that port, Captain Cockburn was appointed, January 20,
1794, Acting-Captain of the Inconstant, 36, and on the 20th
of the following month was officially posted into the Me-
leager, 32, which latter frigate he commanded in the hos-
tilities against Corsica, and as one of Hotham's repeaters
in the actions of March 14 and July 13,1795. He was after-
wards employed for 12 months in vigorous co-operation
with the Austrian troops in Piedmont, and during that
period obtained the hearty acknowledgments of the im-
mortal Nelson for his conspicuous zeal, ability, and courage
on various occasions, but more especially for the great
support and assistance he afforded that hero in running in
under the batteries of Larma, on May 31, 1796, and cap-
turing six of the enemy's armed vessels. Being transferred,
August 19, following, to the command of the Minerve, of
42 guns and 286 men, Captain Cockburn, who remained in
that ship until paid off in February, 1802, continued to
pursue his gallant career with intense ardour, either con-
ducting in person or assuming a prominent part in a train
of the most important achievements. He was first em-
ployed in blockading Leghorn ' • and, on next hoisting the
broad pendant of Commodore Nelson, again acquired the
admiration of the latter for his conduct at the capture and
defeat, while proceeding from Gibraltar to Elba, and in
presence of the Spanish fleet, of the Sabina, of 40, and the
Matilda, of 34 guns, December 20, 1796. The former ship
struck her colours after a combat of three hours, and a
loss, out of 286 men, of 14 killed and 44 wounded; the
other was compelled to wear and haul off at the close of a
sharp action of half an hour, the collective loss of the
Minerve on both occasions amounting to 7 men killed and
44 wounded. Captain Cockburn, who had previously as-
sisted in destroying l'Etonnant, national corvette, of 18
guns, next took the privateer Maria, of 6 guns and 68 men;
and, after witnessing the evacuation of Porto Ferrajo, bore
a very active part in the battle off Cape St. Vincent, Feb-
ruary 14, 1797. He also brought out from under the
severe fire of two strong batteries on Grand Canary Island
the Marseillaise, a French letter-of-marque of 24 guns.
On the night of November 5, in the same year, while the
Minerve was lying stripped in the mole of the dockyard of
Gibraltar, we again find our intrepid captain attracting
the official notice of his superiors by a signal exploit he
performed in putting off with only three gunboats to
the protection of a convoy which had been observed to
be baffled by light and contrary winds near the Spanish
shore, whence at was threatened by a flotilla of 30 of the
enemy's gunboats. By pulling directly between the in-
shore part of the convoy and the position occupied by the
Spaniards, he successfully checked their career, and, by
his spirited exertions, kept them at bay during the whole
night, and until the merchantmen had reached their an-
chorage. In April, 1798, the Minerve returned to Eng-
land to refit, but towards the close of the year she again
sailed for the Mediterranean, where Capt. Cockburn con-
tinued to be employed on various important services, fre-
quently in command of a small squadron, until the conclu-
sion of the war. Among other operations, he joined in the
hostilities against Malta-was in company with the Eme-
rald at the taking of La Caroline privateer of 16 guns and
90 me -witnessed Lord Keith's capture of three frigates
and tleo brigs under Rear-Admiral Peree, June 19, 1799-
took, during the year 1800, the three privateers, Le Furet,
La Mouche, and La Vengeance, carrying altogether 49
guns and 357 men-made prize, February 11, 1801, of a
Danish man-of-war brig-and in September following,
captured and destroyed the Success, of 32, and Bravoure,
of 42 guns. Assuming command July 12, 1803, of the
Phaeton, 38, the subject of this memoir, after serving for
some time off Havre de Grace with a squadron of frigates
under his orders, took out Mr. Merry, the British Minis-
ter Plenipotentiary, to the United States, and thence pro-
ceeded to India with the first instalment of a sum of money
which it had been arranged should be paid by the Govern-
ment of the latter as a compensation for the losses sus-
tained by the Loyalists in the first establishment of Ame-
rican independence. He was subsequently employed in
blockading the Isle of France, where he frequently came
into warm collision with the enemy's batteries ; and on
eventually exchanging, June 5, 1805, into the Lowe, re-
turned to England with the Marquis of Wellesley, then
Governor-General of India. Captain Cockburn, whose
succeeding appointments were July 1, 1806, and March 10
and 25, 1808, to the Captain, Aboukir, and Pompee, 74's,
was next present, in the first-named ship, at the capture,
by a squadron under Sir Thomas Louis, of Le President,
French frigate of 44 guns, September 22, 1806. On his
passage to the West Indies in the Pompee, he captured
Le Pilade, corvette, of 16 guns and 109 men ; and being
intrusted by Sir Alexander Cochrane, on his arrival on
that station, with the management of naval operations
on shore in the attack on Martinique, he hoisted a broad
pendant, and by his exertions, which were unremitting
and beyond praise, greatly contributed to the reduction
of the island. The enemy offering to capitulate on Feb-
ruary 24, 1809, Commodore Cockburn, with Generals
Prevost and'Maitland, was directed to meet the French
commissioners to settle the terms, and under their signa-
tures Martinique became a British colony. For his ser-
vices on this occasion the commodore was personally
thanked by both Houses of Parliament, and appointed
captain of the port of St. Pierre. Removing in March
to the Belleisle, 74, he returned to Europe in charge of
the ships taken at Martinique, and of the surrendered
governor and garrison, and soon after his arrival in Eng-
land was ordered to accompany the expedition to the
Scheldt. Thither proceeding, he took command with his
pendant in the Plover, of a division of the British flotilla,
consisting of sloops of war,bomb-ships, brigs,and gunboats ;
and,taking up a most judicious position near the south-east
end of Flushing, continued to bombard that town until the
French commandant signified his intention to surrender,
• when, with an officer from the army, he entered blind-
folded into the fortress, and finally arranged the terms of
capitulation. On the retreat of the British down the
Scheldt, he subsequently took the post of honour, and
formed the rear-guard, on which occasion the Plover was
the last vessel to leave the river, checking by her fire the
pursuit of the enemy. The Belleisle, of which ship' Cap-
tain Cockburn, had resumed command, being paid off in
Oct., 1809, he next in Feb., 1810, joined the Implacable, 74,
and was invested with the conduct of the naval part of an
expedition having for its object the liberation of Ferdinand
VII. of Spain from his confinement at Valencay. He
afterwards proceeded to Cadizjwith the flag of Sir Richard
Keats, and effectually co-operated in the defence of the
place, particularly by the able and cheerful assistance he
afforded with two brigs and some armed boats in an at-
tempt to dislodge a French force at Moguer, to the north-
ward of the town. Towards the close of 1810 he safely es-
corted two Spanish line-of ;battle ships of 120 guns each,
to the Havannah, after which he proceeded to Vera Cruz,
and thence to Cadiz with 2,00,000 dollars. Arriving in
England early in 1811, on beard the Druid, 32, Captain
Cockburn was, by the Adtaiinalty, again appointed a com-
modore, November 21i, and directed to hoist his broad
pendant on board the Grampus, MI About the sw.ie pe-
riod he was selected to act as joint commissidbef th Mr.
T. Sydenham and Mr. J. P. Morier, for the purpose of
effecting a reconciliation between Spain and her Transat-
lantic colonies. The scheme, however, in conseqnence of
' the narrow-minded policy pursued by the Spanish Cortes,
proving abortive, the commodore,.nfter proceeding as far
as Cadiz, returned home, and August. 12, 1812, was pro-
moted to the rank of Rear-Admiral, previously to which
he had been appointed, August 1, 1811, a Colonel of Ma-
rines. He soon, with his flag in the Marlborough, 74,
again sailed for Cadiz, in order to assume the command of
the British squadron employed in its defence, but the siege
having been raised prior to his arrival, he was ordered to
North America, where hostilities had been recently de-
clared against Great Britain. We have now arrived at
an era in the history of the distinguished subject of
our memoir which, for brilliancy of achievement, has
rarely been equalled. The dashing exploits, indeed,
which have perpetuated the name of Cockburn crowd
upon our attention in such rapid succession, that,
anxious as we are to chronicle every occurrence
at all invested with interest, we fear that in what we yet
have to recount we must content ourselves with a state-
ment of the chief of those gallant performances, which, by
enforcing on the enemy a proper respect for the British
flag, in the end induced them to long for peace. Arriving
in the Chesapeake, on March 3, 1813, the Rear-Admiral
commenced a desultory mode of warfare by clearing the
river James of its vessels, and carrying consternation into
the heart of Virginia. He next penetrated to the upper
part of Elk River, at the very head of the Chesapeake
waters, landed and partly destroyed the town of Havre de
Grace, together with a battery and cannon foundry, near
the entrance of the Susquehanna ; and, proceeding up the
Sassafras River with all the boats of his squadron on May
6, succeeded, after routing a body of about 400 men, who
had opened on them a fire from an entrenched position on
the two opposite banks of the river, in demolishing the
settlements of Georgetown and Frederickstown. On June
26 he further co-operated with Sir Sidney Beckwith in the
attack upon Hampton ; and, shifting his flag on July 1 to
the Sceptre, 74, assisted, in the course of that month, at
the capture of Ocrukoke and Portsmouth Islands, on the
coast of North Carolina, possessing himself at the same
time of the Anaconda, of 20, and Atlas, of 12 guns. He
next, on the morning of July 5, with a mere handful of
men, made himself master of Kent Island, in the Chesa-
peake ; to which bay, after visiting Bermuda, he ulti-
mately returned in 1814, on board the Albion, 74. In
July of the latter year Rear-Admiral Cockburn entered
the Potomac, and, ascending that river, frequently landed
at the head of about 500 seamen and marines-sometimes
in Maryland on the one side, and sometimes in Virginia
on the other-and, overrunning both provinces to the dis-
tance of ten miles from the water's edge, destroyed all the
military posts and stores to be met with in the whole
of that extensive rangy of country, capturedandflol
a and other
tahnedr
shipped off several guns, stores of tobacco
articles, but not, however, without frequentlyHe
tn next
into severe contact with the enemy. e corning
pro-
ceeded with his boats up the Pretuxent
erful flotilla under the orders of Commod:_ertesßaronfeya,P°anwd-
at length, on the 22d of August, discovered the object of
his search near Pig Point, but such terror did his very pre-
sence excite that the Americans instantly set fire to their
vessels, all of which, except one, pursuance up. In
bold plan which he had formed,' the pursuance of a
an army of 4,000 men under M Rear-Admiral, joining
Major-General Ross, at Marl-
borough, now advanced upon Washington, the capital of
the United States itself, which he hoped to take by a coup
de main. Reaching Bladensburg on the 24th of the same
month, the British encountered the enemy's army, of
about 8,000 strong, which, although firmly posted was
attacked and completely routed. Thus encouraged, the
victorious troops pushed forward without loss of time, and
on the same evening entered Washington. The whole of
that night and of the following day were devoted to the
work of destruction ; and by the evening of the 25th, when
the British commenced their retreat, public property to the
value of between 2,000,000/. and 3,000,0001. sterling had
been demolished. Throughout every detail of this splen-
did achievement Rear-Admiral Cockburn displayed his
wonted ability and judgment, and, it is needless to add,
obtained the high eulogium of Sir Alexander Cochrane
and Major-General Ross. Landing again on September
12 near the mouth of the Petapsco, he joined next in a
descent on Baltimore, during their profitless advance on
which place the British lost their general and defeated a
strong body of the enemy. After conducting many
other
operations on the southern coast of the United States,
where he kept the inhabitants in a constant state of
alarm, and occupied the town of St. Mary, the Rear-
Admiral, who had been created a K.C.8., January 2,
1815, ultimately, on being informed of the cessatlen 04.
f
hostilities, returned to Spithead, where he arrived 21"aY-
Hoisting his flag subsequently in the Northumberland,n
74, as commander-in-chief at St. Helena, and
Bonaparte, who had gselected to convey Napoleon Bon
re-
cently surrendered himself, to that island, Sir George
Cockburn, on August 8, sailed from Plymouth, and on
October 16 landed his important charge at the place of his
destination. He was superseded, however, in June, 1816,
by Sir Pulteney Malcolm ; and, returning home, struck
, his flag in the following August. Becoming a Vice-Admiral
August 12,1819, he afterwards, with his Reg in the Ver.

, ' non, 50, and President, 52, commanded in chief on the
North America and West India station from December 6,
1832, until February, 1836. Since the latter date he has
t not been afloat. His advancement to the rank of full Ad-
miral took place January 10, 1837. Sir George Cockurn
was nominated a G.C.8., with additional armorial bear.
ings indicative of his important services, February, 1818 ;
' was elected a F.R.S., December 21,1820, and first obtained
a seat in Parliament, for Portsmouth, in 1818. He was
next elected, in March, 1820, for the borough of Weobly ;
Was returned for Plymouth, in 1826 ; and since October,
1841, has held a seat for Ripon. On March 25, 1818, he
became a Lord of the Admiralty, to which office he was re
appointed September 17,1828. He obtained a seat at the
board as first naval lord in October, 1841, but retired on
the dissolution of Sir Robert Peel's Government in the
summer of 1846. On April 5, 1821, he was also appointed
Major-General of Marines ; and on April 30, 1827, a privy
councillor. In the latter capacity Sir George attended the
funeral of Ring
William IV. yHe married his cousin,
Miss Mary Cockburn."